Chords for Kappa Lessons!! How I Strum and Turn the Page

Hey guys, I'm going to do this little video.
It's going to be kind of an explanation of how I strum.
I've been getting a lot of emails _ asking for strumming patterns to the songs that I'm playing. _
And I haven't responded to a lot of those, mostly because I don't have a strumming pattern that I'm playing.
But I am willing to tell you what I'm doing.
So this is that video.
_ And it's mostly a response to a particular person, I think his name is Blake Lugg maybe,
who asked me about Turn the Page, what strumming pattern I was using for that.
So I thought I would do this video and let it be kind of an explanation of how I play.
And hopefully it might help you all to get away from just using a straight up and down kind of strumming pattern. _
So the first thing is that a strumming pattern in my mind is something like this.
The way [G] you go down, up, down, up. _
That would be a strumming pattern, right?
Sometimes you would do down, up, up, down, up, up.
Something like that.
And I get it [D] as a strumming pattern too.
When I play I don't think about what pattern I'm using.
_ I play the rhythm that I feel that the song is. _ _
When I first started out I remember being frustrated just like you guys, going,
well I know the chords now, how do I make it sound like the song?
And I had learned a couple of these strumming patterns.
I used a [G] basic bass strum _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ and I played that [Gb] a lot.
I [G] could do it all the time, which I would.
_ _ [E] _ So I still use that an awful lot.
But after I learned that I kind of just got away from a pattern of any kind.
And I play how I think the song sounds in its entirety on my guitar.
You, if you're playing solo acoustic [G] guitar, you want the song to sound [E] like the song.
You don't want it to just sound like the guitar part of the song, the rhythm guitar part of the song.
You want it to sound like the whole song.
So you're going to [Gb] have to try to recreate the entirety of the song with just your guitar and [Bb] your vocals.
And the way you're going to do that is by [D] getting a feel for what the whole song sounds like.
So I would recommend, and this is kind of how I learned [Gb] to play,
I would recommend if you want to play a particular song,
to not think about it as a pattern, but think [F] about it as the rhythm of the song.
[Bb] Put the song on [E] and sit down at your table or on your knees or on your guitar and beat out the rhythm.
So for Turn the Page, my [Bb] internal rhythm tells me this [F] song sounds_
_ _ _ [Gb] _ _ [Ebm] _ _ _
[Gb] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ And you can get as fancy [Gm] with it as you want, as simple or as [Bbm] fancy with it as you want.
_ _ [Fm] _ _ _
_ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ That's how I would approach it.
I would then, once I got a feel for the song itself, I would then pick up my pick and I would mute the strings.
I don't have to do these steps anymore, it just kind of comes to me with the playing now.
But starting out, this is probably what you should do, it'll get you used to doing it that way.
Mute [F] your strings.
If you [D] get a sound like that, you're pushing too hard, but just lay your hands across all the strings.
And now, think about that same rhythm that you just [Bb] tapped out.
Play it with a series of down-ups.
Don't think about what you're doing, just strum it to make it sound like what [B] you just beat out.
_ _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ _ _ [Bbm] _ _ _ _ _
_ [Gb] _ _ _ [F] And it may not [Bb] be complicated at first.
The more you do this and the [E] more your hand gets used to doing different things,
the more you can throw in there of your own internal rhythm.
It might sound [Bb] very simple at first, but it's fine.
[E] Just beat out your rhythm, [D] how you would play this song. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ I'm strumming exactly like I would do the blue tappy thing.
And you're going to need to keep your wrist nice and loose.
You're not going to be able [E] to approach it [D] with a real straight kind of wrist.
That's going to just kill the whole thing.
Keep your wrist nice and loose.
Keep your pips so _ _ _ it's all not stiff.
You want to be really loose and just kind of let go on this thing.
Let your own rhythm come out.
[C] _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _
Now, [E] I'll show you what chords I play [Bb] here on Turn the Page.
I don't play it in the same key that Bob Seger does.
[E] Actually, I learned this song.
I love the [Am] Bob Seger song.
But [D] I learned it because a lady who plays bluegrass has covered this song.
I loved her version.
I thought, well, heck if she can sing it.