5 Essential Strumming Patterns – Pop Music

Remember the last 6 basic strumming patterns we have looked into? This time, we are going to learn 5 strumming patterns commonly used in pop music!

Before we actually move on to these 5 strumming patterns, let’s do some recap on the last lesson. Last time, the strumming patterns we have covered are quarter note and eighth note patterns. Do you still remember how to count 8 eighth note beats? That’s to put an ‘and’ between numbers 1, 2, 3 & 4. When we are counting the eight notes patterns covered in this lesson, you can say out loud “1, and, 2, and, 3, and, 4, and.” One tip for this would be to space out these notes as evenly as possible when you play.

Again, for easy understanding, we’ll use the following abbreviations for some common terms:

D for a downstroke and
U for an upstroke
X for a muted strum
XD for a muted downstroke
– for a rest

Have fun!

Pattern 1 – D/D/D/D/D/D/D/D

Let’s count “1, and, 2, and, 3, and, 4, and” by saying out loud or tapping your left foot. Every time you count a number or an “and”, strum the guitar in a downward direction. While this pattern may seem easy, don’t discount it, because it’s important as a guitar player to do simple things really well. Grab a metronome to double check if you are counting it right. It will be great if you can develop your timing through this exercise.

Pattern 2 – D/U/D/U/D/U/D/U

Instead of the previous all downstroke pattern, we are using alternating downstrokes and upstrokes. As you count the beats, the numbers are downstrokes and the “and”s will be upstrokes. This will be the foundation for all the other patterns we’re going over in this lesson.

I hope you still remember the tip for an alternating strumming—when you do a downstroke strum, hit all the strings if it’s a six-string chord, however, when you strum an upstroke, you can decide whether to hit all the strings or only the top three or four strings.

Pattern 3 – D/U/XD/U/D/U/XD/U

Though the third pattern is similar to the second one, we are going to learn a new technique called a muted strum anyway. When you do a downstroke for the muted strum (muted downstroke), you’re going to let off the pressure with your fretting hand a little. Right before you strum through the strings, you’re going to mute the strings with the fleshy palm part of your strumming hand.

On beats two and four, you will use a muted downstroke. You can slow down the tempo a little bit if you need to, and don’t be afraid to dig into the guitar strings with the muted strum.

Pattern 4 – D/–/D/U/D/–/D/U

From now on, we will start to add in some rests. Strumming patterns 2 and 4 are alike. The only difference is that two eight notes in the latter are left out. They are the second and the third “and”s. When you are counting these two beats, keep the upward motion going without actually striking the strings. Counting out loud would help with doing this pattern right as you can keep track of where you are.

Pattern 5 – D/U/D/U/–/U/D/U

Now we’ve come to the fifth pattern. As you play this pattern, leave out the downstroke on beat three, but continue to make the downward motion.

Congrats to you for having gone through the five strumming patterns. Feel free to play these patterns and try to apply them to your favorite songs. Whoop it up!

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Reference:
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