I’ve been continuing to practice my newest song “Riptide” by Vance Joy. My biggest thing that I wanted to work on was to find and practice an effective strumming pattern that works for me, to which I have! I did this by playing the song over and over with different patterns and determining which one sounds the best. I’ve settled on down, down, up, down, up, as well as only strumming certain chords once (before chorus) to add emphasis on certain parts. It sounds really great so far, even if I’m driving my roommate crazy by repeating the same song over and over. Something I also experimented with was strumming without a pick, which I haven’t tried yet. This was partly a happy accident (I temporarily misplaced my pick), but I’ve noticed that playing with my fingers makes all the chords sound a lot softer. This is probably because my skin is softer than the plastic pick, making the vibrations of the strings weaker. I’m not sure if this is the sound I’m going for in this particular song, but it was still a good thing to try out just for the experience. My continued goal now that I have my strumming pattern is to just to make sure my chord transitions are flowing smoothly, and that I learn the lyrics to the song. I’ve found this song a lot easier to play while singing to.
November 12, 2019