Strum Pattern for "Lord I give you my heart"

[Repent34]

I'm trying to come up with a strum pattern for this song. I have the mp3 of Darlene Zschech/Hillsong singing this song. Anyone familiar with a good strum pattern for it?

Also, when developing strum patterns for songs, should I find the beat and duplicate that or is there some other way? On some songs the strum based on the beat just seems to busy or it doesn't fit all the verses very well. Hope the question makes sense.

[Jim Broyles]

My theory of worship rhythm is less is more. I would play this song very straight with a DUDUDUDU strum pattern per measure, the downstrokes being on the beats, and the upstrokes on the "ands." I might vary it by playing DDU DDU in a 1-and-a 2 and-a pattern. Let the drummer set the beat and just provide a "bed" for the text, which is the most important thing in a worship song. My 2¢.

[Jkf_Alone]

it really depends on how big you go with the song. You can make the chorus move into a full strum, the way they do, but I like the song played quieter and more reflective. I think you could use the basic folk guitar strum through the whole thing, D D DUDU , but on mandolin that would be too much. This is another one of those tunes where I'd probably tremolo a violin - type line on the verse, then go into a light , stretched out strum for the chorus. This is assuming you have at least a guitar player with you. If you are playing solo, I probably would probably do stretched downstrums with fills. what i mean by this is you play the chord (2 finger open if possible) with a down strum then use other unoccupied fingers to play some melody notes. in G (the key this song is often played in) you would play


G Em C G D G
-3--3-3---5---7-5-3-3----------2----3---3---3--5---7-------5--3-/5------1-
-2----------------2-2--3---2---0----2---------------2-------------------0- C fill to D fill
-0----------------2-2--2---0---0----2---------------0-------------------3-
-0---------------------0---0---2--------------------0-------------------5-
This is my de-si-re to Hon-or You , Lord with all my heart, I worship You

and so on, once you get the feel for this, it becomes almost automatic, you just have to REALLY know the melody

[Jkf_Alone]

I'm not great at writing tab, so you may need to strum the chords a few times to make things line up right, but it gets the idea across.

[Ted Eschliman]

Another consideration is the rest of the team's instrumentation. I find a very common mistake for mandolinists new to Worship Team playing with an acoustic guitar (let alone mulitple guitars) is doubling and playing a clanky, clanky rhythm all at once. Subdivisions can get very muddy if not excuted precisely in time, and that can also make the band sound stiff.

Mandolins can get very percussive, and limited to the treble timbre of a guitar, tend to stick out worse than a guitar; lacking its lows, they are also often blamed by the leader for being too busy, even if all they are doing is trying to play the same guitar rhythm.

If the guitarist is doing this in eighth note divisions, really the best thing is to play quarter note chords during the verse (or even half notes), and lay back and play on the offbeats during the chorus. I also like to tremolo a harmony part a 3rd or 6th away from the melody during the verse, especially on the consequent, "to wor-ship You..." This is a texture totally unique to the capabilities of the mandolin, and a great way to support mood (and message).

[Repent34]

My theory of worship rhythm is less is more. I would play this song very straight with a DUDUDUDU strum pattern per measure, the downstrokes being on the beats, and the upstrokes on the "ands." I might vary it by playing DDU DDU in a 1-and-a 2 and-a pattern. Let the drummer set the beat and just provide a "bed" for the text, which is the most important thing in a worship song. My 2¢.

I'm going to try that strum pattern tonight to see how it sounds. Thanks. I agree on the less is more idea. Also want to be able to add to the song in any way possible

[Repent34]

it really depends on how big you go with the song. You can make the chorus move into a full strum, the way they do, but I like the song played quieter and more reflective. I think you could use the basic folk guitar strum through the whole thing, D D DUDU , but on mandolin that would be too much. This is another one of those tunes where I'd probably tremolo a violin - type line on the verse, then go into a light , stretched out strum for the chorus. This is assuming you have at least a guitar player with you. If you are playing solo, I probably would probably do stretched downstrums with fills. what i mean by this is you play the chord (2 finger open if possible) with a down strum then use other unoccupied fingers to play some melody notes. in G (the key this song is often played in) you would play


G Em C G D G
-3--3-3---5---7-5-3-3----------2----3---3---3--5---7-------5--3-/5------1-
-2----------------2-2--3---2---0----2---------------2-------------------0- C fill to D fill
-0----------------2-2--2---0---0----2---------------0-------------------3-
-0---------------------0---0---2--------------------0-------------------5-
This is my de-si-re to Hon-or You , Lord with all my heart, I worship You

and so on, once you get the feel for this, it becomes almost automatic, you just have to REALLY know the melody

I'm going to have to try all of these ideas to see how it sounds. Thank you.

[Repent34]

Another consideration is the rest of the team's instrumentation. I find a very common mistake for mandolinists new to Worship Team playing with an acoustic guitar (let alone mulitple guitars) is doubling and playing a clanky, clanky rhythm all at once. Subdivisions can get very muddy if not excuted precisely in time, and that can also make the band sound stiff.

Mandolins can get very percussive, and limited to the treble timbre of a guitar, tend to stick out worse than a guitar; lacking its lows, they are also often blamed by the leader for being too busy, even if all they are doing is trying to play the same guitar rhythm.

If the guitarist is doing this in eighth note divisions, really the best thing is to play quarter note chords during the verse (or even half notes), and lay back and play on the offbeats during the chorus. I also like to tremolo a harmony part a 3rd or 6th away from the melody during the verse, especially on the consequent, "to wor-ship You..." This is a texture totally unique to the capabilities of the mandolin, and a great way to support mood (and message).

We do have 1 acoustic, 1 electric guitar, drummer, keyboard, male and female vocals and me on mando. Can you tell me more about "I also like to tremolo a harmony part a 3rd or 6th away from the melody during the verse,"? I like the idea of that. That would add a nice texture.

[Jkf_Alone]

Repent,

you might not want to play the entire harmony of the melody if a singer is singing harmony. Also, you need to be careful with playing the melody as written (in ccli lead sheet). Often a singer will have their own "interpretation" of the melody. The safest course (once Ted explains harmony so much better than I ever could) is to be a little "lazy" with it. Find notes that you can linger on, allowing the tune to move around you. You won't be in anyone's way, and you will be adding drama to the song. Oh, and watch that "F" chord, don't be caught playing an F#, play a A or an E over it to be safe.

You can usually linger on pentatonic notes, and almost always sound "in tune" G A B D E is the G pentatonic. This is a good "default" thing you can do if you are asked to play without having time to learn the song. usually by picking the pentatonic note that happens to be in the chord, you get something that sounds similar to the melody, and is pleasant to the ear. With this as a skeleton, you can go into full melody, harmony, strums and fills, whatever.



(Thanks so much for posting this question! I never really thought about what I did until I tried to explain it to you.)

[HddnKat]

I agree. As I recall, when our PB did this, I kept a very simple strum on the guitar, while our mando player played a nice arpeggio on the first part of the verse, and used a light tremolo when it came to the longer notes.

[Jonmiller]

Hey,
My son lives in Bend and my daughter just moved from there. What fellowship do you attend?
I play mando and cello in worship-(a nice combination, I don't have to put the cello down, I just hold it with my legs and play mandolin).
I'm careful not to overpower the guitar-and once you begin with playing a strum pattern-you can't build into much more than that.
I like to do the intro with the guitarist lightly, or play harmony and then really backoff and help the song build in and out. The mandolin has a huge box of tools-light and heavy rythum/strums, muted single string rythum, melody, arpeggios, tremelo, melody, chord melody, crosspicking-etc.
Cause the hearts of the Saints to rise up and worship!!!!

[Repent34]

I go to Trinity Lutheran.

chris