Neil's replyFrom Jim56
Neil,
In Beginning Lesson #3, the tab strum sequence seems a bit awkward. The up and down strokes appear to be reversed. Am I missing something here?
Jim
Jim has an interesting point and when I write out a strumming pattern on a plain sheet of paper for a student, an arrow pointing down, towards the bottom of the page, means strum down across the strings. That would be from the 6th string to the 1st string, towards the floor, or low to high. An arrow pointing up, towards the top of the page, means strum up across the strings. That would be from the 1st string to the 6th string, towards the ceiling, or high to low. Logical? I'd like to think so.
When we are looking at music, whether standard notation or tablature, the lines of the staff or the TAB lines represent notes or strings on the guitar with the lower notes toward the bottom of the page and the higher notes toward the top of the page. An arrow that indicates strumming across these notes or strings should correspond to the direction of the pitches of the notes. Consequently, an arrow towards the top of the page indicates a strum from low to high, 6th to 1st strings, hand movement towards the floor. An arrow towards the bottom of the page indicates a strum from high to low, 1st to 6th strings, hand movement towards the ceiling. Logical? Maybe just in my world but that's my story and I'm sticking to it!
Neil