I don’t know about you but I’m always looking for ways to improve the quality of the music I provide for my clients during my music therapy sessions.

Whether it’s bringing in my primary instrument, the clarinet, or adding jazzy and funky auto accompaniments on the keyboard, I’m always looking to offer the best musical accompaniments so my clients are engaged and motivated.

I’ll be honest though, the guitar is the primary instrument I use to accompany myself during my sessions.

Since I work with children, I find it to be versatile in the range of styles and accompaniments I can use and it allows me to move around the room while singing and playing.

Since I use the guitar so often, I’m constantly looking for ways to add variety to my accompaniments. I make sure to change up the strum patterns and finger picking patterns so each song in my session has a different sound.

If you’re looking to add variety to your guitar accompaniments, check out these two videos where I share some groovy guitar strums.

In Groovy Guitar Strums 1 I share some of my favorite strumming patterns (including a slap strum that’s perfect for movement songs!) Click here to watch:

Groovy Guitar Strums 1

 

In Groovy Guitar Strums 2 you’ll learn how to travis pick and play some other cool finger style patterns. Click here to watch:

Groovy Guitar Strums 2

I hope these videos give you some fresh ideas for ways that you can add variety to your guitar accompaniment patterns.

Be sure to visit our Music Therapy in Action page to see many of these accompaniment patterns being used during my music therapy sessions!