No wah pedal No problem! The "no wah" strumming pattern

No wah pedal? No problem! Here's a fun pattern that uses Gypsy-style strumming technique to simulate the sound of a wah pedal. You start with a downstroke that strikes the top two or three strings, followed by an upstroke that only strikes the high E string – to get the wah “click“. The third motion is a downstroke that taps your index finger nail on the lowest strings, approximately E or A, or some mix of the two. It's a bit of a tongue twister, and like many things in guitar picking, in order to learn this, you have to fool around with it at fast speeds first, to get a sense of what it feels like when it loops.