Triangle Guitar Society

Open Mic Program

Mark your calendars! The next Open Mic will be

August 1st, 11:30 am - 2:00 pm at Rougarou/Imbibe

108 Henderson St., Chapel Hill, NC

Come join us for music-making in a relaxed, nonjudgmental setting and enjoy great Cajun food. Please send the names of your selected pieces to TGS to help with scheduling this session:

In the meantime, try out Randy Reed’s latest tip, reprinted below, on improving rhythm from the TGS News, May-June 2026.

Previous Open Mic Program

“Tap to get it back”

By Randy Reed, Music Editor

Coming out of too many weeks of, let’s just say, not practicing very much and having lost all my nails to breaking/ripping due to their being weak from having been covered in acrylic for six months, I was feeling a bit like a retired mailman still wanting to walk 10 miles every day, and I started tapping.

I tapped especially when napping and waiting to sleep. I came across these tapping exercises for the right hand while in a resting lying position, tapping my right-hand finger pads on anything that was firm and made a sound:thigh or armchair if leather, or head or left-hand wrist.

I feel this can help us get a feeling for simple and more syncopated rhythms that helps when we encounter them in music for our instrument. Try them out and see if you agree!

Work these rhythms by tapping on a table (or your head) as you say the finger names, and keep in mind that the finger order always stays the same.

Try simple triplets with accents at the start, thinking of two groups of four, emphasizing the first in each triplet, as: a,m,i, a,m,i, a,m,i,a,m,i, a,m,i, a,m,i, a,m,i, a,m,i.

I have separated them visually, but in all of these exercises, you want the rhythm to flow evenly without gaps. This a,m,i pattern is the easiest and is why we play tremolo p,a,m,i and not p,i,m,a.

Work this pattern with an obvious accent, slow and relaxed. When the accent is on our weakest finger it should not be tense, as it could hurt; instead, it should just raise a bit higher before tapping down.

Now do the same with m,i,a, m,i,a, m,i,a, m,i,a, m,i,a, m,i,a, m,i,a, m,i,a. This pattern is the harder one, so give it more time. When it is mastered in a relaxed manner with evenness and speed,worki,a,m, i,a,m, i,a,m, i,a,m, i,a,m, i,a,m, i,a,m, i,a,m.

As I worked these simple repetitive patterns, I found it helpful to use the following little ditty with the same number of taps/rhythms, so use it and change the gender (girl/boy) as needed.

We take this sentence: “I am an American boy thinking free, dreaming big, doing good in the things that I can.”

We take out “an” before “American” for our rhythmic needs, add accents, and add “and so” at the end to keep it flowing in continuous, even triplets:

I am A-mer-i-can boy think-ing free, dream-ing big, do-ing good in the things that I can and so (repeat).

OK, at this point it gets interesting because by adding one rest and instead of saying/tapping both“and so,” we put a rest where “and” was and pause for the silent rest in the rhythm.

We add that rest and go on to just say/tap “so” and continue by now leading with “I,” running that until finally leading with m.

Repeating this new, bigger pattern over and over will have you cycling through all three leading fingers, first leading with a, then leading with i on the second set, then leading with m on the third set. Repeat this final biggest pattern many times over and over, first in slow, relaxed flow and then faster, and you will have a great warmup even before you pick up your guitar!

I am A-mer-i-can boy think-ing free, dream-ing big do-ing good in the things that I can * so.

Repeat.

Be careful not to overdo this workout, as you could hurt your precious finger muscles if you are tense and/or do this for more than 10 minutes.

John Williams went many months without playing the guitar and got all of his fabulous technique back by playing Heitor Villa-Lobos’s Etude 1 for two hours!!! If I did that, my hands would fall off!

Have fun with these patterns and modify them as you see fit to keep it interesting. I will now apply these patterns on the strings and have a new article with, hopefully, new insights. I will now apply these patterns to my strings and get them ready to “go out and see the town.” ■