I admit it.

Trad Strings
1

I play guitar too.

I am in need of barebones advice on how to strum to hornpipes and reels. Harmonic theory (What chords) isn;t the problem. rather, exercises to get a boom-chuck rhythm going is the most pressing need. Anybody have pointers to solid practices designed to help strumming?

Right now I am working on

D/D/U sdtrumming, 2 eighth notes for the first D, then an 8th each for D/U. Is this even close to the right ballpark?

Thanks!

2

put CDs on the stereo, “mute” the strings with your fretting hand, and work on strumming along to the rhythm of the song. That way, you won’t be worrying about chords, keys, etc - you’ll just be concentrating on the rhythm.

3

D/D/U sdtrumming, 2 eighth notes for the first D, then an 8th each for D/U. Is this even close to the right ballpark?

So you’re going boom, chukka, boom, chukka, boom, chukka, boom, chukka? Yeah, that pretty much works. Think of the stream of eighth notes as

1&2& 3&4& 1&2& 3&4& 
dudu dudu|dudu dudu|

So you’re hitting every count with a downstroke and every “&” with an upstroke. That’s your ironclad, unbreakable rule. What you’re doing with your boom-chuck pattern is leaving out one of the upstrokes, but keeping the pattern intact.

Boomchucking is just one of many variations on the basic pattern, though. You can find worlds of expression by playing with your accents, dropping strokes, etc. It’s good to spend some time with this – I think developing good right-hand technique is every bit as important as learning chords and substitutions, maybe even a little more so.

4

I may need some terminology help. I always thought that the “Boom” was
hitting just the primary bass string, “chuk-” was a down stroke, and “-ka”
was the up stroke, so in 2/4 or 4/4 time, playing "boom chukka"meant:

“Bass note, 8th rest, downstroke, upstroke;
Bass note, 8th rest, downstroke, upstroke;
etc.”

Is this incorrect?

5

Sure. But the true and holy path of alternating pick direction holds true just the same. Unless you’re playing a jig.

I’ve got to say that accompanying reels with a boomchuck pattern really doesn’t do much for me, but if it’s what you want to do, that’s the way to do it.

6

Well, they are really somewhat Americanized renditions I play with a band when I’m taking a break from the flute. I’m not looking to be the next Arty McG or John Doyle, just to sound competent;)

Thanks for the tips folks

7

I think right hand technique is really the foundation of Irish guitar accompaniement. I’d rather hear a guitar player just drone on a root chord with a good rhythm than to play a ton of chord changes with bad rhythm.

When I had a guitar class with Matt Heaton, I requested that all we work on is right hand technique and to go over some less played tune types rhythmic patterns. For reels, we talked about getting a good lift, which technically speaking is putting a slight emphasis on beats 2 and 4 in a reel:

duDu duDu|duDu duDu|

or the pattern that was first mentioned in this thread:

d2Du d2Du|d2Du d2Du|

You’ll hear good melody players doing this all the time. It might be more subtle from player to player, but for the most part, it’s hearable.

Oh, and one thing to kind in mind though, is that some of this is going to change from tune to tune. So patterns, whether rhythmic or harmonic, just don’t work for every tune. I try to think of what anyone tells me or what I read in technique books as guidelines and not hard rules :wink:

Just briefly some strumming patterns for other tune types from Matt:

Jigs:
|dud dud|dud dud|

Slip jigs:
|dud udu dud|dud udu dud|

Slides:
|d2d u2u d2d u2u|d2d u2u d2d u2u|

Hornpipes: bascially the pattern already discussed,a boom-chick:
|d2(bass) du d2(bass) du|

Polkas:
|dd dd|dd dd|
and:
|d2 Xu|du Xu|
X = palm mute (or string slap, which is what I’ve been doing recently)


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8

Good stuff! In slip jigs I stick with dud on every beat (i.e. |dud dud dud|), just because it lets me drop some nice syncopations in, like

Dud duD dud|Dud duD dud

I haven’t found any way of accompanying slides that I like, other than Stephen Cooney’s electric reggae treatment – it may be strange, but it does preserve the right kind of groove. Shrug?

I did some blathering about right-hand stuff a while back at http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=33336, FWIW.

9

Well, I got bold and tuned my 12 to dadgad last night. . . interesting experience:) I will probably actually keep it that way for the three or so tunes we play in modally manner wherein I’m not playing flute. Fun stuff.