(14 votes, average: 4.21 out of 5)
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.
 |
Be the first to know! You can receive our guitar chords for free on your email inbox, with more latest songs from Bollywood. |
 |
SMS Alerts - Get headlines of latest chords and tabs on your mobile FREE! |
 |
Wanna know what I am currently doing? What my next song will be? Then follow my updates on Twitter! @abhinavsonkar |
More Guitar Songs
Guitar Lessons and Tutorials
- Lots of Guitar Strumming Patterns for Practice - Part 2
- 7 Reasons Why You Should Start Learning Guitar Right Now!
- Lots of Guitar Strumming Patterns for Practice - Part 1
- How to Read Guitar Notations: A Quick Guide
- Developing Your Ear - The Art of Listening !!
- 6 Tips on Changing Guitar Chords Effectively
Loading ...
[...] concluding post in the Guitar Strumming Pattern for Practice series. If you haven’t read the previous post, check it [...]
Reply to this comment
Reply to this comment
Reply to this comment
Reply to this comment
d=down
u=up
m=miss
c=chop
ddu,uc
dd,uu,c
dumumuc
Regards
Reply to this comment
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
Reply to this comment
Reply to this comment
Reply to this comment
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
Reply to this comment
Reply to this comment
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
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
Have a great day…!
Reply to this comment
Reply to this comment
Reply to this comment