EIGHTH NOTES AND STRUMMING ON THE OFF-BEAT
The next note to learn about is an eighth note. Eighth notes are half the length of quarter notes, so if a quarter note lasts for one beat, our eighth note lasts for half a beat.
With eighth notes, we need a new way of counting. We are still going to count the beat, but we're going to also count 'and' after each number. Practice counting out loud:
As we are strumming, we need our hand to keep moving so we are now going to set a rule that when we have eighth notes in a bar, we will strum the 'beat' down and the 'and' up. Practice playing an E minor chord strumming both directions. Again, count out loud as you play:
If we have one eighth note on its own, then we would stop the sound after half of the beat. Imagine the beat has been split in two, that's how long we want the note to last. Try playing an E minor chord and playing on the beat (the down-strum) and then stop the sound on the 'and' (the up-strum).
When we have two eighth notes, we 'beam' them together and they look like this:
A whole bar of eighth notes looks like this:
Try playing an E minor chord and strumming down-up, while counting one-and-two-and-three-and-four-and.
The 'and' is also known as the 'off-beat'. It can feel strange at first playing on the up-strum, or the off-beat, so practice playing only on this part of the beat. Practice saying the 'and' out loud. Don't be shy!
We can also practice playing two eighth notes on each beat, so first the one-and, then the two-and, then the three-and and finally the four-and (strumming twice but counting the other beats). This is how that would look:
Try to keep your strumming hand moving constantly at the same pace, even when it's technically 'resting'. Let's now try that to the metronome:
You can then practice strumming eighth notes combined with quarter note and half note rests (that we learned in the last lesson). Try and figure out the next two examples and then play them along to the track.
Eighth notes are going to be very important in creating more interesting strumming patterns. So before moving on, take your time to master how eighth notes sound and make sure you are strumming them correctly. Good luck and have fun!