Strumming the Guitar
For many beginners, once they know how to form a few chords, strumming the guitar is the fastest way to learn new songs. In fact, just strumming the guitar might be all some want to learn. When you can strum the guitar, you can play just about any song well enough to sing to your self or for a group. Many songs sung at camps and in family gatherings
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The key to strumming the guitar is to learn the strumming patterns that occur in most songs. In other words, you
want to learn the motions to repeat as you play through a song. The pattern you want to play will often vary from song to song, and once you feel more comfortable with playing a song, you can even vary up the pattern within a song.
The Strokes
Strumming the guitar is made up of two strokes. The main stroke is the down stroke. With the down stroke, you start playing with the root note of the chord. This is almost always the letter of the chord. The exception to this is when you add the bass string of another note. For example, the A chord usually begins on the A string, unless you are playing a chord that adds the bass E. The second stroke, then, is the upstroke. In the upstroke, you start playing at the bottom string and play upwards.
Basic Pattern
The most basic pattern for a song depends on what the time signature is. Most often, you will be working with 4/4 or 3/4 time. Remember that the bottom 4 indicates that the quarter note gets the beat and the top number tells you how many beats in a measure.
The simplest pattern in strumming the guitar, then, would be for 4/4 time. That would be a straight Down, up , down, up. Now, you can do this with a down stroke for beats one and 3 and up stroke for beats 2 and 4. However, an easier way to think of this particular pattern would be down for the first half a beat and up for the second half. Think ONE and TWO and THREE and FOUR and, with the stroke down on the beat and the stroke up on the and.
The simplest pattern to strumming the guitar in a 3/4 would be a down stroke on one and upstrokes on beats 2 and 3. An easy way to remember this is that waltzes are often done in 3/4 time and you make the biggest move in a waltz on the 1 beat with two minor moves in between. However, you can also do this one in the ONE and TWO and THREE and method like above simply by placing more of an emphasis on the down stroke of the first beat.
Easy Variations
An easy variation off of either of the two above patterns in the “ONE and” versions is to leave of an “and”. In a 4/4 time signature, this might give you a Down up down space down up down space. In a 3/4, you might see down up down up down space. That space will help emphasize the next down stroke.
Another common variation in strumming the guitar would be down down up up down. This is a pattern that can often be used in a 4/4 time signature. I use this particular pattern a lot in a variety of situations, so this would definitely be a good one to remember.
The most important thing to remember when it comes to strumming the guitar is to do what ever feels natural. Certain songs will have you using one of these basic patterns, but have part in the chorus somewhere that it makes sense to vary that pattern. Maybe you’ve heard others play it that way or for some reason it feels natural. If so, go with that. Strumming is one part that is up to the person playing, though if you are playing with a group of strumming guitarist, it does help if you are all strumming the same pattern. Some songs may have a suggested pattern. If so, especially until you get used to feeling one out for yourself, go with that pattern. Otherwise, try one of these and see if the song works for you.
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