[cosmic_charlie]

I just heard this song for the first time in a long time. I forget how great it is. Could any one help me out with a strumming pattern. I haven't been playing very long and could use all the help i can get.

[whatever]

just think of a 4/4 beat (boom tap boom tap boom tap boom tap) and strum the bassish notes on the boom and trebleish notes on the tap. when you get that down you can alternate like this

boom tap boomboom tap boom tap boomboom tap

hope that helped

peace.

[qiuniu]

My best suggestion is buy yourself a nice pair of headphones (Sony MDR-V6 are great and well priced) and plug your headphones and guitar into your amp then plug in your favorite show that Mama Tried is on. Just keep playing along 'till you get it. Before I discovered this pure escasty I used to just turn my stereo up and play. When you aren't sure whether you can hear yourself or not, you got. In this method you only hear yourself when you are making mistakes. I have learned so much about the way songs are actually played this way, sort of picking up where rukind can't really help you anymore. Good luck, and keep playing Dead.

[jhc]

I just stumbled across this, and as I'm playing this song regularly these days, here's what I do.

This is pretty much most of the song


D-|-|-|-G-|-|-|

v*v^----v*v^

where:

v* = downstroke emphasizing bass note(s)
v = full chord downstroke
^ = upstroke (usually emphasizing the top 4 strings)

The big exception is the "twenty-one in prison" line where it goes into a 2/4 time (or feels that way)

D-|-D-|-C-|-D-|-

v---v---v---v^v

The Bm which comes immediately after sounds best to me with the standard root-strum-5th-strum pattern (where these represent the 4 beats of the measure, root and 5th are single notes - B and F# in a Bminor - and strum = play the chord) This pattern can also be used throughout the whole song for a more "rolling" feel.

(looking back that may be exactly what "whatever" meant by boom-tap-boobmboom-tap)