The Most Common Strumming Pattern EVER!
Learn the best strumming pattern that works for almost any song!
This is the most common strumming pattern of all time and once you’ve gotten a hold of it, it will be the gateway to unlock all the other strumming patterns. It’s the most important pattern, and if you learn one thing about rhythm on guitar, make sure this is it!
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The lesson begins with a brief talk on the mechanics of strumming. I have a separate tutorial (BUILDING STEADY RHYTHM TUTORIAL) where we go more in depth on this but we still take the time to cover the basics of continuous arm motion and keeping it steady, while you count out loud.
Then we get into the pattern itself, breaking it down into each beat. We practice the first half, then we practice the second half. We work on it rhythmically, we play it together, and then we start putting it together.
We’re going to do this in a couple of phases. First we’re going to learn how to say the pattern. A lot of people skip over this phase because they’re so eager to look at it as downstrokes and upstrokes but before we can do that we need to have the pattern inside, and the best way to do that is by saying it out loud, rhythmically.
Think about piano players or singers, or people who play instruments other than guitar. They don’t have downstrokes and upstrokes. So… where are they getting their rhythm from? By saying it, we’re gonna be able to build that up.
Finally, all we have left to do is tell our hand the motions. Since we’re already so good at saying it rhythmically, all we have to do now is follow that with our arm. We practice the strumming pattern a few times in a row and that’s it!
Have a fun time practicing I’ll see you soon!
-James
