Warm Up Exercise

Practicing Walk Ups & Walk Downs in G

Lesson #276

Video lesson

Get the PDF chord sheet (1 page)

Support me on Patreon.com to get access to this and 200+ other PDF chord sheets I've made, plus new PDFs I make going forward (1-2 added each week).
The cost is $3/month (one month minimum, cancel anytime). Here's a free sample if you're on the fence. Thanks for supporting me & this project!

After clicking the button and logging in to Patreon, look for the PDF attached to the bottom of the post.

Editor’s notes

Recently I’ve been learning a song that features heavy use of walk ups & walk downs on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th strings – so I went ahead and created this exercise to give me some practice reps. We’ll be in the key of G, using the chords of G C and D, and starting with a simple alternating-bass-note strum. From there, we’ll add some connective phrases to help us switch between chords. This breaks up the strumming, adding a bit of melodic shape to the playing. In the lesson I’ll explain the chords, the strumming, how to approach the connective phrases, and give general tips for learning this style of guitar.

Video timestamps

0:00 Lesson overview
1:44 Chord shapes
2:15 Fretboard map
3:14 Strumming pattern
5:58 Playing the walk-ups & walk-downs
11:04 Playthrough (simple strumming)
11:32 Playthrough (intermediate strumming)

Here’s a related lesson I did doing this same technique using the chords of E, A, and B7. The biggest difference in this lesson below is I’m doing the walk-ups and walk-downs on the 6th and 5th strings, which I think is a bit easier to play (compared to the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th strings).

Likewise, here’s a lesson I made showing this same technique using the chords of A, D, and E. The PDF for this lesson is available here.

Enjoy my lessons? Buy me a beer!

If this and my other lessons have proven helpful to you, please consider making a one-time donation to my tip jar. Contributions of any amount help make this project possible (including the many, many hours I put into it).

You can also support me on Patreon. For only $3/month you'll get access to a print-friendly PDF of my notes for each new lesson (view free sample).

Thanks!

Subscribe to my YouTube channel

Be sure to never miss a lesson by subscribing on YouTube. I put out 2-3 new videos every week. These include full song lessons, as well as covers, practice tips, behind-the-scenes updates. Thanks!