161 strumming patterns from beginner to funk and Bollywood, played with real chords, with slow motion and a moving strum hand.
All sixteenths muted with the fretting hand, accents on 2 and 4: the percussive scratch of funk guitar. Written in arrows it is XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX.
The player above plays it at 92 BPM over a single Em chord. 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.
XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX fills all sixteen sixteenth-note slots in the bar: eight down and eight up. Four strokes fall on the beat and twelve between beats. The bar ends with a chuck on the “a” of 4: change chord straight after it.
Lay your fretting fingers lightly across the strings without pressing, so every stroke is a muted scratch. Dig in harder on 2 and 4 and keep the rest light and even.
Hit beat 2 and beat 4 harder (the bold arrows), with a bigger swing rather than a tighter grip.
On every beat, every “e”, every “&” and every “a”, strum with the strings muted for a dry “chk” instead of a chord.
At 92 BPM a bar lasts 2.61 seconds and you play 368 strokes a minute. Slow motion at ×0.5 brings that down to 184.
Funk guitar is a percussion part. The hand moves in sixteenth notes the whole time, most strokes are muted scratches, and the open chords that cut through are placed exactly against the bass and drums. Many funk songs stay on one or two chords for minutes.
Change it in the pattern builder
Count “1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a” and play chuck on beat 1, chuck on the “e” of 1, chuck on the “&” of 1, chuck on the “a” of 1, accented chuck on beat 2, chuck on the “e” of 2, chuck on the “&” of 2 and chuck on the “a” of 2, and so on.
92 BPM here, 368 strokes a minute. Learn it near 56 BPM; songs with this feel usually sit between 85 and 115 BPM.
It is advanced. Sixteenth-note down-ups should feel easy first, and the accents on beat 2 and beat 4, landing them without speeding up needs slow, careful repetition at 46 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.