6 Essential Guitar Strumming Patterns

6 Essential Guitar Strumming Patterns

Before strumming on a guitar, we should first learn to keep time. The most basic time signature is 4/4, which means 4 quarter note beats in each bar. In this lesson, the 6 essential strumming patterns we’ll be looking at are quarter note and eighth note patterns.

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 silent strum

Pattern 1 — D/D/D/D

Pattern 1 — D/D/D/D

Let’s count numbers up till four by saying out loud or tapping your left foot. Every time you count a number, strum the guitar in a downward direction. Once you hit four, go back to one and repeat the whole process all over again.

It may seem easy, but the point is you have to watch your timing and keep all the quarter notes evenly spaced. You may get a metronome and check if you strum the guitar at every click.

Pattern 2 — U/U/U/U

Pattern 2 — U/U/U/U

This time, instead of going down with each beat, we will strum the guitar in an upward direction. When you do an upstroke strum, you can decide whether to hit all the strings or only the top three or four strings.

If this seems too easy for you, try to work on your dynamic control also. See if you can do it really soft, and then a bit louder and getting really loud at the end.

Pattern 3 — D/U/D/U

Pattern 3 — D/U/D/U

Now we’re going to combine downstrokes and upstrokes. A downstroke on the first beat, an upstroke on the second, another down on the third and an upstroke on the fourth. Spend some time with this pattern as we’ll have it in a more advanced level later.

Pattern 4 — D/U/D/U/D/U/D/U

Pattern 4 — D/U/D/U/D/U/D/U

As you may be aware that we have moved on to counting 8 eighth note beats instead of 4 quarter note beats in a bar. To count eighth notes, just put an ‘and’ between each number. You would say out loud “1, and, 2, and, 3, and, 4, and”. I also want you to space out these notes as evenly as possible when you play.

When you are trying this pattern, make sure that your upstrokes sound louder than the downstrokes so that the patter sounds much more natural.

Pattern 5 — D/U/D/U/X/U/D/U

Pattern 5 — D/U/D/U/X/U/D/U

This pattern is a little bit different from the previous pattern—the downstroke on the third beat is changed into a silent strum. When you do a downstroke for the silent strum, continue moving as if you are striking the strings on the on the third beat without actually striking them.

Practice this pattern until you are able to master the art of not striking the strings. This will be very useful to the more advanced pattern that you will use.

Pattern 6 — D/X/D/U/X/U/D/X

Pattern 6 — D/X/D/U/X/U/D/X

Instead of removing one stroke, we’re removing three strokes. So, you will have to glide over the strings not once but three times—on the ‘and’ after 1, on the third beat and the last ‘and’. Probably, the ‘and’ following 4 will take plenty of practice time.

Now, you may feel free to pick out a pattern that suits your favorite songs the most. In fact, other than the above 6 essential strumming patterns to learn, there are countless patterns left undiscussed. Let’s get the basic down perfectly before proceeding to other more advanced ones. Work hard now and it’ll pay off later!

Strumming Tips

  1. Hold the guitar properly, i.e., your right elbow should rest on the body of the guitar, giving your arm a complete range of motion over the strings.

  2. Play directly over the guitar’s sound hole (if you are using an acoustic guitar). Once you master a few strumming patterns, try playing closer to the bridge or the neck. Do you notice any changes in the pitch and ‘thickness’ of the produced sound? Strumming directly over the sound hold will create a thicker sound, while strumming closer to the bridge will give you a sharper, tinnier sound.

  3. Keep your wrist free and relaxed. The picking motion depends on the flexibility of the wrist, especially for more advanced rhythms. Practice playing with just a motion of the wrist without moving your arm.


Reference:
blog.udemy.com
www.guitarlessons.com