Strumming Patterns for Beginners: Keep Your Hand Moving

You can know every chord in a song and still not sound like the song. The missing piece is usually the strumming hand. Nearly every pattern you'll meet is built on one simple motion, and once that motion is steady, a new pattern stops being a new thing to learn. It's the same swing with a few strums left out.

The motion comes first

Hold a chord you find easy, or rest your fretting hand lightly across all six strings so they're muted. Now swing your strumming hand down across the strings and back up, over and over, as evenly as you can. The movement comes from the forearm and a loose wrist, not from the shoulder. Hold the pick firmly enough that it stays put and loosely enough that it gives a little as it crosses the strings.

A down strum travels from the thickest string toward the thinnest. An up strum comes back the other way. You don't need to hit every string on the way up. Catching the three or four thinnest strings is normal, and it makes the up strums sound lighter than the downs, which is what you want.

Counting eighth notes

Most songs you'll strum are in 4/4 time: four beats to the bar, counted 1, 2, 3, 4. Split each beat in half and you get eighth notes, counted 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and. Tap your foot on the numbers.

Here's the rule that makes strumming simple: your hand goes down on the numbers and up on the "ands". Every bar, every pattern.

Down on the numbers, up on the ands. A pattern is only a choice of which strums touch the strings.

Five patterns to learn in order

In the strips below, D is a down strum and U is an up strum. A blank space means your hand still makes the movement but passes clear of the strings. Count out loud while you play. It feels awkward for a day or two and then it stops.

1. Four downs

One down strum on each beat. Your hand comes back up between them without touching anything. Those silent ups are where the habit of constant motion begins, so don't skip them by pausing at the bottom.

2. Straight eighths

Every down and every up. Keep the ups lighter than the downs and keep the spacing even. This is the full motion with nothing left out, and every other pattern is carved from it.

3. Down, down-up

Count it "1, 2 and, 3, 4 and". The ups after beats 2 and 4 give the bar a lift without making it busy. It suits slow and medium songs well.

4. Leaving out the down on 3

Count it "1, 2 and, and 4 and". Your hand goes down on beat 3 as it always does, but it misses the strings on purpose, then catches them on the way back up. That gap in the middle is what gives the pattern its bounce. It's one of the most familiar strums in acoustic music.

5. A pattern for 3/4 time

Some songs have three beats to the bar instead of four. The rule doesn't change: down on the numbers, up on the ands. Count "1, 2 and, 3 and" and lean a little on beat 1.

Missed strums are still strums

Patterns with gaps go wrong when the hand stops and waits for the next strum. Don't let it. Keep the swing going and move your hand a fraction away from the strings for the silent ones. Your strumming hand is the clock. If it keeps moving at an even pace, the rhythm takes care of itself. If it freezes, you have to guess when to start again, and the guess is usually early.

When a pattern falls apart, go back to straight eighths for a bar or two. Then start leaving strums out again without changing the motion at all.

Changing chords without stopping

The strumming hand doesn't wait for the fretting hand. Start moving to the next chord during the last up strum of the bar. That strum will catch some open strings while your fingers are in the air, and that's fine. It's a normal part of how strummed guitar sounds, and it's far less noticeable than a pause.

If the change still arrives late, slow down, or drop back to four downs until the new chord lands on beat 1 every time. There's more on this in how to practice chord changes.

How to practice a pattern

1. Mute the strings with your fretting hand and strum the pattern while counting out loud. Rhythm only, no chord to think about.
2. Add one chord and loop the pattern until you can stop counting and it stays even.
3. Put a metronome on at a slow tempo, one click per beat, and keep your down strums on the click. The metronome article covers how to choose a tempo.
4. Add a chord change at the start of every bar.
5. Raise the tempo a few BPM at a time, and only when the current tempo is easy.

Common problems

• A stiff arm. If your shoulder is doing the work, the strum will be heavy and slow. Shake your hand out and let the wrist stay loose.
• The hand stops on the gaps. Go back to straight eighths, then remove one strum at a time.
• Up strums as loud as down strums. Aim the ups at the thinner strings only and let the pick brush them.
• The pick turns or flies out. You're either gripping too loosely or digging too deep. Let only the tip of the pick cross the strings.
• Speeding up. Almost everyone rushes once a pattern starts to feel good. A click will tell you.

Once these five are comfortable, put on a song you're learning and count "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and" along with it. Listen for which strums you can hear and which ones are missing. Often it's one of the patterns above with a single strum added or taken away, and your hand already knows the rest.