Guitar Tricks Online Guitar Lessons

Learn & Play Song: Up Up And Away

 

Now that you're hopefully somewhat comfortable with the strumming pattern, let's try it out in a simple song with a few more chords. If you have found some variation on the strumming pattern that's easier or sounds better to you, you're more than welcome to use that, as long as you're playing mostly 8th notes and using some upstrokes.

At this point you're starting to develop a nice foundation of the most important tools that we use on guitar. I'm sure many of these tools are still quite tricky to master and I'm also guessing that your fingers may be sore and maybe you're battling some of the same impatience and frustration that most of us are when we're trying to learn something new and hard. Playing guitar isn't easy, but in many ways it does get easier and less painful as you progress. So try really hard to stay patient and remember my most repeated words: have fun with it!

Anders Mouridsen
Instructor Anders Mouridsen
Tutorial:
8th Notes & Upstrokes
Styles:
Any Style
Difficulty:
print notation download lesson open guitar tuner
Learn & Play Song: Up Up And Away song notation
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Learn & Play Song: Up Up And Away By Anders Mouridsen

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Questions & Answers

2 months ago
I feel comfortable strumming with my fingers instead of the pick. It seems that I am fretting and strumming better than with a pick. It feels more natural to me. In one of the first lessons it was advised to work with a pick, but is it imperative? I have a Spanish acoustic guitar and find the sound without the pick more organic. If a pick is required then by all means, I will continue with it, so hence the above question. Thank you.
Mike Olekshy 2 months ago

Hello - thanks so much for the question! No it is not imperative to learn how to pick. By all means, continue the lessons using your fingers. Down the road, you may encounter situations where using a pick may be advantageous - but you could simply work on using a pick then. Hope this helps!!

7 months ago
for me the C is the toughest one, right now... can't wait to fix it, cause the Jam Track is fantastic and it makes me sad to "struggle" with one this note
Mike Olekshy 7 months ago

Your struggle is common! Keep at it - eventually you'll get it if you keep practicing!

1 year ago
I can fret the Em chord accurately and timely now, with both fingers acting in unison. The three finger chords (C and Am) is more challenging. I am getting better fretting these, but still cannot get all three fingers to move in unison. Should I deliberately practice getting the three fingers to move in unison, or will this come naturally with more practice? Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
Josh Workman 1 year ago

Hi, thanks for your question. At first it makes sense to grab the lowest fretted note of each chord first, then quickly put the other fingers down. This buys you a fraction of a second to work out the higher notes in the chord. It's really helpful to practice changing chords in slow motion at first and actively notice what fingers move and which can stay put. For example, when changing from C to Am, you only have to move the ring finger from the A string to the G string. At first all of your fingers want to pop up with every chord change but you can gradually train specific digits to stay down while one or more others move. When moving from Am to Em, you'll notice that the middle and ring simply move one sting lower and the index pops up. Try visualizing these movements away from the guitar, as well. I can often "see" the neck better with my eyes closed.