So What Exactly Is a Strumming Pattern?
A Strumming Pattern is basically a series of rhythms and strokes that shows you what rhythms you need to play with your right hand while you’re holding down chords with the left hand. They’re extremely easy to read and super helpful when it comes to learning acoustic guitar.
When you look at a basic strumming pattern then it will tell you all the following.
- 1. The time signature the song is in.
- 2. The actual rhythmic pattern using rhythm slashes.
- 3. The strokes you need to play.
- 4. Any other info like rests, chucks or accents etc.
Strumming Patterns will help you Learn Acoustic Guitar Faster!
The majority of easy acoustic guitar songs will be in 4/4 Time Signature which is also known as common time but sometimes songs are written in a different time signature.
For example “Have You Ever Loved a Woman” by Bryan Adams is written in a 3/4 time signature and “Crazy” by Aerosmith and “Norwegian Wood” by The Beatles is written in a 6/8 time signature. So it’s kind of important to know that because if you’re trying to use a 4/4 strumming pattern in a 3/4 song then it’s kind of like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.
If you understand the basics of note values then it’s super easy to read the rhythm and then play it on the guitar using the various down and up strokes. You will see that these note heads are diagonal square shapes as opposed to the round note heads you might have seen before. The reason for this is that these note heads used in strumming patterns only indicate rhythm and not pitch. You don’t need to worry about learning to read notes because you’ll be playing chords that are easy to learn instead.
Lastly any other info like percussive hits also known as chucks, or rests (silence) and accents etc will also be written down there for you. So it basically means that you have everything at your disposal to play some killer rhythms on your acoustic guitar.
Get Some Strumming Patterns of your own going…
Click here to learn exactly how these strumming patterns work.