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This particular page was created 16/11/2003 and last updated 28/08/2004
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1. Introduction | 2. The beat | 3. Filling in | 4. The "drunken sailor" rhythm | 5. More beat | 6. Offbeat | 7. The feel | 8. Triplets | 9. Moving on
If you've gone through all the eight previous chapters, you should know just about everything there is to know about strumming rhythms on a banjo or any other stringed instruments, or at least what to do with your right hand. Oh, there are lots of details we haven't covered yet, but as long as you've got the basic technique down, you shouldn't have any problems with them when you need them.
PickingPicking/fingerpicking means you're creating a rhythm/chord pattern from individual notes. This is a completely different approcah. We don't use it much for irish banjo playing though, so we can safely ignore it for now.
2/4 time, 3/4 time etc.So far all the examples have been in 4/4 time - four beats to the bar. But it's all been about the beat, so two, three and even five or more beats to the bar doesn't really make any difference. The patterns might be different of course, but that shouldn't bother you by now.
3/8 time 6/8 time etc.Triple feel times, like 3/8, 6/8 9/8 and 12/8 shouldn't bother you either. Just think of them as written out triplet/triplet feel patterns. 3/8 time has one beat to the bar, 6/8 has two, 9/8 three and 12/8 four.
DynamicsI haven't actually said much about dynamics since usually people tend to get that automatically. Just to make sure and for the sake of completeness, the basic rules are:- Chord on a beat are played louder than offbeat-chords.
- The first beat in a bar is louder than the others
- The third beat ina a 4-beat bar is slightly louder than the second and fourth.
As with the rhythmical feel there are endless nuances and variations.
ChordsThis was all about the right hand. Go to the chords section of the site for info about what to do with the left one.
StylesIs it a jig? a waltz? a samba? a foxtrot?Each ctyle has its characteristics. It's time to look at that:
1. Introduction | 2. The beat | 3. Filling in | 4. The "drunken sailor" rhythm | 5. More beat | 6. Offbeat | 7. The feel | 8. Triplets | 9. Moving on
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