161 strumming patterns from beginner to funk and Bollywood, played with real chords, with slow motion and a moving strum hand.
Beat 2 is left silent and the up strum on its “and” comes in early: your first real syncopation. Written in arrows it is D UD DU.
The player above plays it at 85 BPM over the chords C – G – Am – F. Press Start to hear it, or slow it down to see each stroke.
| Count | 1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | & |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strum | ↓ | · | · | ↑ | ↓ | · | ↓ | ↑ |
| Hand | ↓ | ↑ | ↓ | ↑ | ↓ | ↑ | ↓ | ↑ |
Say the count out loud and strum only on the bold words: 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
↓ 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.
D UD DU uses five of the eight eighth-note slots in the bar: three down and two up, with the hand swinging past the strings three times. Three strokes fall on the beat and two between beats. Beat 2 has no down strum. The bar ends with an up strum on the “&” of 4: many players let go of the chord there and change while the open strings ring.
Beat 2 is the hard part: the hand swings down past the strings without touching them, then catches the up strum on its “&”. Count “one, (two) and, three, four and” out loud.
On the “&” of 1, beat 2 and the “&” of 3 the hand moves without touching the strings. Keep it moving there, in the same down-up rhythm.
On the “&” of 2 and the “&” of 4, brush the top three or four strings, a little softer than the downs.
At 85 BPM a bar lasts 2.82 seconds and you play 106 strokes a minute. Slow motion at ×0.5 brings that down to 53.
The essential patterns use only plain down and up strums in eighth notes. The strumming hand swings down on every beat and up on every “&”, and each pattern is just a choice of which of those eight swings touch the strings. Two or three of them, played well, will carry most pop, folk and film songs.
Change it in the pattern builder
Count “1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &” and play down on beat 1, up on the “&” of 2, down on beat 3, down on beat 4 and up on the “&” of 4.
85 BPM here, 106 strokes a minute. Learn it near 52 BPM; songs with this feel usually sit between 70 and 130 BPM.
It is intermediate: the hard part is the silent swing on beat 2 into the up strum on the “&” of 2. Get D DU D DU and D DU UDU steady first, then take this one from 52 BPM.
Any chords. Try C – G – Am – F, or Em – C – G – D, or G – C – D, or type your own in Advanced.