Music, to my way of thinking, has to be expressed by chord sequence, tabs or music score. They are recognised ways, just as writing is, of passing on information in a convenient form or helping one remember the structure of a piece.
However, when it comes to playing a song, or an instrumental, there is no way of expression how it is done. Performance involves emotion and feelings. The same notes are played of course, but slight variations in volume and note length make the world of difference and these cannot be expressed execpt from the heart.
It is the same with strumming. To learn a new song I normally will play a simple strum to get the melody and chord changes sorted but then as I practice it I will use finger picking, thumb, fingers, flesh, nail or pick with strokes which are difficult to describe to convey the feeling I am trying to put across.
Any music or song played as it is writtten with a standard strum pattern, or note for note as it is written, will sound regimented and flat. What is needed to make the piece something that others want to hear cannot be put on paper.
Roger
"Do, or do not; there is no try"