Adding Some “Island” To Your Guitar Strumming

One way to add some color to your guitar playing is to expand your repertoire of strum patterns.

Here's a strum pattern that adds a little Caribbean sound while still be useful in a variety of popular music. Because it's in 4/4 the pattern can be used for many pop songs to add a little bit of an exotic feel.

The Left-Hand Mute Technique

The pattern uses a couple of techniques that are valuable also.

One technique is the left-hand mute. You'll see this more clearly on the video. It’s easiest with bar chords, but also can be achieved with open chords by flattening out the fingers in the left-hand to dampen the strings.

Take It Slow… Step By Step

To learn this pop ready strum practice it slowly at first. I recommend using the G minor bar chord because it's fairly easy to lift up on the left hand to mute the strings. You can try open chords later which will be a little more difficult.

Once you can play this slowly with one chord try using this sample progression. It does use the open C chord which only to practice. To mute and open chords you'll want to quickly flat not your fingers in the left hand to stop the strings from ringing.

Download The Cheat Sheet Here:

>> Pop Reggae Strum Cheat Sheet

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