Busy sixteenths with a chuck after every beat, for upbeat dance numbers. Written in arrows it is DXU DXU DXU DXU.
The player above plays it at 100 BPM over the chords G – Em – C – D. Press Start to hear it, or slow it down to see each stroke.
161 strumming patterns from beginner to funk and Bollywood, played with real chords, with slow motion and a moving strum hand.
Busy sixteenths with a chuck after every beat, for upbeat dance numbers. Written in arrows it is DXU DXU DXU DXU.
The player above plays it at 100 BPM over the chords G – Em – C – D. Press Start to hear it, or slow it down to see each stroke.
| Count | 1 | e | & | a | 2 | e | & | a | 3 | e | & | a | 4 | e | & | a |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strum | ↓ | · | ✕ | ↑ | ↓ | · | ✕ | ↑ | ↓ | · | ✕ | ↑ | ↓ | · | ✕ | ↑ |
| Hand | ↓ | ↑ | ↓ | ↑ | ↓ | ↑ | ↓ | ↑ | ↓ | ↑ | ↓ | ↑ | ↓ | ↑ | ↓ | ↑ |
Say the count out loud and strum only on the bold words: 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a
↓ down · ↑ up · ✕ chuck (muted) · B bass note · b second bass note · bold: accent · dashed: palm-muted · underlined: short. The last row is the strumming hand, which keeps moving even where nothing sounds.
DXU DXU DXU DXU uses twelve of the sixteen sixteenth-note slots in the bar: eight down and four up, with the hand swinging past the strings four times. Four strokes fall on the beat and eight between beats. The bar ends with an up strum on the “a” of 4: many players let go of the chord there and change while the open strings ring.
A chuck after every beat keeps an upbeat number bouncing: strum on the beat, chuck on the “&”, up strum on the “a”, four times a bar.
On every “e” the hand moves without touching the strings. Keep it moving there, in the same down-up rhythm.
On every “a”, brush the top three or four strings, a little softer than the downs.
Hit every beat and every “&” harder (the bold arrows), with a bigger swing rather than a tighter grip.
On every “&”, strum with the strings muted for a dry “chk” instead of a chord.
At 100 BPM a bar lasts 2.40 seconds and you play 300 strokes a minute. Slow motion at ×0.5 brings that down to 150.
Film and folk songs from India borrow their strumming from the tabla and dhol. Keherwa (eight matras) sits in 4/4, dadra (six matras) in 6/8, and the strum follows the drum: strong on sam, the first beat of the cycle, and light or muted on khali, the empty beat.
Change it in the pattern builder
Count “1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a” and play accented down on beat 1, accented chuck on the “&” of 1, up on the “a” of 1, accented down on beat 2, accented chuck on the “&” of 2, up on the “a” of 2, accented down on beat 3 and accented chuck on the “&” of 3, and so on.
100 BPM here, 300 strokes a minute. Learn it near 60 BPM; songs with this feel usually sit between 70 and 120 BPM.
It is intermediate: the hard part is the change from the down to the chuck on the “&” of 1. Get D DU D DU and D DU UDU steady first, then take this one from 60 BPM.
Lift your fretting fingers just enough that the strings stop sounding, or let your strumming palm land on them as you strum. It should sound like a snare drum.