Strum Pattern

Welcome, Steve. Learning a strum pattern is something that will take time and plenty of practice. Listening for the bass notes or the drum beats will give you the strum patterns. Most songs will be in a 4/4 time although they could be in many other timings. Have you ever tapped your finger on a table top to a song? Have you ever tapped your toe on the floor to a song? If so you have found the strum pattern of that song. The songs listed here on chordie show the different chords used in a song over the words. Keep in mind that on some songs the chord changes are incorrect and will need to be tweeked a little. A strum pattern is based on a series of down and up strokes with your pick. All down strokes are counted as 1, 2, 3, 4. All up strums are counted as AND (&). So a basic strun pattern to a song could be:

4/4 timing
down - down - down - down - repeat ( 1 - 2 - 3- 4 - repeat) this is all down strums

down - down - up - down - up - down - up - repeat (1 - 2 - & - 3 - &   4 & repeat. (very popular)

down - up - down - up - down - up - down - up - repeat (1 - & - 2 - & - 3 - & - 4 - & repeat (blues pattern)

This is just a few patterns that you can use. To start print out a song that shows the chord changes, listen to the song chant to yourself;

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 1 - or
1 - 2 - & - 3 - & - 4 - & - 1 - 2 - & - 3 - & - 4 - 1 -

by doing this in one of these simple patterns you will soon discover a strum pattern that will work. There are other and better ways to discover a strum pattern for a song but I believe this is the most simpliest way to do so. I'm sure there will be ways posted, soon. Try them all and keep practicing and listening to the "BEAT" of the song.

NELA