161 strumming patterns from beginner to funk and Bollywood, played with real chords, with slow motion and a moving strum hand.
Old faithful with a lift: an accent on the up strum after beat 2, the gentle sway of film ballads. Written in arrows it is D DU UDU.
The player above plays it at 80 BPM over the chords Em – C – G – D. 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 DU UDU uses six of the eight eighth-note slots in the bar: three down and three up, with the hand swinging past the strings twice. Three strokes fall on the beat and three between beats. Beat 3 has no down strum; the up just before it rings across it, the syncopation that makes the pattern lift. 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.
This is D DU UDU with the up strum after beat 2 accented. That small accent gives the sway of a slow film song; play softly and let the chords ring.
On the “&” of 1 and beat 3 the hand moves without touching the strings. Keep it moving there, in the same down-up rhythm.
On the “&” of 2, the “&” of 3 and the “&” of 4, brush the top three or four strings, a little softer than the downs.
Hit beat 1 and the “&” of 2 harder (the bold arrows), with a bigger swing rather than a tighter grip.
At 80 BPM a bar lasts 3.00 seconds and you play 120 strokes a minute. Slow motion at ×0.5 brings that down to 60.
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 & 2 & 3 & 4 &” and play accented down on beat 1, down on beat 2, accented up on the “&” of 2, up on the “&” of 3, down on beat 4 and up on the “&” of 4.
80 BPM here, 120 strokes a minute. Learn it near 48 BPM; songs with this feel usually sit between 70 and 120 BPM.
Yes, once four downs and chord changes feel easy. The one moment to watch is the up on the “&” of 2 and the silent beat after it; start it at ×0.5, 40 BPM.
Any chords. Try Em – C – G – D, or G – Em – C – D, or Am – F – C – G, or type your own in Advanced.