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- Try This: Take your favourite chord and strum it. Try to keep the time between each chord as even and consistent as possible. Now, pick up speed and count ‘1-2-3-4’ out loud as you play. As you count out loud, you may notice your playing begin to even out a bit. You can add in some toe-tapping to keep the pulse of the rhythm.
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Jan 31, 2024 · We break down three essential strumming patterns that every guitarist should be able to play as well as general tips like how to strum a guitar, changing chords while keeping the strumming going and some tricks to improve your rhythm.
- Learn to Strum Your Way to Perfect Rhythm! - Good Guitarist
ESSENTIAL exercise for steady rhythm. Start with a basic...
- Learn to Strum Your Way to Perfect Rhythm! - Good Guitarist
- 2 min
- Strum Pattern #1 Downstrum on every beat. When strumming a guitar, you’ll use both downstrums (i.e. where your strumming hand moves down) and upstrums (where your strumming hand moves back up).
- Strum Pattern #2 Adding two upstrums. Now that you’ve gotten a basic feel for this strumming thing, the next step is to start adding some upstrums. Here’s a pattern that's similar to the first pattern we saw, but with two upstrums added in.
- Strum Pattern #3 Adding three upstrums. This next pattern is similar to the last one. We'll add in just one more upstrum. See if you can hear it in this song.
- Strum Pattern #4 Downstrum on the downbeat, Upstrum on the upbeat. You might have noticed a certain logic in when we’re playing downstrums and when we’re playing upstrums: all the downstrums are on what we call ’the downbeat’: on the 1, 2, 3 or 4.
- The 4-Beat Downstrokes
- Add Two Upstrokes
- Add Three Upstrokes
- Downstroke on Downbeat, Upstroke on Upbeat
- Skip One Downstroke
- Skip An Upstroke & Downstroke
- The Pattern with A Long Pause
- Ultimate Strum Pattern
- Indie Rock Strum Pattern
- Modern Strumming
Difficulty Level:Easy This is a really simple strumming part that is great for beginners. Since it’s so easy, it’s perfect for building your sense of timing and gaining confidence to move onto more complex strumming styles later. How To Play:As you can see on the chart up there, you will be playing a downstroke (move your strumming hand down the st...
Difficulty Level:Intermediate Once you get the hang of the 4-beat downstroke, let’s add some upstrokes to the mix, shall we? This one is slightly trickier to play compared to the first strumming style. But, if you pay attention to the chart, you’ll be fine. This pattern is widely used by alternative rock bands, so this style will be quite useful if...
Difficulty Level:Intermediate Once you’ve mastered adding two upstrokes into your pattern, let’s add another up to make it a total of three upstrokes into this strumming style! This 3 – upstroke strumming style is quite a versatile strumming style that can be used to play a variety of songs. Depending on how fast or slow you play this strumming pat...
Difficulty Level:Easy By now, you may have figured out that we are playing all the downstrokes on what we can call the ‘downbeat’ – on the 1,2,3, and 4. Meanwhile, the upstrokes are being played on what we call ‘the and’, or the ‘upbeat’ – in the space between 1,2,3, and 4 – always on the ‘and’. This particular strumming pattern is pretty easy to p...
Difficulty Level:Medium to Advanced If you practice the strumming patterns we’ve shared so far, you’ll get a great command over playing upstrokes and downstrokes continuously. Now, to round up your basic strumming technique and make it rock solid, let’s teach you something slightly tricky. The patterns we shared so far have not required you to play...
Difficulty Level:Medium to Advanced This pattern has the same challenge as the previous one, with an added twist. We are not only skipping a downstroke, but also an upstroke. So this one might be slightly more challenging than the previous one, but you’ll be happy you learned it! It’s quite versatile and can be used to play a wide variety of songs ...
Difficulty Level:Advanced Let’s take your strumming prowess one step further with this pattern. So far, all our patterns have required you to only skip one count or eighth note. But with this pattern, you’ll be skipping a whole quarter note – or two eighth notes. Such a strumming rhythm might not seem intuitive in the beginning. But don’t worry, we...
Difficulty Level:Medium to Advanced There is a good reason why this pattern is nicknamed the ‘ultimate strum pattern’. It’s because it can practically be played with any chord progression, and is interesting enough to add a nice dimension to the track. How To Play:As you can see from the chart above, this pattern requires you to skip one upstroke a...
Difficulty Level:Advanced This is a classic strumming pattern that’s widely used by indie rock bands for their tracks – such as ‘Save Tonight’ by Eagle Eye Cherry and ‘D’You Know What I Mean?’ By Oasis. This strumming pattern is where you need to use your knowledge of 16th notes, so we have broken each stroke and pause down to 16 notes now. You’ll ...
Difficulty Level:Advanced So we are at the very end of our list, and we’re finishing up the list with the most advanced and trickiest strumming pattern to play out of all the rhythms shared here! Just like in the indie rock strum pattern, this guitar pattern also requires you to have a rock-solid knowledge of how to play quarter, eighth and sixteen...
Sep 9, 2022 · Guitar strumming patterns: 5 ways to improve your rhythm playing. Tuition. By Simon Barnard. ( Guitar Techniques ) published 9 September 2022. It's time to take your rhythm guitar chops to the woodshed with this lesson in the most fundamentally important technique in guitar.
- Simon Barnard
Apr 6, 2023 · ESSENTIAL exercise for steady rhythm. Start with a basic four-count rhythm. Strum each chord 4 times, starting with a downstroke on the first count and then alternating between downstrokes and upstrokes. Start slowly and gradually increase the tempo as you get more comfortable with the rhythm.
Learn how to strum a guitar properly and master the most important guitar rhythm and strumming patterns in our full guide today!
Sections. Here are six things you can do immediately to improve your tone and sound like a pro when you strum: 1. Move From the Wrist. Most of the motion should be coming from your wrist. Strum a chord and look to see if this is happening.
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