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Aug 23

Lots of Guitar Strumming Patterns for Practice – Part 1

Guitar Lessons and Tutorials
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Guitar Strumming Patterns

Strumming Patterns – Part 1

I had been receiving a lot of comments and requests for various strumming patterns to practice apart from chords. Many people find it difficult to grasp the strumming pattern just by listening to the song. For them this list will be quite useful.

I got it from my guitar teacher long time back and it helped me practice strumming a lot even though I don’t remember most of them!

While practicing, keep a few things in mind:

  • Your right hand movement should be from the elbow only in a cyclic manner and it should be identical for every strumming pattern. Whether you are playing the simple March or stylish Rock, to a viewer, your hand must move up and down in a symmetrical way in each case.
  • Tap your foot to keep count of the bars as the pattern becomes complicated.
  • Practice each strumming pattern four times.
  • You need not remember each pattern in the list given below. It is for your practice!
  • Enjoy!

How to read Strumming Pattern?

^ – Down Stroke
v – Up Stroke
Simple Duple (2/4) – 2 beats to a bar.
Simple Triple (3/4) – 3 beats to a bar.
Simple Quadraple (4/4) – 4 beats to a bar.
The comma (,) is used here to differentiate between the separate beats contained in the bar of the pattern.

      MARCH

      (2/4) | ^ , v ||

      FOX-TROT

      (2/4) | ^ , ^v ||

      TANGO

      (2/4) | ^^-v , ^^ ||

      POLKA

      (2/4) | ^-^v , ^^ ||

      WALTZ

      (3/4) | ^ , ^ , ^ || OR | ^ , v , v ||

      FANDANGO

      (3/4) | ^ , ^v , ^ ||

      SARRABANDE

      (3/4) | ^ , ^ , -v | ^ , ^ , – ||

      SOUL

      (4/4) | ^ , ^-^v , ^v , ^v ||

      BOLERO

      (4/4) | ^v , ^ , ^v , ^ ||

      RHYMBA

      (4/4) | ^^ , -^ , ^v , ^v ||

      SWING

      (4/4) | ^v , ^v , ^ , v ||

      ROCK

      (4/4) | ^–v , ^–v , ^–v , ^–v ||


If you know more strumming patterns, do let me know in the comments and I will add it here. Keep watching for the concluding part 2 of the series!

Update: Lots of Guitar Strumming Patterns for Practice – Part 2

If you enjoyed the post, you can check out the complete song-chord list. Having difficulty understanding guitar notations above? Check out this Quick Guide to clear all your doubts. If you are a professional musician or a good guitarist and want to share your skills with everybody else, you can join the blog as a Regular Contributor.

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18 Comments so far what's your take?

  1. Lots of Guitar Strumming Patterns for Practice - Part 2 | Abhinav Sonkar's Blog Says August 27, 2008 7:54 pm

    [...] concluding post in the Guitar Strumming Pattern for Practice series. If you haven’t read the previous post, check it [...]

  2. Prashant Says September 1, 2008 11:12 pm

    If u can please provide the mp3 samples as well so we can time these strumming patterns.

    Reply to this comment

  3. Prashant Says September 1, 2008 11:20 pm

    please also check the up and down notation i think u have written otherwise

    Reply to this comment

  4. Abhinav Says September 2, 2008 4:37 pm

    That’s a good suggestion. I will look into it Prashant. By the way, the notations are right. They seem vice-versa but I have followed the standard notation.

    Reply to this comment

  5. Chinmay Says October 25, 2008 6:40 pm

    Abhinav rocks!!

    Reply to this comment

  6. MSubKh Says November 18, 2008 12:18 am

    Hi,

    d=down
    u=up
    m=miss
    c=chop

    ddu,uc
    dd,uu,c
    dumumuc

    Regards

    Reply to this comment

  7. Anuradha Pawar Says November 19, 2008 6:23 pm

    hi dat was nice but u no wat listenin to strummin patterns along wid readin will help a lot to begnners like me
    i no the chords for tum ho toh(thnks again 4 dat)
    but wats d strumming pattern is it amongst the Lots of Guitar Strumming Patterns for Practice – Part 1n2?????
    plz do reply
    thank u……

    Reply to this comment

  8. Nick van man Says December 19, 2008 2:37 am

    Great strumming patterns is syncopation missing a down stroke?

    Reply to this comment

  9. Removals in Leeds Says June 17, 2009 9:29 pm

    please also check the up and down notation i think u have written otherwise

    Reply to this comment

  10. Remvals Leeds Says June 17, 2009 9:36 pm

    I ll do the same then :)

    Reply to this comment

  11. Sameer Oak Says July 30, 2009 8:10 pm

    Hello Abhinav,

    Good to see your site. But I failed to find content for a very naive user. Some of them are as below:
    1> What each cord called as?
    2> How to practice each cord?
    3> How to hold plectrum?

    If you can please arrange the contents in more organized manner, it’d be very much helpful for the naive guitarists like me.

    Thank you,
    - sameer oak.

    Reply to this comment

  12. aditya Says August 26, 2009 7:51 pm

    hi abhinav. i m a beginner in guitar, i liked ur previous posts very much..but can u pls tell me about simple duple etc. i cant understand it. can u give me a tutorial video…….

    Reply to this comment

  13. kapil Says November 28, 2009 9:31 am

    hey can u explain this 2/4, 3/4 , 4/4.. beat what basically this r

    Reply to this comment

  14. tanveer khan Says December 2, 2009 7:26 am

    hiii frnd thanx for these chords…..

    dear frnd in my city there is not good guitar’s tutar they dont know about many rithems of guitar its better if u write rithem name also after chords plzzz
    and send some rythem pattern plz so i can play guitar i know only 4 or 5 pattern plz send thanx..

    gh

    Reply to this comment

  15. Soham Says December 20, 2009 9:48 am

    I cannot understand what you telling bars…
    i know the bar system to play chords linke Fmajor. but i cannot understand what you telling about bar count.
    plz tell me…

    Reply to this comment

  16. Dilip Sahoo Says December 26, 2009 11:17 pm

    Hi Abhinav, Thanks for all your upload. It would be great if you can add some example MP3 or WMV files to all strumming pattern. So that we can relate time signature and bits to the strumming pattern.

    Have a great day…!

    Reply to this comment

  17. sajan Says January 14, 2010 3:14 pm

    what do u mean by 2 beats to a bar?

    Reply to this comment

  18. Ramesh Says January 24, 2010 7:53 am

    Can you tell me on shifting chords..

    Reply to this comment

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