Originally Posted by: jgaviriaI am learning how to play simple man which is one of the beginner songs. I am confused by the bpm that appears in the tabs. I am using a metronome to count the beats. It shows 61 bmp in the tabs which is a slow tempo and that is the speed the teacher is playing while showing the strumming. But when it is time to perform the song, it seems a lot faster than 61 bmps, but that is the speed that shows in the tabs.What am I doing wrong?

The strumming pattern of that song is fairly active compared to the rhythmic subdivisions. Which is a fancy way of saying that they cram a lot into a slow pace! :)

In order to count this song right you have to count all the 1/16th notes:

1 - e - and - d - 2 - e - and - d -3 - e - and - d - 4 - e - and - d

And the metronome clicks only happen on the numbers, the downbeats. If you look at the notation you'll see that you are strumming each chord 6 times. Add 2 chords per measure and you have 6 strums in just one measure of 4 counts.

So you are only hearing clicks on 1, 2, 3, 4. But you are expected to strum on a lot of those 1/16th note subdivision. A lot of strumming pretty quickly. And that's a lot for a beginner, especially when at first you are listening to a metronome click on just the numbers. Make sense?

So, the answer is to just go slower. Take you time to get the chord changes & strumming pattern right. It doesn't matter how slow you have to go in order to get it right. So slow it down, be patient with yourself & take the time to get the chord changes smoothly with the strumming pattern.

Hope this helps! Ask more if necessary & let us know how it goes. Best of success!