Guitar Strumming Patterns
Learning open chords is a good starting point for playing accompaniment to many songs, and with mastering a number of guitar strumming patterns from this lesson you'll be able to get your rhythm guitar skills to the next level and to turn even simple chord progressions into sounding great accompaniment.
You don't necessarily need to learn all of them, just pick the ones you like and use them in your playing.
But remember:it's important to strum or pick the strings in the rhythmical manner keeping consistent strumming over different chords you play, you can use your foot to beat pulsation that will support the rhythm or use metronome or drum tracks for it.
To create the beat with your foot use the following counting:
- 1 – the foot knocks the floor. And - the foot lifts up,
- 2 – the foot knocks the floor. And - the foot lifts up,
- 3 – the foot knocks the floor. And - the foot lifts up,
- 4 – the foot knocks the floor. And - the foot lifts up
after the "4 - AND" go back to the "1 - AND - 2 - AND", and so on...
The pattern sounds better when played a bit loose on the strum up and the lower string is missing the stroking.
In order to perform the muted strums, put the edge of your strumming hand on the strings near the guitar bridge, so the strings should become muffled, and while remaining in this position strum the chord in the direction the white arrows indicate.
It's in some way similar to the palm mute technique but the muted strumming perceived more as a percussive effect and you don't have to strum all the strings for it.
To start playing songs more efficiently I recommend you these song lessons as they provide an integrated approach to learning (pro video lessons, interactive guitar tabs and other goodies) in a consistent way, controrary to picking random lessons here and there online.
More Advanced Patterns
In the wider strumming diagrams I included patterns that are two bars in length. That's why the count is repeated twice.
Note that some strums here are really short.
To remember this pattern more easily, identify the sequence:
- 2 regular, 1 muted strum - 5 times the same thing
- After the 5th time, add 1 extra muted strum (the pattern's end)
See that direction in which you strum is alternate during the whole piece.
Although the pattern looks simple, it might be challenging for beginner guitar players.
Pay attention that there are three strums per beat, each of them is to be played by the same amount of time.
This rhythmic formation is called triplet.
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