Brad Carlton’s Wisdom from Solid Strumming

VIEW THE GUITAR AS A DRUM KIT

You need to view the guitar as a drum kit (ex. low strings as bass
drum the higher strings as snare). This is really about getting your
right hand together. The left hand is the athlete, the right hand is the
artist.

The first thing you need to learn how to do on the guitar is to mute
the strings with your left hand so you can practice muted strums.
First get it to where you can deaden the strings cleanly. That means
your fingers have to be flat. Find a spot where you don’t hear
overtones. You want a nice, clean “X.”

PICKING HAND POSTURE

Right hand technique is one of the most overlooked things in guitar
playing.

For a beginner, go with at least a medium, like a typical Fender

medium pick or a Jim Dunlop 1mm black pick. Don’t go with a
heavy pick when you’re first starting out.

Hold the pick with your first finger and thumb so your other fingers
will be free for hybrid picking later on.

Rest your forearm on the bout of the guitar. Your elbow joint won’t fit
right on the edge of the body of the guitar unless it’s a huge guitar
for your body. You’ll probably just have your forearm on the guitar.
Don’t press it in, just balance it comfortably.

Let your right hand hang super loose, become acutely aware of
what’s going on with the muscles of your arm. Curl your fingers into
your palm, you’ll feel tension. Relax. Extend your fingers and you’ll
feel tension too. Find that relaxed place in between curling in and
extending out. Watch for your top thumb knuckle–it should be
relaxed as well, not bent.

1 of 34
 Brad Carlton’s Wisdom from Solid Strumming

Your index finger has a natural arch. Bring the index finger over to
your thumb so it’s gently touching in a relaxed way. Put the pick on
the side (sort of on the corner) of your index finger. Half of the pick
will be above your thumb and half below. The pick should be able to
rock in between your fingers. Don’t squeeze with your index finger–
you don’t want to hyper-extend it. When you squeeze with your
thumb, notice how the bottom knuckle (connecting to the hand)
moves.

4 ways to hold your picking hand

1. Free-floating
2. Fingers on the face of the guitar wrist up off the bridge
3. Fingers on the face of the guitar wrist down on the bridge
4. Wrist resting lightly on the bridge as a reference with fingers off
the face of the guitar. The wrist shifts as needed.

Brad recommends beginners play with their wrists and/or fingers on

the guitar (rather than free-floating, which is for more advanced
players) because you won’t have a point of reference and you’ll be
very tempted to lock your wrist up and move from the elbow. Your
reference can be your little finger and/or ring finger on the face of
the guitar. DO NOT anchor it to the guitar, you want it to glide. Do
not let them roll under so that your fingernails are digging in. You
want them to be like a pedestal. Your wrist can be either up off the
bridge or down on the bridge, depending on the effect you want. If
you do rest your wrist on the bridge, rest it lightly, don’t clamp it
down.

With hand position 4, practice moving your forearm up and down to

move the pick between the 6th and 1st strings. You won’t play like
that, but you need to stay flexible and avoid getting rigid and move
exclusively from the hand and wrist between strings.

2 of 34
 Brad Carlton’s Wisdom from Solid Strumming

3 possible pick angles


1. Pick flat (parallel to the strings). You’ll play your bass strings
this way to avoid a scraping sound and to have a clean entry and
exit on the string–if you angle it too much it takes up the space
between the strings which might cause you to inadvertently pick
strings you don’t mean to pick. On the higher strings, you’ll want to
angle it a little to get a warmer tone. Picking flat on the high string
gives a less attractive tone. As you pick the higher strings keep your
thumb flexible and slightly draw the pick off the strings to get a
smoother sound (you’ll want that harsher sound on bluegrass, rock,
funk, etc.). That “drawing off” technique is also useful when you’re
playing with high gain and you want a smooth sound.


2. Angled toward the neck side of the pick on the downstrokes.
This is what Brad recommends when you want to angle the pick
because you can maintain the pick grip he teaches.



3. Angled toward bridge side of the pick on the downstroke.

This gives a light airy sound good in jazz. It requires a different pick
grip that Brad teaches.

Two types of strokes

1. Free stroke: you only touch the string you played
2. Rest stroke: you come to rest on the adjacent higher string.

Speed Bump Exercise

Pretend you’re going to drive over 6 speed bumps. Play the 6th
string, come to rest on the 5th. You’re not pushing the pick through
the strings, you just let it climb up over the speed bump and drop
down on the other side of it. For the high E, pretend there’s another
string after it. You don’t give it any gas. DO NOT strum in an arc,
flicking out your wrist because this will prevent you from fully
sounding the higher string. (That flick can be useful if you want to

3 of 34
 Brad Carlton’s Wisdom from Solid Strumming

only strum the lower strings). It is NOT a speed exercise. Take the
time to do this early in your playing because it’s harder to fix your
technique once you’re set in your ways.



Think about it, listen to your tone, anticipate the next note. Play
lightly. Let it glide over the strings. Spend several minutes a day,
gradually increasing speed but always maintaining complete
control. The line of force should be diagonally into the face of the
guitar. This is especially prominent when your wrist is up off the
bridge. The weight of your hand makes the guitar speak, you aren’t
pressing down.

Squeezing the Pick for Dynamics

Dynamics are accomplished by squeezing the pick for your thumb.
As you start your strum, hold the pick loosely and as you approach
the top three strings, especially the 2nd and the 1st squeeze the
pick to increase the volume. If you start off squeezing the pick on
the low strings, you have nowhere to go dynamically–the bass
strings are naturally loud, you don’t want to play them too loudly. Do
not tense up anything other than your first finger and your thumb.
This is the technique you will use to get your accents. Changes in
volume are not the product of excessive motion. They’re the product
of squeezing the pick harder.

Summary of other techniques (will be covered in depth later)

Palm mute: Start behind the bridge. Pick the note and slowly move
your towards the sound hole and you’ll feel the onset of palm mute.
It rings, but is not as metallic sounding. You don’t want it to sound
like a rubber band, you want it to sound light and airy, you want it to
breathe.

Palm slap: where you bring out the backbeat (to be covered later)

Choke: You strum and then you come in and mute the strings. It’s
accomplished by being a little more toward the fingerboard with
your palm mute posture and also laying it down flat. It’s the whole

4 of 34
 Brad Carlton’s Wisdom from Solid Strumming

side of the your hand that lays on the strings. Just place it lightly on
the strings.

Tonal variation: Depends on where you pick on the string (closer to

the bridge or closer to the neck). We won’t deal with that too much,
but when you become more proficient, that’s where your floating
hand position will allow you to get those variations.

Down and Up Strokes


• Down stroke: down to the ground. They’re easy. You have

gravity on your side, the pick is already slanted down in the
direction you’re going.


• Up stroke: You don’t want the pick slanted downwards. You keep
your index DIP joint very supple, and as you play, it has to flex
back. You don’t want it to do that when you squeeze the pick with
the thumb as above, but on the upstroke, that joint is like a
spring. Don’t strum any more than 3 strings on the upstroke. DO
NOT practice pulling your pick up all six strings at once. [My note:
while you don’t want to do that in ordinary strumming, the
backwards rake is a nice expressive tool to know how to do] DO
practice it with different string groups (123, 234, 345, etc.)

Daily practice
• Driving over the speed bumps
• Practice getting a change in volume by squeezing the pick as you
get to the higher strings
• Practice picking down and up strokes with different groups of
strings, both with little mini strums with a couple of strings, and
just practice moving around. Don’t look at your fretting hand.
Look at your strumming hand. You need to watch what you’re
doing until you learn to feel it instinctively.

5 of 34
 Brad Carlton’s Wisdom from Solid Strumming

The biggest mistake people make is moving too much, à la Pete

Townshend.

VIEWING CHORDS AS VOICES

View each string in a chord as a voice, don’t view the chord as a
“grip.” Be aware of exactly how many strings are supposed to be
ringing in that chord. All the basic open chords have either 6, 5, or 4
voices. The first voice is the highest string in the chord. So with an
Em chord, the voices correspond to the string numbers. With a G5
chord where the highest note is D on the 2nd string, that would be
the first voice. Memorize the basic chords. Double check the
fingerings.

Holding down a chord

Press down as close to the fret as possible, but don’t get on top of
it. On top of it is muffled, too far away is buzzy. The ideal spot is
where you see just a sliver of fingerboard between your finger and
the fret. It’s not always possible if you’re playing adjacent notes on
the same fret. Stay on the tips of your fingers. Don’t play with flat
fingers and don’t hyperextend your DIP joints, keep them arched.

If you have open strings in the chord, make sure you’re not leaning
your hand or fingers over or wrapping your thumb around and
muffling them.

Always keep going back to the bottom of the chord to check your
clarity. Play rest strokes 6-5, 6-5-4, 6-5-4-3, 6-5-4-3-2, 6-5-4-3-2-1.

Once you get the chord clean, take a mental snapshot: see what it
feels like physically, look at your hand and your arm and everything
about what you’re doing. If you get it clean once, there’s no reason
you can’t always get it clean–you just have to repeat that exact
same move. Make sure you’re thinking as you’re practicing.

6 of 34
 Brad Carlton’s Wisdom from Solid Strumming

Don’t practice for long periods for time. Your attention span isn’t
ready yet and your fingers will hurt and you risk getting
discouraged. Practice in a lot of short segments every day.

Make sure you are always listening–not just to whether or not the
chord is clear, but also to the sonority of the chord, the mood it
evokes. Ear training starts from Day 1.

Play lightly. Don’t lean into the chords. Don’t be too loud or too
timid.

Hear things and critique your own playing. The teacher is just the
coach. Ultimately you have to learn to teach yourself.

Compare two chords like Em and E. Learn the difference in sound

between major and minor.

Minor must be specified both verbally and written, whereas with a

major chord you can leave out the “major.”

Another top mistake people make (other than moving too much) is
not respecting the bass note. Beginners should always play the root
in the bass. Play it slightly louder. To play a chord with the bass on
the A string, practice while looking at your picking hand to build up
your accuracy.

Brad feels the triangle fingering for A is the best and that the 1-2-3
fingering is bogus.

Use the pinky on the D minor to free up your third finger for added
notes (like the F on the D string) later on. It will feel weak at first, but
the sooner you get used to using it the better.

Look for little shapes to help you memorize the chords.

When you’re strumming, you don’t have time to assemble a chord

finger by finger. You have to build the muscle memory for it.

7 of 34
 Brad Carlton’s Wisdom from Solid Strumming

To develop muscle memory for a chord:

1. Get it to where it’s clear and repeatable (you can take your hand
off and put it back on). You can use the grooves in your fingers to
help you see where to put your fingers.
2. Hold the chord, squeeze (just enough to get it to sound clearly
and feel the strings in the grooves of your fingers), then relax and
allow the strings to lift without lifting your fingers off the strings.
3. Squeeze then relax, but this time lift your fingers off slightly from
the neck (1/16” or 1/8”). Hold the shape and go back to the chord.
Take time to do this with every chord you learn.

Thumb position for the left hand

It’s not true that you should never put the thumb around the neck.
The right place for your thumb is the right place for whatever you’re
playing at that moment, based on your instrument, your hands, how
you’re holding it, etc.

For certain chords, you might be able to let your thumb glide
around. For other chords that are more stretched out, you may
need to put it more in the back. G isn’t easy for a beginner because
of that stretch.

Stretching exercises (see around the 15:00 mark). You can practice
stretching along the string axis or along the fret axis. Do it gently,
don’t hurt yourself.

For the 4-voice G5 (G-6 X-5, D-4, G-3, D-2 X-1), you have to mute
the high E string. You can rest your pinky on it and/or come in with
your left hand to mute it.

For barre chords, that’s an exception to the rule to never hyper-

extend your DIP joints. Your thumb will want to go to the back on
the neck for those. Barring is pressing down two or more strings
together on the same fret.

8 of 34
 Brad Carlton’s Wisdom from Solid Strumming

RHYTHMS

QUARTER NOTE RHYTHM

Tempo is what you tap your foot to, the quarter note.

When you practiced riding over the speed bumps, you started slow
and gradually got faster. The time it takes to execute a strum can
vary, depending on whether you want to roll the chord or have them
sound more simultaneously. At a slow tempo you want to roll them a
bit more. It’ll sound inappropriate to strum it too fast. At a faster
tempo, you’ll strum. Adjust the time it takes you to execute one
strum to the tempo.

9 of 34
 Brad Carlton’s Wisdom from Solid Strumming

Very slow tempos are easy to drift on–you have to concentrate

more to stay in the pocket.

You must have a metronome or drum machine to practice your time.

Make sure your foot is going down on the click (some people do the
opposite)

Playing whole notes: Target beat one.

Playing half notes: Here you’re targeting the 1 and the 3
Playing quarter notes: Every strum will be a downstroke and your
goal is to execute the chord change on beat one. Strum “down on
the number” aka the count.

Most students have an aversion to counting aloud. If they can’t

count it they can’t play it. Insist on it for beginners. Make them count
with gusto, with authority along with the metronome, not all wishy
washy.

Practice each of your chords with the metronome. Start at 60, then
go to 92, then 110, then 130. Some tempos will feel comfortable to
lock into and others won’t. Listen and become sensitive to where
you’re rushing and slowing down. Never go on auto-pilot. You want
to stay crisp and tight, in the pocket.

Focus on the rhythm, anticipate the groove in your head, count off
before you play. It’s sort of like this: you’re a little kid and there’s a
merry go-round and you like the purple horse, and it’s the only
purple horse on the merry go-round. And you’re going to get on.
The thing’s just barely moving around. What do you do? You have
to wait until it comes around, cause if it’s on the other side, you
can’t jump on it. It’s the same thing in this–you have to get that
groove, so you’re focusing not on playing, you’re focusing on the
rhythm, then you get in. It’s like a relay race. If you’re the second
leg of a relay race and I’m running up along side of you, are you
going to stand still and then take off for me to hand off the baton?

10 of 34
 Brad Carlton’s Wisdom from Solid Strumming

No, you’re going to start running and get to the same speed so we
can do the hand off.

Levels for practicing chord changes

Level 1: Strum the chord on beat one and allow yourself the
following three beats of the measure (muted with your pick hand–
don’t do “x” strums) to execute your chord change.

Level 2: Strum the chord for two beats and allow yourself only two
beats for the chord change.

Level 3: Three strums with only one beat for the chord change.

Level 4: Strum all for beats and then quickly change to the new
chord

Create different textures in your rhythms by strumming different

strings–instead of all the strings of a chord, strum subsets of it. This
will help you guard agains the major pitfall of moving your hand
around too much.

EIGHTH NOTE RHYTHM

Two ways to play eighth notes: down and up strokes or all down
strokes. How to choose: When you want a relaxed, serene, airy
sound, play up and down. When you want a more driving, chugging
sound, play all down strokes.

There are situations where you might want to play mostly

downstrokes for a chugging rhythm and add upstrokes for accents.
But this is after you’ve mastered doing all of one type first.

11 of 34
 Brad Carlton’s Wisdom from Solid Strumming

Very slow tempos are some of the hardest to play and stay in the
pocket. Even an experienced pro can drift. You have to subdivide it
and hear it in a different grid work.

Count One-and-Two-and-Three-and-Four-and

Strum different string groups. The upstroke doesn’t always have to

be from the first strings. You can hit different strings on your
upstrokes.

You don’t always have to strum the whole chord. Practice using
down-up strokes picking separate notes of the chord, such as down
on the bass note and up on each successive note from the top and
back. Or you can do a pattern where you pedal the high E string
and cycle through the other notes. This is where your floating hand
position will come into play. Roll your hand while pivoting from the
wrist. You don’t want to be always thinking of that wall of sound
where you’re playing the whole chord.

QUARTER NOTE, EIGHTH NOTE COMBOS

Even if you don’t want to learn how to read notation, you need to
learn how to read some basic rhythms at the very least so you can
read rhythm charts–every guitarist encounters them. You can
practice rhythms and learn your chords at the same time.

Count out the rhythm first, because if you can count it you can then
hear what it’s supposed to sound like. You have to be engaged
mentally. Set the tempo slowly enough so you can focus and
anticipate where you’re supposed to be. Using example 4 below,
count like this if you don’t know the rhythm:

1. Count “one and two, three four”

2. Then say the rhythm in sound: dot dot dah, dah dah
3. Then play the rhythm on deadened strings

12 of 34
 Brad Carlton’s Wisdom from Solid Strumming

4. Once you know you’re locked up with your rhythm, then play the
chord

Make sure you can play all the combinations of eighth notes and
quarter notes with every chord that you’re learning, concentrating
on hitting the right number of strings. Especially practice the ones
you find tricky. Use the metronome at a variety of tempos.

In practice all those consecutive quarter notes (as in example 4) are

like swiss cheese–too many holes, but you should practice the
rhythms anyway.

Adding the occasional quarter note into an all eight note strum
breaks up the monotony.

Part of getting better is always examining your playing and saying

“what can I improve upon?”

13 of 34
 Brad Carlton’s Wisdom from Solid Strumming

ACCENTS
Review of playing the guitar as a drum kit
You can use the lower strings as the kick drum, the higher as the
snare, and ghost strokes as the high hat. Depending on the rhythm
and the tempo, you may want to use consecutive down strokes for
your kick drum, as in the example Brad plays in the beginning of the
video–that gives you a more driving sound.

Use ghost strokes (very light strokes on the 6th string) for the high
hat groove. For example (K=kick on lower strings, S=snare on
higher strings, hh=ghost strokes on 6th string):

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
K hh S hh K hh S hh

Squeeze the pick with your thumb to bring out the accents.

There are eight 8th note slots in the measure and you can have
potential accents on any of those (see examples below).

Practice your eighth note rhythms and accents with both down and
up strokes and all down strokes. The ghost strokes help you stay in
the pocket.

Accents aren’t just a matter of playing more loudly, it’s also a matter
of playing more strings because that’ll give it more punch. It’s like
having 5 or 6 horns playing instead of 2.

You can throw in backbeat thumps on the face of the guitar.

Certain styles like Bluegrass require consecutive downstrokes to

get the proper sounds.

You need to know where you are in the measure at all times.

14 of 34
 Brad Carlton’s Wisdom from Solid Strumming

Use different parts of the guitar, such as playing the lower strings for
the basic rhythm and the higher strings for the accents. The higher
strings can make a backbeat stand out even if you’re not really
accenting (playing them more loudly) because of the tone
difference.

Make sure you’re in balance–you don’t want to hit the accent too
loud or too soft. Experiment with dynamics, work on dropping back
the basic groove. Don’t play loud all the time: You want to have
somewhere to go dynamically in order to place your accents. You
want a balanced sound–don’t hit the accents excessively hard
compared to the rest of the dynamic level.

Practice on chords with roots on the 6th, 5th, & 4th strings to
improve your accuracy.

The Figure-Eight Move: if you have a downstroke as an accent and

the next upstroke isn’t accented, you can swing out a little and circle
your hand back after the accent to avoid hitting the upper strings
again (see 10:31). You have to loosen up your wrist a little so you’re
floating over the bridge. Practice it with deadened strings at first.

Another word for accents on the upbeats is a “kick.” They bring a lot
of forward momentum and surprise so that the rhythms are not so
predictable.

Experiment with mixing all downstrokes and an occasional

upstroke. See 13:28. It adds a different kind of energy to the
groove. For example, Brad plays example 5 (from the chart at the
end of this section) with all downs [a 16th note motion] on beats one
and down up down up [an 8th note motion] on beats two and four to
get those upstrokes on the accented “ands.”

[I perceive this as switching between a 16th note groove as far as

swinging my picking hand and an 8th note groove. When you’re
moving in a 16th fashion all the “ands” are naturally down strokes,

15 of 34
 Brad Carlton’s Wisdom from Solid Strumming

whereas they’re upstrokes when you’re moving in an 8th note

fashion].

Experiment with playing just a couple of bass strings, skipping over

the middle strings, and using the higher strings for the accents. The
figure-eight technique comes in handy here. It can be used with any
chord, but it’s especially handy on a 4-string chord where you don’t
have a lot of strings with which to get that textural distinction–if you
strum the whole chord you lose the low-high effect–playing only
higher strings on the accents give the illusion of higher volume
because of the higher-pitched notes. You can do your unaccented
strums by picking on the 4th string and the 3rd string, for example,
or even just the 4th string. Practice playing an 8th note groove on
just 2 lower strings. With an E chord, you can play the 6th & 5th
strings for the unaccented strums, skip over the middle strings and
play the higher strings for the accents.

You need to look at groups of strings and where your upstrokes

occur can be on different strings. If you want to bring out a particular
string that’s a higher string, use an upstroke. You can mix the
strings you hit to bring out certain melodies. (see 17:39)

If you need more time to make the chord changes (particularly in

hitting the chord on beat 1 of the measure), use the technique of the
4 levels discussed in the quarter note rhythm section. Do whatever
you have to do you make sure to clearly and confidently hit the
chord on beat 1.

Experiment with bringing out melodies on your high strings as

you’re strumming.

Your accents don’t always have to be loud, they can be subtle too.
Experiment with dynamics.

Experiment with legato and staccato (rings and deads), using fret
hand and picking hand muting. (see 28:30) You have to have the
ability to mute your strings to make percussive “x” strums so your

16 of 34
 Brad Carlton’s Wisdom from Solid Strumming

strings are not all ringing all the time. It makes your rings stand out
a lot more.

You can use the fretting hand and/or mute with your palm,
depending on the chord you’re playing.

With the pick hand muting, you come down on the strings as in a
choke but since you’re strumming it’s going to be too awkward to
lay your palm completely flat to mute all the strings so you work in
conjunction with your fretting hand. If you’re playing an open chord,
lean your hand over towards the treble side to mute the higher
strings.

You don’t have to strum all the strings, you can do it even on just
one string. But you can also play more strings and have that
“chucka” sound because you’re muting most of the strings.

Learning to play muted strums is important for everyone, including

for beginners. Practice what ever chord you’re learning and relax
your left hand fingers. If it’s practical, mute by laying your fingers
down, but if you’re playing something like a D chord where it isn’t,
use the picking hand to mute. Practice muting after a downstroke
and after an upstroke. (see 31:32–32:30).

Don’t fall into the rut of just knowing a couple of strums and playing
the same thing over every song. Practice songs with different feels.

The examples given below are just a few possibilities out of many.

17 of 34
 Brad Carlton’s Wisdom from Solid Strumming

Summary of accents as applied to eighth notes

• downbeat accents
• upbeat accents
• different string groups
• choking and muting with both hands
• consecutive downstrokes for the strong feel
• down and upstrokes for the smooth feel
• mixing both approaches
• different string groups for sound
• dynamics
• ghost strokes…

THE BACKBEAT
The Palm Slap: your snare drum for the backbeat

1. Make your wrist totally relaxed, arch it up gently off the face of
the guitar and then bend your wrist in back in onto the strings. Do it
back and forth several times. You’re not taking your arm completely
off the guitar–maintain the contact near the elbow.

18 of 34
 Brad Carlton’s Wisdom from Solid Strumming

2. Thump your palm on the strings. You can also hit the face of the
guitar with your pinky and ring finger at the same time.
3. Then add in the ghost stroke. Don’t tense your wrist up, it’s
critical that it stay loose–just let it fall in. Brad has his students
practice this in a slouching position, almost laying down in the chair
with the guitar and letting their hand fall on the guitar.

MUTED STRUMMING
Playing big chords all the time gets texturally boring and you can’t
get that “in and out” sound where it sounds like you’re playing two
things at once.

Practice strumming your bass strings individually with a palm mute

every day, using up and down picking (also experiment with all
down picks). It’s very useful if you’re going to do some muting on
the higher strings–your hand is already in position. You also need to
know how to get your hand back into position after you play open
string accents on the upper strings. This is very important
foundational thing for beginners to learn. Practice it with all your
open chords.

You want a percussive effect to contrast the ringing aspect of the

guitar. This technique can be used in a number of different styles.
When played aggressively, it fills out the sound and actually drives
the music. When played lightly, which are termed ghost strokes,
they enable you to stay in the pocket and they also aid in keeping
your pick stroke direction where it should be.

Muting of the strings with the fretting hand is the challenging part of
this technique. Because of the occurrence of natural harmonics at
various node points along the string, you may get bell tones even
when you’re muting the strings. You have to use different parts of
different fingers to mute the strings in locations that don’t have
these node points. You also have to acquire a light touch so they
are not pressing down any strings enough that they can ring. If you

19 of 34
 Brad Carlton’s Wisdom from Solid Strumming

have an extremely low action, this can be a disadvantage for

effective string damping.

Don’t play your X’s too loudly. They can be one string or just a
couple of strings.

Fretted notes are ideal for bubble parts (muted single note
grooves). Practice this–it’s a huge part of rhythm guitar.

Take adjacent pairs of strings within chords and play them with
muted strumming in various rhythms.

You can think of bits and pieces of a chord as a pair of congas,

going between bits on the lower strings and bits on the higher
strings.

SIXTEENTH NOTE RHYTHM

Count as follows: 1 e and a 2 e and a 3 e and a

Make sure you can play the rhythm on deadened strings with the
proper accents before trying it with chords.

Practice counting out loud in a strict even rhythm with a metronome

at various tempos. If you can count a rhythm with authority, you will
be able to play that rhythm with authority.

By adhering to a strict picking regimen of down on the number, up

on the “e”, down on the “and” and up on the “a” you will be able to
play any combination of 16th notes, eighth notes, dotted rhythm
notes, and interspersed rests that you may encounter.
If you’re able to play eighth notes, you can play sixteenths. The only
thing that differs is the count.

Get the extra open string strum “Uh” out of your playing–that little
open string strum that people use to buy themselves time to make

20 of 34
 Brad Carlton’s Wisdom from Solid Strumming

their chord changes. Instead, if you need more time to make the
change, eliminate the last sixteenth note or shorten it.

Spend time mastering the different common rhythmic figures,

including those with tied notes, get them to where you can be fast
and consistent.

Keep the 16th note motion going throughout your tied notes and
rests.

Don’t play all the strings–choose your string groups for different
effects.

In funk, picking and fretting are binary: picking is either down or up

and the chords and notes are either ringing or dead. Practice the
different combinations of rings and deads. You have to be really
good at playing the Xs.

Take it slow, keep a steady tempo and keep a loose wrist.

BASS-CHORD STRUMMING
Even if you’re not a bluegrass player, this tool is such an essential
tool in a guitar player’s arsenal, you would be foolish to overlook it.
It will increase your precision in your picking hand and you can
apply this technique to any kind of music.

21 of 34
 Brad Carlton’s Wisdom from Solid Strumming

Start by playing the root note on beats 1 and 3 and play the top 3
strings as your chord on beats 2 and 4. With 6th string root chords,
you can also play the octave root.

Set your metronome at a slow tempo, never play any faster than
you can play cleanly.

Your alternate bass note is the 5th. Practice playing the root on beat
1 and the fifth on beat 3 with the chord on beats 2 & 4.

If you’re a beginner, set yourself a rule that if you’re playing a 2

measure phrase, the first beat of the first measure will be the low
root. Then you can play around with the other notes.

It’s a great way to practice and develop muscle memory individual

chords, get you focused in on your picking (which most people tend
to neglect), and learn to rein in your picking hand so it’s not flying
around all over the place.

You can practice palm muting on the bass notes, fret hand staccato
on the chords, etc.

When you play the low open E after the A bass on an A chord, mute
the E string after you play it so it’s not ringing when you go back to
the A bass note–you don’t want it to sound too rumbly. Practice
muting that low E string with your palm at the same time that you
place your pick against the 5th string to play the A note.

Put some space in your chord patterns–don’t play constant 8th

notes.

It’s good to play Dm with your pinky on the D note so your third
finger will be free to play bass notes.

The Allman Brothers song Midnight Rambler is an example of an

application of this technique.

22 of 34
 Brad Carlton’s Wisdom from Solid Strumming

You can apply the scale as a bass line under the chord. See the
example at 7:50 using a Dm chord with D, A, C, F, and G

Memorize the interval patterns, such as 5th string root, 5th on the
6th string same fret, or 6th string root, the 5th on the 5th string two
frets above, 4th string root, 5th on the same fret a string below.

You won’t normally use notes on the top 3 strings for bass notes,
the exception being sometimes with a D-type chord to get the 5th
on the G string.

You can also use the 3 of the chord as a bass note for major and
dominant chords and the b3 for minor chords.

Slurs (adding extra hammers and pulls to your chords)

Think of them as replacing a strum: skip the strum you would
normally do when you do the slur. It gets awkward if you try to pick
everything. Working on hammers and pulls is one of the fastest
ways to get your muscle memory together.

Plot out the available scale notes on each string for each diatonic
chord (so the notes for a G chord in the key of C won’t be the same
for the notes for a G chord in the key of G, and an A minor chord in
the key of G won’t have the same available notes as Am in the key
of C). Then practice adding them in as accents and embellishments
(slurs, bass lines, melodies, etc.). This is a great way to add
accents to you rhythms.

TRIPLET RHYTHM
In 4/4, count them one-trip-let two-trip-let three-trip-let four-trip-
let.

Pick ⨅ ⋁ ⨅ ⨅ ⋁ ⨅ ⨅ ⋁ ⨅ ⨅ ⋁ ⨅ picking up on just a couple of

the high strings, doing a light downstroke on the lowest string (s) for
the last downstroke of the triplet

23 of 34
 Brad Carlton’s Wisdom from Solid Strumming

In 12/8, count 1-2-3 4-5-6 7-8-9 10-11-12

Triplets in 4/4 and 12/8 are two ways of notating the same sound.

To play shuffle eighths, count triplets but don’t play the “trip” and
pick downstrokes on both eighth notes

The underlying triplet picking scheme (which you can play as

ghosted notes, depending on the tune) is ⨅ ⨅ ⨅ ⨅ ⨅ ⨅ ⨅ ⨅ ⨅
⨅ ⨅ ⨅ –think of a drummer playing a shuffle groove. Put accents
on the 2 and 4.

At faster tempos you have to alternate pick the shuffle eighths,

which would make the underlying triplet picking scheme go back to
⨅⋁⨅ ⋁⨅⋁⨅⋁⨅ ⋁⨅⋁

Make sure you understand the difference in sound and feel between
straight 8ths and the shuffle.

You want to be able to seamlessly go between triplets and shuffle

8ths.

Experiment with all three picking schemes and the different sounds
they give you.

24 of 34
 Brad Carlton’s Wisdom from Solid Strumming

CHORD CHANGES


Practice until they’re seamless and flawless. Use these two
fingering principles:

Pivot fingers: same finger, same string same fret. If you’re playing
a C chord and go to an A minor, that last thing you want to do is lift
up your 1st and 2nd fingers, that’s just wasted motion, you lose your
point of reference. You can shift them. A pivot finger can shift within
the space between the frets, but you don’t take it off the string, you
don’t go over the fret bar.

Guide fingers: same finger, same string, different fret. If you were
playing an E chord and wanted to change to a D, you’d pick up your
2nd & 3rd fingers and slide your first finger and then come down to
your D chord.

Brad makes sure that all his students that they can explain and
demonstrate move by move the sequential changing of one chord
to another. For example if you were on an E and you want to go to a
D, here’s what happens step by step:

1. You relax your fretting hand and pick up your 2nd & your 3rd
fingers.
2. You slide up with your first finger and also move your 2nd & 3rd
fingers into position to come down for the D chord.
3. Come down and execute the D chord.

Exercises for developing muscle memory for

chords
TV Exercise: put your fingers in place and squeeze and release.
You can squeeze the chord during the show and release during the

25 of 34
 Brad Carlton’s Wisdom from Solid Strumming

commercial, for example. Then practice lifting your fingers up and

fingering the chord quickly, making sure you stay in the grooves in
your fret-hand fingers. You have to know where the right spot for
you on your guitar is where you clear the strings consistently. You
have to be able to form the chord all the fingers at once. You don’t
have time to do it finger by finger.

Practice slurs while holding a chord formation. Let’s say you’re

holding a C chord (IV of G). Hammer and pull the notes to the open
strings that allow you to stay in the scale. Practice them singly and
in pairs. You can also superimpose the scale over each chord. (see
3:23)

Creating the Illusion of Legato

Guitar is an easy instrument to play staccato, difficult to play legato.
Sometimes you can’t actually play legato, you have to give the
illusion of legato.

Instead of using the “uh” (the open string strum, which Brad
loathes), leave out the last upstroke (or entire beat, if necessary) of
your strumming pattern (while staying in rhythm) to give yourself
time to make the change.

You can also let the open strings continue to ring if you’ve played an
open chord. (see 5:03). Don’t yank your fingers off, quickly but
carefully release your fingers so the previously fretted notes don’t
continue to sound, only the notes that were on open strings (ex. in
an Em chord, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd & 6th strings are open–you want to
let those sound while carefully lifting your fingers off the b & e notes
on the 5th & 6th strings so those strings won’t sound).

Releasing a fretted note is a two-part affair: 1. A quick release of the

letting the string lift itself off the fret. 2. You remove your fingers
straight off, not an an angle, which might cause an inadvertent pull
off

26 of 34
 Brad Carlton’s Wisdom from Solid Strumming

Practice changing between every combination of all the diatonic

chords in each open key (C, A, G, E, D). Spend two weeks to a
month in each key, practicing the changes, playing the scale tones
and practicing all the concepts. Anything you play that’s not blues-
based is going to be using those chords.

Sold Strumming in Summary

Think about your tone, don’t get carried away moving too much,
think about the texture, the balance of voices, what your rhythmic
feel is, how you do things to help you execute your chord changes.

DIATONIC TRIADS IN C

Benefits of learning how chords link together from

a theory standpoint
• It doesn’t make sense to learn 20 chords without knowing how
they’re connected. You're going to be playing music and music
connects chords via what key they’re in.
• You will learn to hear chord progressions
• Helps with songwriting–encourage beginners to be creative from
the start

“Diatonic” means only using notes within a given key.

Scale Playing
Look at all the available notes you have in open position, regardless
of whether it starts with the root. For example, in C your first note
will be the low E.

If you're an absolute beginner or haven’t played scales much, the

important thing is to keep your fretting hand in position so you don’t
have to move your hand to reach all the notes (such as the F & G
on the low E string). Make sure your hand is in position with your
thumb on the back of the neck, one finger per fret, and touch just
behind the fret to get a good tone with a minimal amount of effort.

27 of 34
 Brad Carlton’s Wisdom from Solid Strumming

If you’re playing slowly, you can use free stroke down strokes and
practice drawing the pick off the strings. Don’t use rest strokes to
play your scales, use free strokes.

In learning/teaching the open position scales, keep in mind you only

have 5 different strings because the two E strings have the same
notes. Learn one string at a time: e-f-g on both E strings, a-b-c on
the A string, d-e-f on the D string, g-a on the G string, b-c-d on the B
string.

Keep your fingers arched, don’t flatten them.

Keep your thumb behind the neck.
When ascending, don’t pick up previously fingered notes unless
you’re changing strings.

Observe the patterns made by the notes: the same fingering (open,
1st finger, 3rd finger) occurs on the two E strings and the B string,
open-2nd finger-3rd finger occurs on the A and D strings, open-2nd
finger on the G string–only 3 different fingerings.

In the beginning it’s okay to just learn the patterns to get up and
running, but you will have to eventually learn the names of the
notes as well.

Practice in rhythm. Start with whole notes, then half notes, the
quarter notes, then eighth notes, then16th notes

Get to where you can see the notes, play them, and know where
you are at all times

Practicing playing very slowly has tremendous benefits. It develops

your sustain because you’re trying to keep the notes ringing; it
builds your strength and endurance; and it teaches you to be
patient and give the notes their full time value.

28 of 34
 Brad Carlton’s Wisdom from Solid Strumming

The point of learning the scale is to show you the notes you can use
when playing in a given key to link things together when you play
melodies, or you want to throw in different notes to embellish the
chord, or if you want to play moving bass lines.

For it to sound like a major scale, start with the root.

Go through each diatonic chord and see what notes are in each
chord. Memorize each chord with its number in the scale: i.e. “C is
the I chord, Dm is the ii chord, etc. You don’t have to memorize the
chord spellings right away, but you will eventually.

Take pairs of diatonic chords and experiment with mixing them

together in different orders with different rhythms and feels and
tempos. Then do the same with 3 chords, 4 chords, etc. The
possibilities are infinite.

You don’t have to make C the home base when you’re playing
diatonic chords in C. See 15:25. For example you can make Dm
your home base and use the C chord as an accent. In this case C
would be the theoretical home key and Dm would be the street key.

Instead of playing a iii minor you can play a I chord with the 3rd of
the chord in the bass (ex. in the key of C, that would be C/E). That
also makes a good passing chord to link to an F chord.

You only have the 6 diatonic triads to deal with–get really solid on
them and spend a lot of time in one key before you move on to the
next so you can thoroughly understand the patterns–they will
translate to subsequent keys. Don’t worry about the triad built off
the 7th chord–it doesn’t stand as a chord its own.

This information doesn’t apply to blues-based music and some rock

stuff, but it applies to most music and is critical for anyone who
wants to play music.

29 of 34
 Brad Carlton’s Wisdom from Solid Strumming

DIATONIC PROGRESSIONS IN C
Practice the two-chord building blocks with all sorts of patterns and
time feels, accents, palm slaps, etc. Every day, try to find a different
way to play the progression. Listen while you play and get the
sounds in your head. Say the names of the chord functions to
yourself. If you’re a beginner, go through the 4 levels of practicing
chord changes given in the quarter note rhythm lesson. Make a
note of what songs, if any, each combination reminds you of.


In each row, the chord on the left is “home base.”

I ii I iii I IV IV I vi

ii iii ii IV ii V ii vi ii I

iii IV iii V iii vi iii I iii ii

IV V IV vi IV I IV ii IV iii

V vi VI V ii V iii V IV

vi I vi ii vi iii vi IV vi V

The iii chord is the weakest chord of all 6 chords. It’s more of a
passing chord, and if you’re playing iii-I out of context of a chord
progression, it sounds ambiguous, like it could be from another key
(ex. iii-I in the key of C can sound like vi-IV in the key of G). There
are other combinations that can sound ambiguous, like IV-ii, in that
case you can add other chords to lead it back to the I so you can
hear it in context. You can also substitute the I chord with the 3rd in
the bass for the iii.

There is a difference between I ii and ii I (and the other reverse

combinations in the above list) –they each have a different home
base. See 11:32. Adapt your strumming to highlight each different
home base.

30 of 34
 Brad Carlton’s Wisdom from Solid Strumming

Experiment with different fingerings, depending on what chord your

changing from/to.

Get creative with the chords. Add connectors in between the

chords, make up your own progressions, etc.

Spend lots of time with each combination to really get it in your

ears, but don’t be afraid to add other chords to alleviate the
monotony of playing two chords over and over and also to establish
the key center for the pairs that sound ambiguous.

When you find a combination and rhythm you like, record it and use
it as a jam track.

You want to have your ears fully tuned in and not just be cerebral
about it.

DIATONIC TRIADS IN G
You don’t have to learn a whole new scale from the C scale, you
only have to change one note–change the Fs to F#s.

Practice your scales varying your dynamics (see 2:58).

Think of both the letter names and the scale degrees. Sing them as
you practice the scale (i.e. “G is one, A is two, B is three,” etc. Do
this with every scale you learn).

When you’re building your diatonic chords, notice the common

chords between adjacent keys (i.e. they keys of C and G have the
chords of C, G, Am and Em in common–any chord that doesn’t use
the notes F or F#). (However, if you add a 7th to the G chord, in the
key of C you have G7 and in the key of G it’s Gmaj7).

31 of 34
 Brad Carlton’s Wisdom from Solid Strumming

Practice superimposing the scale over each chord, creating

melodies, bass lines, etc. It really enhances your rhythm playing,
especially if you’re playing solo.

DIATONIC PROGRESSIONS IN G
See 1:38-2:34 for elaboration on giving the illusion of legato and the
importance of “defingering” a chord.

See 2:34-2:55 for musical ways of making the chord changes easier
on yourself, such as adding pauses and muting.

Any of the chord progressions with the iii in them, add other chords
to make the key center clear.

In 3:45-6:39 Brad demonstrates and explains substitution: Any two

diatonic triads that are a 3rd apart will share two common tones and
hence can be substituted for each other. Thus I and vi, I and iii, ii
and IV, IV and vi, ii and V, etc. can be substituted for each other.
This can be very useful in songwriting and so forth.

7:57-8:29 On eliminating squeaks with guide fingers–lift the fingers

that are on the wound strings enough so they won’t squeak while
still holding the shape and hovering over the strings.

8:32-10:57 You can make common tones between adjacent chords

that wouldn’t normally have common tones by adding the same
open drone string(s) to both. Explore.

Get to where you can use the scales and chords as one unit, rather
than thinking of them as separate entities.

18:11-19:10 Experimenting adding open strings to your chords,

both in the bass and up top. Also try different fretted bass notes.

32 of 34
 Brad Carlton’s Wisdom from Solid Strumming

23:45-25:06 Example and brief explanation of modulation. Here’s

where you have to understand the concept of chords common to
adjacent keys (i.e. “pivot chords”).

27:06-28:00 Brad demonstrates how to use the chords to create

moods in songwriting, using the example of wanting a “darker”
mood.

DIATONIC TRIADS IN D
Take all the C notes from the G major scale and raise them to C#.

In every key, practice playing scales from each note of the scale
(that will give you the modes). Then play the corresponding mode
over the corresponding chord (D ionian over D, E dorian over Em,
F# phrygian over F#m, etc.)

Summary of ways to practice scales and Diatonic

Progressions

Scales
• Noticing the fingering patterns
• Varying dynamics
• Say the letter names and the scale degrees as you play the scale
• Superimpose the scale over each diatonic chord
• Play the modes off of each root over its corresponding diatonic
chord

Diatonic Progressions
• Take pairs of diatonic chords and experiment with mixing them
together in different orders with different rhythms and feels and
tempos. Then do the same with 3 chords, 4 chords, etc.
• Play once through each pair one after the other (I ii, I iii, I IV, I V, I
vi, etc.), being aware of the names and functions of the chords
you’re playing.
• Try different diatonic chords as home base

33 of 34
 Brad Carlton’s Wisdom from Solid Strumming

• Instead of playing a iii minor you can play a I chord with the 3rd of
the chord in the bass
• Practice the two-chord building blocks with all sorts of patterns
and time feels, accents, palm slaps, etc. Every day, try to find a
different way to play the progression. Listen while you play and
get the sounds in your head. Say the names of the chord
functions to yourself.
• Change up the bass notes using notes from the scale
• Create common tones between chords by using drones and color
tones
• Freely mix in slurs, accents, walking bass, etc.

34 of 34