Strumming patterns – free guitar course

Strumming turns the guitar into a tuned percussion instrument. Everything rests on a constant pendulum in the strumming hand: down on the beats, up on the “ands”. You then choose when to hit the strings and when to miss them.

Four essential patterns (in 4/4)

Name	1	and	2	and	3	and	4	and
Quarters	D		D		D		D
Eighths	D	U	D	U	D	U	D	U
Pop	D		D	U		U	D	U
Waltz (3/4)	D		D	U	D	U

D = down, U = up. The “pop” pattern (down, down-up, -up, down-up) is the most common in popular music. The tricky part: on beat 3 the hand moves down without hitting the strings.

M:4/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=76
K:G clef=treble-8
"G"[G,B,DGBg]2 [G,B,DGBg] [G,B,DGBg]- [G,B,DGBg] [G,B,DGBg] [G,B,DGBg] [G,B,DGBg] | "D"[DAd^f]2 [DAd^f] [DAd^f]- [DAd^f] [DAd^f] [DAd^f] [DAd^f] | "Em"[E,B,EGBe]2 [E,B,EGBe] [E,B,EGBe]- [E,B,EGBe] [E,B,EGBe] [E,B,EGBe] [E,B,EGBe] | "C"[CEGce]2 [CEGce] [CEGce]- [CEGce] [CEGce] [CEGce] [CEGce] |]

Strumming well

The motion comes from the wrist and forearm, as if shaking water off your fingers.
On downstrokes aim at the bass strings; on upstrokes catch only the top 3 or 4 strings.
Slightly accent beats 2 and 4 for a pop/rock groove.

Without a pick, strum down with the back of the index fingernail and up with the pad of the thumb or index finger.