Essential Acoustic Strumming Patterns and Techniques

1. About This Course: It's not an exaggeration to say that how well you've mastered your right hand strumming technique changes how you are as a guitarist and really brings your songs to life. So that's exactly what we're going to cover in this course. The essential techniques and strumming patterns to transform your playing. We're going to be looking at techniques like Split, Picking, root Rest, and Slap. Will also be looking at six different four Beat and three Beat strumming patterns and even how to count Beats in a Song. We'll talk about some more unique time signatures and some strumming patterns that those with each strumming pattern will include a song that that strumming pattern fits well with so that you can have examples of what we're doing out in the real-world. I'm really looking forward to going through all of these techniques with you. So let's get started. 2. How Strumming Patterns Work: Welcome to the first official lesson of this course. Now, let's quickly talk about how Strumming Patterns Work, the nuances of what we're about to do. And it's really important to start by mentioning that songs can be broken down and simplified into four beats or three Beats. Now, there are other options, but these are the most common two. And so these are the two that we're going to start with. Now, really simply all this means is that in a four Beat song, we count that song as 1234 groups of four, and it fits really well. A three Beat song is the same thing, but with three. So we would count songs as 123123 and it would fit perfectly. The reason that this is important is because there are four Beat strumming patterns and three Beat strumming patterns. And if we accidentally use one on the other, it can sound really bizarre. Seat strumming patterns use accents to point out certain Beats. Now, if we put a three Beat strumming pattern on a four Beat song, our accent lands in the wrong place and it ends up sounding really bizarre. And it changes every time we come around. So to make sure that our accents or are hits line up with the song that we're trying to Play. We want to understand 4.3 Beats. Well, there are also something called up Beats. These are when we sub-divide either four or three Beats and we use the word or the symbol. And so for example, in the three beats, we now have one and 2.3 and 1.2. These help us make more creative strumming patterns. So we're not just stuck with 12.3. Now, when we talk about all of the different strumming patterns in this course, we're going to talk about downstrokes and up strokes. Very simply, this is when we take our hand and we pick either down or up. When we write out strumming patterns will use D for down and you for up. So let's recap everything we've just talked about. Songs can be either for Beats or three Beats, and so can strumming patterns. So we want to make sure that these align up. We can sub-divide our Beats with the word and to make more creative strumming patterns. And when we write out strumming patterns, we're going to use D for down and you for up 3. Hear Beats in a Song: In the last lesson, we talked about how important it is to line up four Beat strumming patterns with four Beat songs and three Beat strumming patterns with three Beat songs. But to do that, we need to understand how to figure out if a song is for Beats or three Beats. And there are two really simple ways to do that. The first one is just to listen to a song and count. Try counting and clap along as well. So if we put on a song and we start clapping along, we have a pretty innate sense of where those claps should go. So now we can start counting. This song is a four Beat song. So if we start counting 1233, everything fits pretty well. But let's try accounting. 312-313-1312 are claps land in different places every other time. So that's going to help us figure out that this is a four Beat song. Let's listen to a three Beat song. Now over this three Beat song, let's count four BCE, 12 341-234-1234. Here, the hit of the song land on a different beat every single time. So that's one method is Clap along with the song and count. The other method is to listen to the drums of the song. Now this is similar to using our own clapping, but it uses our ear a little bit more than our hands. When we listened to drums, we can hear accented beats. That's going to help us figure out if the song is for Beats or three beats when we count along. For example, let's listen to these drugs. We can hear pretty clearly 12341234. And we can pick that out because of that loud hit. That's on 2.4. So either by clapping and counting or just by listening to the drums and figuring out where they're putting the hits. We can typically figure out if a song is for Beats and three beats. And that will inform us of which strumming patterns to use once we know them 4. Technique 1: Split Picking: Now let's start talking about some strumming pattern techniques. The first one we're going over is actually my personal favorite one to use. I would say I use it probably every time I Strum my guitar. And this is Split Picking. Now when we Strum down or when we Strum up, a lot of new guitarists tend to Strum all six strings every single time. So I'm going to transition from a G chord to a C chord. So let's try hitting all six strings at the same time for both chords. Okay, there's a lot there. It's like a wall of sound. Now, Split Picking takes the six strings of the guitar and splits them into a lower three and a higher three. Now, depending on which way we Strum, we're going to hit either the lower three or the higher three instead of all six at the same time. So back to the G chord. When I go down, I'm going to be hitting my first three strings. Now, obviously, we don't have to aim quite that precise, but we are going to make sure just to bring our hand up before we hit all six strings. Now, on the way up, I'm going to do the same exact thing, but for the three strings on top. That's going to transform the chord from this to this. As we Play faster and faster through the strumming patterns, that makes a really big difference. So here's a strumming pattern without the Split Picking. It's big, it's loud, and there are times to do it like that. But let's try it now with the Split, Picking. It splits up the sound more so it almost sounds like to guitar is going off instead of just one. So as we go through the strumming patterns together, we can do a blend of playing all six strings sometimes and practicing with the Split Picking 5. Technique 2: Root/Rest: Our second Strumming technique is very similar to Split Picking. In fact, I would say it's a type of Split Picking. But this time through, we're playing just the root note by itself. This technique is called root Rest. And the reason is we're playing the root note and then the rest of the strings. Now, we can do downstrokes for both of these. Something like this. If I'm playing a G, I'll play my root. And then the rest of the strings. Same thing for a C chord that starts on the fifth string. Or even a D chord that starts on the fourth string. Now, this technique is a little more old country. You might hear some Johnny Cash when we're playing through a chord progression using this technique. Now it can be really tricky to aim for just the root node and then the rest of the strings without the root note. But don't get discouraged. That's something that comes naturally. The more that we use. What we don't want to do is shy away from it because it's difficult because then we'll never learning. Now again, the chord progressions we look at the songs that we look at. They've gotten their own strumming pattern. But when you're feeling adventurous, try doing it with the rest method 6. Technique 3: Slap Mute: Now let's talk about Slap Mute. These are really important because they can take the same strumming pattern and change it entirely with a Mute. What we're doing for a Slap Mute is we're taking our Picking hand and we're actually just smacking the strings or a setting them down on the strings. Now, how does something like that change a chord progression or strumming pattern so drastically? Well, let's take a look. If I'm playing a chord progression without the Slap Mute, here's what it sounds like. Okay? Some of those chords you hear wring out nice and long. Maybe for the song, I don't want them to. So during that long wring out, I'm going to play my chord and then put my hand down. I'm going to use the side of my palm just to hit. Now, that's very different. It adds almost a percussive thing to it, which is nice when we don't have any drums playing with us. It's going to help your audience as well. If we're not using the Slap Mute method, the chords ring out and they listen, it's nice and you can kinda flow your head to it. But if we're muting like that and it adds kinda this percussive feel. You might get a little couple of people head bobbing in there while they listen. So again, without the Slap Mute or width 7. 4 Beat: Downstrums: Our first strumming pattern is the easiest one will go through together. And that's just Downstrums on 123.4. Now when we first start learning chords, we may just play them once and then move forward to the next chord. So this is the next step up from that. So as we listened to a song and clap along and we count 1234, well, now it's time to Strum a chord for each one of those counts. So something like this, 1234234. Now with such a simple strumming pattern, this might be a great one to practice the previous techniques we talked about, like the root Rest method, 234-12-3412. Now a Song example that you can look up in practice. The chords with the strumming pattern is blowing in the wind by Bob Dylan. Now, you may notice in that song, sometimes a chord lasts for four beats. Sometimes it lasts for two beats, sometimes it lasts for six Beats. Well, remember in songs that chords last for different timings, but the strumming patterns stays the same. For example, let's practice D to a. Now, my D is going to last for two beats, and my a is going to last for two beats. But together they're going to take up four beats, which is how long the strumming pattern is 8. 4 Beat: Basic Rock Strum: Let's learn the Basic Rock Strum. This fits well with rock music, which makes sense because if it's name, now for this one, we're going to Strum down, down, down, up. Now this is the first time we've gone up. So we're playing down, down, down, up. The way that this works over the four beats is we're playing on one or playing on three. And then a quick down-up on for something like this. So let's practice this strumming pattern together. We'll do it really slow and will play C to a minor, to G to E minor. So here's our strumming pattern. 1, 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4, 1, 2 3, 1 more time. I want to 341, 234-123-4123. A great song to practice this width are the chords for Wonderwall 9. 4 Beat: Calypso Beat: Number three is our Calypso Strum. Now, this one is kind of your classic reggae Strum pattern. And we're hammering this on 2.4. Now on the two, we're going to play a quick down, up. And we're actually going to use that muting method we talked about where we stop the strings. Now, we're going to do the same exact thing on Beat number four. So that's 1234123. So we're coming down, up and then muting with our palm. So let's try this together, nice and slow. And we'll go from an a minor to a c123, 4123, 4123, 4123, 4123? 10. 4 Beat: Island Strum: Our fourth strumming pattern is a Hawaiian Islands Music strumming pattern. Now, for this one, we're going to go down, up, up, down, up. And we're definitely going to use the, and in this strumming pattern, 1.2 and 3.4. And so here's what this sounds like. 1.2 and 3.4 and 1234. Slow that down a little bit. 1.2 and 3.4 and 12 and 3.4. And this is another one where we're going to use the Mute right here, 1.2 and 3.4. And so it's on that up, right after the down, down, up, up, down, up, Up, down, up. Now we can try this together with a chord progression for this one, Let's do D to a to C to g12, 341-23-4123, 412-34-1234. A great song to practice. This strumming pattern over is somewhere over the rainbow by Israel 11. 4 Beat: Pop Ballad Strum: Let's talk about a Pop Ballad Strum. Now, this one we're playing to downstrokes. Upstrokes. Two downstrokes to upstrokes. So 123.4, something like this. 131234, areas, a little bit of a Swing in there. You'll notice the first hit, the first down, first up, first-in, first-out, our landing directly on the numbers. So let's go ahead and practice this together, nice and slow. This time. Let's try playing between G, C, D, and back to G. So 123-41-2312, 341-23-4123. Great song to practice this width would be Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah 12. 4 Beat: Country Waltz Strum: Next we have a Country Waltz Strum. And as you can imagine, this is good for Country music. This one really simply goes down, up, down, down, up, down. So something a little bit like this. Now this fits into to Beats, so we play it twice over our four Beat strumming pattern. 12,341.2, 3.4. We can try that together. Maybe from D to a minor to C to d12 3 412-341-2341. More time. A great song to practice this one width is cold, cold heart by Hank Williams or anything by Hank Williams for that matter. Now, there are two things that does strumming pattern is really good for. This strumming pattern is great for changing bass root notes and walking bass lines. So for example, I'll do both. I'll play a D chord and I'll change my bass note. And then I'll walk it up as well. 13. 4 Beat: Default Standard: Next is our standard for, for Strumming Beat. This should be the default if you're not sure what to do. This one goes down, down, up, up, down, up. And I like to break it into two different sections. The first one being down, down, up, and then the next one up, down, up. So here's how we play this. Down, down, up, down 12 and 3.4. And now let's try playing this together, moving just between E minor and a. 1234, 1234, 1231, 2343, down, down, up, down. Now as for a song that you can play this width, it's really versatile. You can practice it over any of your favorite songs that you've discovered from counting and clapping are four beats for us together. Let's try another chord progression may be G, C, D, and E minor. If I had to go through this list and pick only one strumming pattern that I would want you to leave this course knowing. This would be the one, this is your standard, your bread and butter. So we'll work on this one and next, let's take a look at some strumming patterns for three Beats. 14. 4 Beat: Blues Shuffle: Now for our first three Beat strumming pattern, we're going to take our three Beats and put a down on each of them. But for the last one will also include an up, down, down, down, up, down, down, down, up, something like this. So let's practice this together using that exact chord pattern will move from D to G. Nice and slow. So grab your guitar and will play together. 123-123-3123. Now, a great song to practice this one width is iris by the goo goo dolls 15. 4 Beat: Swing Strum: Our next strumming pattern is more of a Swing Strum, where we're going down and up on the first and third Beat, something like this. 1231231 and 2.3. Let's try this with a chord progression going from D to a. Together. 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2. A great song for this one. It's pretty easy strumming pattern, right? Nice and short video. A grade song for this one is down the valley by Johnny Cash 16. 3 Beat: One Rest Rest: This strumming pattern is one of the ones I always teach my students. Now on 12.3, we have downstrokes, but we're going to very intentionally play the root node and then the rest of the chord onto and three. So if I'm playing a C chord, going to be breaking it up as root on one. And then 23123123. So let's try aiming with our right hand a little bit and we'll do this going between C and g12, 31 231-231-2312. A great song to practice, this strumming pattern would be something like Piano Man by Billy Joel. 17. 3 Beat: Ballad Strum: Let's take a look at another 34 Ballad song. It's good for slower songs. This one is down, down, up, down. So the fast part is in the middle here. And we can practice this together, maybe from an a minor to a C, something like this, and then we'll play it together. So together, nice and slow. 12, 312-312-3123. Now, that's another easy strumming pattern. A great song to go practice this one with, is my favorite things from the Sound of Music 18. 3 Beat: Default Standard: Now this one is your standard three Beat strumming pattern. Here we go down, up, down, up. It's really easy to flip it. And it kinda sounds like up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down. But it's not, it's important to change the chord on that one, or at least keep it in your head as the one. We're playing. Down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down. So let's try it together. Going between a minor C and D, we would play 1231231 and 2.3 and bond and 2.3 and down, down, down. A great song to practice this one width is take it to the limit by the Eagles 19. 3 Beat: Latin Strum: This next one is probably going to be the shortest video. It's just a Shuffle, right? So for every single Beat we're going down and up. So it's something like this. 123123, down, up, down, up, down, up. That takes up a lot of space and sound. So it's probably best to use and allowed portion of the song. Now for this one, we don't have a Song example because it's best used maybe for a portion of a song or for something like Latin flamenco music, right? So this Shuffle here we can practice together. We'll go between G and E minor. 123, 123-123-1231. Speed it up a little. Then what? I want to just back and forth, really easy. The hard part there will be changing chords when we're hitting so rapidly 20. 5 Beat Strum: Now there are also more obscure time signatures, right? There's more than just for Beats or three Beats. You could have five Beats, you could have seven Beats. And while they don't pop up all that, often, they're still really helpful to know how to play. Right now let's look at five beats and then we'll take a look at a seven Beat strumming pattern. For our five Beat strumming pattern, we're going to play down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down. Now, probably the most well-known example of this would be the Mission Impossible theme song, right? If you think about how the song goes and you count your Beats. But, but bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump. 134-51-3451. So that's where a pattern like this would be used. 21. 7 Beat Strum: Now let's take a look at a seven Beat strumming pattern. That is a lot. But something we can do here would be like this. Down, down, down, down, down. That's a lot. Let's try that again. Down, down, down, down, down. Another great example of a whole seven Beat song would be money by Pink Floyd. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. So again, you're not going to find a ton of the songs out in the wild, but they are there. So knowing at least one strumming pattern for each of them is enormously helpful. 22. Final Project: So there we go. We've got 14 strumming patterns and three specialized methods like Split Picking and muting with the palm and then root Rest. Those are all really important and really helpful. Now for a final project, we're going to take one of these strumming patterns and a song we either love or a song we've written. And we're going to try to combine them, play that song with that strumming pattern. If you can identify how many beats the song is and name which strumming pattern you used. Now we'd love to hear it and see it. But if you're a little bit recording shy, you could also just write all of this out as text. But whether you film video, whether you record audio, whether you type it out, I'm excited to see what you're using these Strumming Patterns and Techniques for 23. Congratulations!: You made it to the end of the course. Congratulations. If you have any questions or comments I love hearing from learners so you can e-mail me directly at Jacob at Lamb lessons.com and I'll see you there. Or you can visit directly at my site at www.lamblessons.com. Congratulations again, and I'll see you in the next course.