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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
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[...] concluding post in the Guitar Strumming Pattern for Practice series. If you haven’t read the previous post, check it [...]
d=down
u=up
m=miss
c=chop
ddu,uc
dd,uu,c
dumumuc
Regards
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……
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.
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
i know the bar system to play chords linke Fmajor. but i cannot understand what you telling about bar count.
plz tell me…
Have a great day…!
on the days that you do not have enought time to pull out the guitar? also i real like your guitar
chords information page on strumming. thanks , Donna from north little rock arkansas.
I have a lot more to say on this. Probably should write a post on this topic.
wt is tha CHOP & MISS plzzzzzzzzzz tell me.
^ – Downstroke
* – Upstroke
X – Mute Strings
R – Rest
C – Chord
[^ *^^ *^^* ^ *]
[C XXC XXCC C X]
……………..