Beginners strum

lapua65

Hi all.

I'm not sure this will be easy to answer as my question may be a bit hard to decipher: I am working on my DDUUDU strum and know that the first 2 down should be in time with the metronome and the first up should be off beat. Is the second up strum on beat and then if so is the 3rd down off beat or on beat? I am getting very confused and trying to deal with that and keep to any beat is proving a little hard. I've tried youtube but they are going at 120BPM and I can't make out the pattern to metronome. 

stickyfiddle

Seems to be basically this, which looks quite clear.



I have to say I don't recall ever consciously using that strum pattern in a song. This reddit post is quite a good summary of how to think about strum patterns. The important thing is to learn to listen and apply what you're hearing.

To figure out strum pattern all by yourself you have to develop your rhythmic sense, since music happens over time. I'll help you channelize your inner percussionist and teach you how to count up to 4 in several ways.

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What is rhythm?

Sounds have different durations and are separated of each other in certain ways. This property is called rhythm. Here's an excellent Ted-Ed video on visualizing rhythms & beats.

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How to figure out rhythms

• The 4/4 time signature is very common in western music. It basically is four beats of quarter notes. Let's count: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 . . . Each beat has the same duration.

• Let's apply this to the real world. Go to your preferred audio streaming program/app/website and play any song you want. Listen carefully to it.

• You may feel an underlying beat. 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 . . . Tap your feet to this beat. Keep listening.

• You may notice that there is more happening. With your hands try to hit your knee -from the leg that is tapping to the underlying beat- to the extra beats. At first you will find this difficult but it gets easier.

Some songs to exercise (you can move to the next song when you feel you have the rhythm of the current song). I'll cover lots of genres, just to develop your rhythmic sense: pop ballad, upbeat rock, grunge, pop, R&B, funk, swing, cumbia, salsa, surf, rocknroll . . .

With some practice you will be able to figure out within seconds the rhythm of any song you listen to. Keep practicing!

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Moving rhythm to guitar

Strumming involves two movements, downwards and upwards. Let's mix time signatures and strummin direction. The simplest way is one quarter beats with only downward strums. Practice your strumming patterns while muting the strings with your fretting hand.

  1   2   3   4   1   2   3   4
|-▼---▼---▼---▼-|-▼---▼---▼---▼-|

Practice this strumming pattern until you don't miss for a whole minute. I totally recommend timing your practice. When you're done move to the next strumming pattern.

Quarter notes and only downward strums aren't very vibrant. If we try a faster note duration, eight notes, maybe things will change. In a 4/4 time, you can stack eight beats of eight notes. To count with eighth notes you add a "&" between numbers. You will also add upward strums at every "&":

  1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &   1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
|-▼-▲-▼-▲-▼-▲-▼-▲-|-▼-▲-▼-▲-▼-▲-▼-▲-|

You can notice immediately how it changes the feeling of the rhythm.

To move on let's try some combinations with quarter and eighth notes! How about: Quarter, eighth, eighth, quarter, eighth, eighth? Remember, 1 quarter note = 2 eighth notes.

  1   2 & 3   4 &   1   2 & 3   4 & 
|-▼---▼-▲-▼---▼-▲-|-▼---▼-▲-▼---▼-▲-|

Now try: Eighth, eighth, quarter, eighth, eighth, quarter. Remember: Numbers are downwards, &'s are upwards.

  1 & 2   3 & 4     1 & 2   3 & 4   
|-▼-▲-▼---▼-▲-▼---|-▼-▲-▼---▼-▲-▼---|

Create any rhythm you want using only quarter and eight notes. For now, keep inside a 4/4 framework.

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Note duration

In music we have different note durations:

Slow.

• Whole: 4 beats (a full 4/4 measure).

• Half: 2 beats. 1 whole = 2 halves.

Most common and versatile.

• Quarter: 1 beat. 1 half = 2 quarters.

• Eighth: 1/2 beat. 1 quarter = 2 eighths.

• Sixteenth: 1/4 beat. 1 eighth = 2 sixteenths.

So fast they aren't common at all.

• 32th: 1/8 beat. 1 sixteenth = 2 32ths.

• 64th: 1/16 beat. 1 32th = 2 64ths.

Create new rhythms using durations from whole to sixteenth. To stack 16th notes you count like this: 1 & & & 2 & & & 3 & & & 4 & & &

For example:

  1       2       3   &   4 & & &
|-▼-------▼-------▼---▲---▼-▲-▼-▲-|

Write lots of rhythms, focus on accentuating either the 1 and 3 or the 2 and 4 beats. Remember: Mute your strings while you practice, numbers are downwards, &s are upwards.

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Emulating a drum set

Finally, you can subdivide the strings of your guitar: Lower three and higher three. Try what Paul Gilbert shows at the beginning of this video -ignore the rest, I just wanted to show you how to subdivide. Couple your rhythms with the subdivision of strings and voila! Now you have all the skills required to strum any song you want!

Keep on rockin'!

Lestratcaster

I can't stand people who use the DU DU count for strumming, there's no indication of what beat of the bar you're on so when you count yourself 1,2,3,4 in time with the click its harder.

That pattern to me is 1, 2 + 3 (as a tied beat) + 4 +. Basically on the tied beat miss the strings on the way down and then touch the strings on the way back up for the + 4 +. All the numbers are downstrums with the +'s up's so you will get alternating strums for some of them.

lapua65

Thanks stickyfiddle. That's a video I didn't see. Answers my question.

BlueStrat

Justin Guitar has a great dvd called Useful Strumming Patterns which i found really helpful teaching my lad

viz

1   &    2   &    3   &    4    &
D   -    D    U    -   U    D    U