Guitar Strumming

Pattern #1 --

The first pattern is about as basic as it gets. Simply strum downward on each beat.
Remember that in 4/4 time there are 4 beats in each measure.
There are several ways to strum. You can strum downward on each beat with your thumb,
you can use a felt pick, or you can strum downward with the back of one or two fingers. I
mostly strum downward using the back of my index and middle fingers.
You can try different ways and find what suits you the best.

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Guitar Strumming

Guitar Strumming


You can carry it in your guitar bag or pocket, and the great thing is it costs nothing. You can make it yourself in just five minutes by following the instructions in this article.

1. Take a sheet of paper - A4 or Letter sized is good - and fold it in half vertically two times to create four columns.

2. Next, open the sheet out again and draw five equally spaced rows using a ruler and pencil. If you have Letter size paper your rows will be 2.2 inches (approx. 55 mm) wide. For A4 paper, mark your rows 59 mm wide.

3. You now have a sheet with twenty rectangles marked on it. You are going to add a strum patterns in each rectangle, rectangles that represent one beat in the music. Copy the symbols from the table below onto the rectangles on your sheet of paper.

Simple text is used for each strum pattern because it's easy to draw in text, but you can use music notation for quarter notes (one beat), eighth notes (half a beat) and rests if you prefer. You'll find a description of the symbols below the table.


The symbols used in the table are:

D - A quarter note strummed down

d u - Two eighth notes, strum down then up

d x – An eighth note strum followed by eighth note rest, strum down then mute the strings

x u – An eighth note rest followed by an eighth note strum, mute the strings then strum up

X - A quarter note rest, play nothing for one beat. You can choose to let the previous note ring on or mute the strings.

Now cut out the rectangles, shuffle them and pick four randomly. Congratulations, you have your first rhythm pattern to play.

For example, you might have picked the following four symbols: D, d u, X, d x.

Pick up your guitar and play the pattern using a chord progression or song you know. When you get bored with it, put your cards back in a pile, shuffle them and pick four again to create a new pattern.

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Basic Guitar Strumming

Basic Guitar Strumming

One thing which is the really annoyed me when starting out was the fact that everybody just wrote patterns down like -- DDUUD.

How are we supposed to figure out what the rhythm of strumming is? The secret lies in finding out the beat of the song. Time Of Your Life is an 4-beat song (4/4).

The thing about strumming soft acoustic numbers (esp. pop numbers) is that your hand must have a continuous down and up motion (that is without actually playing DUDUDUDU for an 8 beat song, your hand must be doing this motion).

Try to this for practice first : Hold a chord and do a DUDUDUDU for the 4 beat duration.
Keep on going with this till the time you get a sense of the beat.
Motion must exist at the wrist level, and not at the elbow or arm.

Now coming back to the song...

Let's divide a typical 4 beat song into 8 parts. It would help beginners to speak it aloud, makes you more oriented to the rhythm.

1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | & || 1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | &

Try to count and see, which syllables of the first line land on which beat counts specified above. (I tried to include this under the beat counts but it became pretty messy).

Example : An-o-ther starts on the 2nd (An-), -o- starts on the 2.5 (the & after the 2) and is sung till the 3rd, and -ther starts on 3.5 (the & after 3). This may be boring / annoying / pointless for most, but give it a shot, it may help you figure out the remaining part of this post. Now to come to the strumming : remember, the strumming hand (rather the wrist) should have a continuous down up down up motion. Therefore, this is what your strumming hand should be doing.

1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | & || 1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | &
D | U | D | U | D | U | D | U || D | U | D | U | D | U | D | U

Hare it is the motion based on which you'll get your strumming pattern.
Now, for the strumming pattern, having the same motion of the strumming hand.


Just make contact with the strings where it has been denoted in bold below:

1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | & || 1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | &
D | U | D | U | D | U | D | U || D | U | D | U | D | U | D | U

This strumming pattern is often called DDU-UDU pattern

(I've seen some other authors describing it this way).
If you choose to, you can always skip the 8th upstroke, whatever suits you. The pattern will then become DDU-UD. This is the strumming for the first part of this song. The second strumming is slightly different but follows the same 4/4 beat.

There are two ways of playing it : the actual way (bit complex), and a simplified way (which I saw on another site)


This part starts at the end of the first verse ie.
I hope you had the time of your life... This is the actual one, and singing along with this pattern may not be all that easy (DD-DUDU,UD-DUD):

1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | & || 1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | &
D | U | D | U | D | U | D | U || D | U | D | U | D | U | D | U

Note that the strumming pattern extends for 8 beats unlike the first one which repeated after 4 beats. This is the simplified pattern so that singing while playing becomes easier, but isn't the exact one used in the song (DD-DUDU):

1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | & || 1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | &
D | U | D | U | D | U | D | U || D | U | D | U | D | U | D | U

That's all there is to the strumming for this song. Let me give you the 2 patterns once again with the strokes not being played denoted as dots. Pattern 1 :

1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | & || 1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | &
D | . | D | U | . | U | D | U || D | . | D | U | . | U | D | U

Pattern 2 : Actual --

1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | & || 1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | &
D | . | D | . | D | U | D | U || . | U | D | . | D | U | D | .

Simplified --

1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | & || 1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | &
D | . | D | . | D | U | D | U || D | . | D | . | D | U | D | U

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The Art of Guitar Strumming

The Art of Guitar Strumming

One thing which is the really annoyed me when starting out was the fact that everybody just wrote patterns down like -- DDUUD.
How are we supposed to figure out what the rhythm of strumming is? The secret lies in finding out the beat of the song. Time Of Your Life is an 4-beat song (4/4). T

he thing about strumming soft acoustic numbers (esp. pop numbers) is that your hand must have a continuous down and up motion (that is without actually playing DUDUDUDU for an 8 beat song, your hand must be doing this motion).


Try this for practice first : Hold a chord and do a DUDUDUDU for the 4 beat duration. Keep on going with this till the time you get a sense of the beat. Motion must exist at the wrist level, and not at the elbow or arm. Now coming back to the song... Let's divide a typical 4 beat song into 8 parts. It would help beginners to speak it aloud, makes you more oriented to the rhythm.

1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | & || 1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | &

Try to count and see, which syllables of the first line land on which beat counts specified above. (I tried to include this under the beat counts but it became pretty messy). Eg : An-o-ther starts on the 2nd (An-), -o- starts on the 2.5 (the & after the 2) and is sung till the 3rd, and -ther starts on 3.5 (the & after 3). This may be boring / annoying / pointless for most, but give it a shot, it may help you figure out the remaining part of this post. Now to come to the strumming : remember, the strumming hand (rather the wrist) should have a continuous down up down up motion. Therefore, this is what your strumming hand should be doing.

1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | & || 1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | & D | U | D | U | D | U | D | U || D | U | D | U | D | U | D | U

This is the motion based on which you'll get your strumming pattern. Now, for the strumming pattern, having the same motion of the strumming hand, just make contact with the strings where it has been denoted in bold below:

1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | & || 1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | & D | U | D | U | D | U | D | U || D | U | D | U | D | U | D | U

This strumming pattern is often called DDU-UDU pattern (I've seen some other authors describing it this way). If you choose to, you can always skip the 8th upstroke, whatever suits you. The pattern will then become DDU-UD. This is the strumming for the first part of this song. The second strumming is slightly different but follows the same 4/4 beat. There are two ways of playing it : the actual way (bit complex), and a simplified way (which I saw on another site)


This part starts at the end of the first verse ie. I hope you had the time of your life... This is the actual one, and singing along with this pattern may not be all that easy (DD-DUDU,UD-DUD):

1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | & || 1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | & D | U | D | U | D | U | D | U || D | U | D | U | D | U | D | U

Note that the strumming pattern extends for 8 beats unlike the first one which repeated after 4 beats. This is the simplified pattern so that singing while playing becomes easier, but isn't the exact one used in the song (DD-DUDU):

1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | & || 1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | & D | U | D | U | D | U | D | U || D | U | D | U | D | U | D | U

That's all there is to the strumming for this song. Let me give you the 2 patterns once again with the strokes not being played denoted as dots. Pattern 1 :

1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | & || 1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | & D | . | D | U | . | U | D | U || D | . | D | U | . | U | D | U

Pattern 2 : Actual --

1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | & || 1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | & D | . | D | . | D | U | D | U || . | U | D | . | D | U | D | .

Simplified --

1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | & || 1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | & D | . | D | . | D | U | D | U || D | . | D | . | D | U | D | U

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Dynamic Strumming Parts

One aspect of guitar strumming patterns that should not be overlooked in an acoustic guitar lesson consists of the options available to create a more dynamic sounding rhythm part. An interesting guitar part doesn’t necessarily need a lot of basic guitar chord changes, but just playing dynamically with a single chord can be quite interesting tonally.

The main dynamic that can be altered are primarily volume oriented. Mixing together full chords, partial chords, and a stroke with all the strings muted can create a volume dynamic without changing the actual chord being played. It is much more captivating to listen to a guitarist playing around with stroke dynamics than to hear one playing full chords continuously. Even though strumming is usually only used for the more background guitar rhythm parts, it can still make for some fairly interesting aspects to a song, particularly once blended with the other instruments.

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Strumming Stroke Timing

Strumming Stroke Timing

One common mistake that should be avoided is to use the stroke patterns as a way of the maintaining timing. A guitarist should be able to place either stroke at any time for the desired attack. Down and up strokes do have a slightly different flavor to the sound, and sometimes it can sound more better to use the same stroke twice rather than alternate. It is the best way to develop the ability to use either attack on demand is to practice patterns that are not based around the basic down and up stroke pattern shown above. Below gives a few examples of strumming patterns to try out......

There are far, far more and more patterns that can be developed outside the basic up and down pattern as well, which is the point of practicing these types of patterns. The variety of potential patterns expands greatly by being able to perform up and down strokes on demand in any necessary rhythmic position.......

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Guitar Strumming Patterns

Acoustic Guitar Lesson: Guitar Strumming Patterns

Strumming, for a guitarist, generally is used specifically to refer to when a guitarist loosely plays a series of basic guitar chords with the same rhythmic set of up and down strokes. One common mistake among beginner guitarists is to use guitar strumming patterns in place of proper rhythmic control or to try to regulate any guitar into a strumming pattern. This is usually only used for more background rhythm parts, and shouldn’t be confused with acoustic guitar lessons on techniques that are intentionally more precise.

Strumming is usually a very style of guitar playing, but that isn’t the same as playing sloppy. The actual rhythm should still be precise, with the loose falling in the slight ability to hit or miss a couple of extra strings with each stroke. If the bottom three strings are targeted in a stroke, it is fine for only the bottom two sound, but if the stroke completely misses, then that should be taken as an indication that the playing is too sloppy.


Basic Strumming Pattern

The most basic strumming pattern used is the alteration of down and up strokes for eighth notes. From this basic pattern, a few different patterns can be made simply by leaving out some attacks in the guitar strumming pattern. Here are some examples:

The patterns shown in this acoustic guitar lesson can be played using any of the basic guitar chords. The focus should be on developing an even rhythm and consistent flow of guitar strokes.

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