1/18/09

10 Different Guitar Strumming Patterns - Free guitar lessons

Strumming by Luis BONVIN

Strumming is a guitar playing technique that every guitar player should master. Even those who learned and play mostly by reading music notes, should learn to play by strumming, and play it very well.

That way, they will certainly add richness and variety to the song or piece they play. Further more, they will surely come to a time when they are required to strum the chords of a song or melody that others are singing or playing.

10 Different Guitar Strumming Patterns - Free guitar lessons

The most important thing to take into account when learning and playing guitar strumming, is sound quality. Strumming is not just some noise made while others are singing or playing. It is music too!

You must focus all your efforts on getting the most clean, neat and musical sound out of your guitar.

You strum a guitar strings by stroking all or several strings in a single downward or upward right hand movement.

Sometimes you strum all six strings with a single quick movement. Sometimes you just strum the bass strings, and sometimes you strum only the treble ones.

Some guitar players, when strumming downwards, like to use the nail of the middle finder; others like to use the nails of all fingers (except the thumb). Generally, they also prefer to do upward strumming using the nail of their thumb finger.

But there are many players that like the sounds obtained when strings are plucked or strummed using the fingertips (fleshy part of the finger end).

The best form (and that used by most pros), is a combination of both forms, nails and fingertips, combining them in upward and downward strokes, on all six strings or bass or treble strings only.

Besides, not all strokes are played with the same strength (intensity). Some of them are accented (played louder) than others.

This way, you can achieve very colourful and rich guitar strumming patterns.

A strumming pattern is a repeated sequence of upward and downward strokes, each one of them with its own characteristics (nail of fingertip, upward or downward, accented or not).

You can learn guitar strumming patterns yourself by reading and practicing guitar lessons and books. In that case you must listen very carefully to recordings of music with some guitar strumming showing up. You will certainly learn a lot, too, watching videos about guitar strumming. Go to YouTube, do a search, and you will find a lot of them.

Remember, quality of sound is your goal.

16 comments:

Erwin Ho said...

Thank you for this interesting piece. I'm just beginning to learn myself, so this is helpful. Thanks again!

Anonymous said...

Thanx for this. Strumming has always been something of a weakness in my playing and this was just what I needed.

Nick Andrew said...

For a beginner like me this blog is very helpful. So thanks a lot for this lovely post.
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Nick Andrew

selizb said...

this is sooo helpful b/c i couldn't find three-four or two-four patterns anywhere else, thanks soooo much!!!

Unknown said...

This is by far the best lesson for strumming that I've come across. The chord changes also are a big help for me. Thanks!!

ed haas said...

Great video. I've been playing guitar for years and still got a lot out of this. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

it helped me very much!

Anonymous said...

This was very helpful for a beginner like me! Thanx a ton!!

Anonymous said...

This is a great video. Very helpful.
These basics are easy to miss when you don't take lessons like myself and just learn by playing.

Anonymous said...

Hi
i have seen your vidoe on strumming patterns, it is halpful for me to improve my strumming patterns & thanks a lot for your video.

Thanks again!!!

Mark Waugh said...

Internet is the powerful resource for learning free guitar lessons. Especially, the beginners can get more benefits out of it.

Christina said...

I just started guitar this year and am picking it up pretty quickly. Thanks for the tips on strum patterns, it really helped!

jamesgraul said...

You are a excellent teacher. Keep up the great lessons. I found this very helpful.

Bharat said...

Thank you sir.
It was so exciting to learn from you

guitar picks said...

Playing the guitar, like any other musical instrument, is not an easy thing to do. It takes lots of practices and mastery. One of the basics of guitar playing is strumming. However, this is also not a simple task because one cannot master it in just a few strokes of your hand. This post will certainly help out those who are still in the learning process. Thank you for sharing. The video and your insights are just very inspiring.

Anonymous said...

I been playing guitar for 2 years and in 2months i got better at strumming

Good Guitars