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. 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.

Abhinav on August 23, 2008 Subscribe via Mobile for Free

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7 Comments so far what's your take?

  1. [...] 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]

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