Fight "Six" on the guitar

The six-string guitar is perhaps the most popular musical instrument of all known. This is not surprising: mastering several simple types of accompaniment with ordinary chords on it, so that you can sing songs with friends, will not take much time. And many do not need more. At the same time, every beginner should definitely learn the "Six" guitar battle. With the help of it, they play along with many bardic, folk and courtyard songs.

The "Six" guitar fight is considered to be perhaps the most common of the 4/4 metro rhythm fights.... It is in this time signature that most of the songs of the courtyard, bardic, tourist, folk, pop, rock and army repertoire are played.

The whole fight is done in one measure for 4 counts.

They are distinguished by the "six" without jamming the strings and with jamming... It is better to start learning this fight from the first option, while paying more attention only to working out the correct rhythm. Muting the strings is a rather difficult technique for playing the guitar, so you should start mastering it after bringing the fight without jamming to automatism.

To properly learn how to play the "six" beat, a beginner should understand the so-called universal pattern of movements of the right hand of guitarists when playing accompaniment with chords. with a pick (or, for example, your index finger) to a time signature of 4/4. The scheme is quite simple: the movements of the hand above the strings alternate evenly in their direction - down-up-down-up-down-up-down-up.Each down-up pair is performed for one beat of a measure, that is, a total of 4 times per measure. The counting of movements must be kept with the conjunction "and": one and, two and, three and, four and.

Schematically, it looks like this:

As you can see, on any count (one, two, three, four), the movement of the hand is directed downward, and on "and" - from the bottom up.

Now it remains to consider how the "six" fight is played, in which 6 out of eight hits must be made on the strings, and 2 times the hand must be carried over them without touching them.

The scheme of this battle can be represented as follows:

It is necessary to extract chords into the following accounts:

• the first - on "one" (down);
• the second - by "two" (down);
• the third - on "and" after the count "two" (from bottom to top);
• the fourth - on "and" after "three" (from bottom to top);
• the fifth - by "four" (down);
• the sixth - on "and" after "four" (from bottom to top).

The strikes on the strings are skipped on the accounts:

• the first - on "and" after counting "one" (move your hand from the bottom up);
• the second - to "three" (bring your hand down).

The missed strokes are indicated on the diagram in a different color, indicating only the movement of the hand.

This version of the "six" is no different from the previous one. Let's give a scheme of the fight, while omitting the designation of “idle” hand movements when it just sweeps over the strings.

You can see small asterisks under the second and fifth downward blows, signaling that these blows must be muffled in some convenient way. If the blows are made with a pick, then it will be more convenient to muffle with the edge of the palm from the side of the little finger. When playing the accompaniment with the index finger, in addition, the muting is often carried out by placing an open palm or the edge of the thumb on the strings.

Muting is done as follows: immediately after striking the strings, the palm (or its edge) with a quick sharp movement covers all the strings across the neck. The sound of the strings itself is short. In any case, 2 actions - hitting the strings and jamming them - should be invested in the duration, which is represented by the stroke "hit + jam" (in our example, both strokes are eighths of duration).

Muting, of course, allows you to diversify the accompaniment, make it more expressive and interesting. For beginners, it is recommended to separately practice muting on any familiar chord. Here is the algorithm for the exercise:

1. play a chord in an open position with your left hand (without a barre, so as not to tire your left hand);
2. with the index finger of your right hand from top to bottom for the count of "times", draw along all the strings;
3. when the finger makes a sound from the first string, straighten the palm, and at the expense of "and" put it on the strings with a slight swing;
4. continue the exercise at the same pace, counting up to four (after each count, muffle the strings on the "and" count);
5. work off to a good pace, achieving a clear muffling of sounds.

Having developed the jamming skill, you can start training the "six" battle. Perhaps for beginners, dividing the battle into two parts with 3 blows in each of them will help. Counting for the first part: one and, two and. Counting for the second part: three and, four and. In this case, the second part begins with a pause for the count of "three" (the hand moves down idly).

Having felt confident and having achieved the necessary rhythm when playing both parts of the battle, you need to combine them into a single whole. But the whole fight should be taught not within its separate boundaries, as beginners often do, but in conjunction with the next fight of the same kind. That is, you need to play the accompaniment several times without stopping. First on one chord, and then on several. For example, Playing the following chord progression in an open position is a good exercise to develop your fighting skill: Am-Dm-E-Am or Em-Am-D-G.

In the video below you can listen to how such an accompaniment will sound without muffling and with muffling the strings.

After mastering the battle, one should proceed to the study of chords to famous songs, which can be accompanied by a "six". This rhythmic pattern is very popular and widespread. Many famous and little-known guitarists who perform songs use it.

First, you should use simple compositions.containing no more than 3 chords. These are usually repeated verses and chorus throughout a song, forming a so-called square.

There are several popular songs for the initial repertoire that are in harmony with the "six":

• army - "Dembel";
• courtyard for graduates - "The last bell";
• yard dramatic - "The girl in the machine is crying";
• chanson - "Vladimirsky Central";
• DDT - “What is autumn?”;
• from the film "Sorcerers" - "Three White Horses".

In fact, the list of songs using the "six" will be endless. Almost any song in the 4/4 or 2/4 time signature can be performed this way - even if it is suggested otherwise in the original. After mastering the accompaniment with the necessary chords and the places of their transitions, you can start learning to sing along with the guitar.if there is such a desire. However, you must first learn how to play the song. Otherwise, you will have to disperse, and this will inevitably lead to mistakes or greatly delay learning.

It is better to start with familiar songs or with those that you like more by genre. So, many army or courtyard melodies are played with the "six". Even children's songs are often accompanied by it. If you like music, then learning it is much more interesting and easier.

Beginners usually begin to master different types of accompaniment immediately after learning the chords, or even with them.

When using a quality instrument with constant practice, you can achieve a high-quality and clean sound of both chords and accompaniment.

A few tips to help aspiring accompanists.

• The fight should first be practiced in its purest form. Add muting strings later if needed.
• The correct rhythm can only be observed if all hand movements are at the same speed. Play slowly at first, gradually accelerating.
• When practicing on songs, you should use those chords where there is no barre. The last trick is too difficult for beginners. You should not start with this, as it will cause a lot of mistakes and "dirt", and the game will cease to be fun.
• It will be easier for a beginner if at first to pronounce the direction of movement of the hand out loud. This will allow fewer mistakes, since the person will be maximally focused on the process.
• At the beginning of training, calluses may appear on the tips of the fingers, which will hurt. It is important not to give up the idea at this time. If the discomfort is too severe, a pick can be used. However, they should do the fight as clearly and quickly as possible. At first, you have to learn how to firmly hold the pick (but without undue effort).
• Do not hit the strings too hard. You just need to extract the sound. Otherwise, the strings will quickly become unusable, they may simply break during the learning process.
• When struck from the bottom up, in the overwhelming majority of cases, only a few thin strings (no more than four) are touched, since low sounds are heard somewhat roughly on weak beats.
• It is better to use a metronome to maintain a rhythmic pattern. Such a simple device will allow you not to get lost.At first, you can set a very slow pace (from 45 beats per minute). The main thing is that the musician has time for everything. The metronome is accelerated individually. You can change the pace when the game at the same speed has already been brought to full automaticity.

Simple tips will allow beginners to quickly and easily master any battle, and not just the "six" learned here. You should move on to learning songs only when the skill has been honed to brilliance. Otherwise, a lot of mistakes arise, which sometimes leads to a sad end: the student simply quits learning. In addition, you should take songs where one type of combat is used. Later, you need to move on to more complex types of accompaniment.