The Most Widely Used Strumming Patterns

Now after you've been introduced to three basic strumming patterns, (see strumming no 1, no 2, no 3), we will go to the most widely used strumming patterns. Be sure you practiced well and get familiarized with those previous three patterns i introduced. Always have time to practice because practice is a skill developer and that enables the amount of your interest to grow and in chained to the next level. Just don't overdo it. If you think you still can't get the strumming right, its just ok, have fun and be patient. In my view, theres no such thing as "out of fashion" strumming styles no matter what era it has been first used because we can never know what the next new songs will be made of especially at this time where music digs the materials randomly. Here are the four most widely used strumming patterns.

Strumming Pattern No 4  (3/4 time signature strumming)
In this time signature the complete counting is: "1 and 2 and 3 and" or you can just simply do continuously count 1,2,3, 1,2,3, 1,2,3 and so on where "and" still work as an imaginary pace between the numbers in your counting.

The most basic 3/4 time strumming is this:
In music notation this measure compose only of three quarter notes in a bar. These means you will do a three downstroke strummings beginning with a single-string-downstroke on the root bass note of the chord followed by 2 downstrokes on the first four strings (string nos.1,2,3,4) all together. During the play as you count 1,2,3, the numbers here corresponds to your hand movements like these:
At count no.1 - you will strike only one string which is the root bass note of the chord in a single downstroke
At count nos.2,3 - you will strike only the first four strings (string nos 1,2,3,4) all together in 2 downstrokes
Play this strumming sequence in continuous succession to let your strumming hand be familiarized. This pattern is used in waltzes and other songs such as "Let Me Call You Sweetheart", "No Walls, No Ceilings, No Floors", "If I Ain't Got You" by Alicia Keys.

Root Bass Notes
Studies about bass notes and root notes may tackle a wider discussion. We can discuss that later. But for a more related and focused study, as we are dealing about strumming, its more practical to directly point to you where în every chord is that root bass note so that you can continue practicing the strumming now.
By the way remember that guitar strings are numbered from the thinnest string as the 1st string up to the thickest string as the 6th string. There are 3 treble strings (string nos 1,2,3) and 3 bass strings ( string nos 4,5,6). Also when we say "open chords" means those easy to execute chord positions where every finger is just pressing one string at a time. "Barre or bar chords" means the chord where your 1st finger (forefinger) lay flattened on the fretboard and pressing 2 or more strings in a chord just like in the F major and Bb major chords. On the list below, I just show the name of the chord family because its the same root bass note that you will play whether that chord is in any other form say for example Cmajor, Cminor, Cmaj7, Csus4, C7 and so on.
Shown here are two most usable chord positions, the open chord and the barre chord positions but some chords have no open position as indicated.
Root Bass Notes:
Chord Family      Open Chord Position       Barre Chord Position
1. C                          5th string                    5th string (3rd fret)
2. C# or Db            none                             5th string (4th fret)
3. D                         4th string                    5th string (5th fret)
4. Eb or D#            none                            5th string (6th fret)
5. E                          6th string                   5th string (7th fret)
6. F                          none                    6th string (1st fret) 5th string (8th fret)
7. F# or Gb            none                            6th string (8th fret)
8. G                         6th string                   6th string (3rd fret)
9. G# or Ab           none                            6th string (4th fret)
10. A                      5th string                    6th string (5th fret)
11. Bb or A#         none                     5th string, (1st fret) and 6th string (6th fret)
12. B                       none                     5th string (2nd fret) and 6th string (7th fret)

next will be another beautiful and more trendy 3/4 variation strumming, alternate bass playing, and the rest of the most widely used types of sterumming patterns..

Learning To Tune A Guitar

It will be more beneficial to you if you don't only learn how to play the guitar but also acquiring the skill how to tune it properly.As for most beginners, your ears aren't well acquainted yet to the guitar standard tune or to the right string harmony. Well, the standard guitar tune goes this way. The first string (which is the thinnest), is on E note, the second is on B, The third is on G, the fourth on D, the fifth on A and the sixth string (which is the thickest and the lowest sounding string) is on E. We can easily memorize those notes from the first to the sixth string by this phrase:"Every Body Gets Dinner At Eight", wherein the capital letters represent the notes from the 1st to 6th strings. Before we go to the tuning lesson, let me discuss some important points. First and foremost, about the metal bars and spaces that lies along the guitar neck or the fretboard. Some guitar lessons points to those metal bars as the "fret" whereas some lessons refers to the spaces as the frets that lies between those bars. In order for you not to get confused, it's much better to consider the spaces as the frets. Fret numbering starts from the first space that lies between the guitar nut and the first metal bar and it is called the "1st fret", the next space that lie between the 1st and 2nd metal bar will be called the "2nd fret" and so on and so forth going to the direction of the sound hole.

      Since you are still a beginner i suggest that you use a new set of strings and adjust it to the guitar standard tune to let you know how your guitar sound in the standard pitch, and to know how new strings sound it well in terms of tone stability and brightness. This will greatly help you in your quest to learn how to tune the guitar because old strings may not give you the right sounding condition and may not help set your tone hearing capability perfectly.

 Guitar Tuners
      There are various ways wherein you can tune your guitar. One is through the piano keyboard (see illustration below)

Second, is through the online guitar tuner 
There are many available guitar tuners online. You can always check there if your guitar still sounds in the right harmony. It's pretty helpful for us if we from time to time hear those standard string tones on guitar tuners in order to sink it deeper in our memory.

Common Mistakes Some Beginner Guitar Players Often Do

Some of the beginner guitar players especially the younger ones are too eager to play their favorite songs once they've learned few guitar chords and be able to achieved the proper strumming style. Well that's good and i feel kind of happy for that because there's an overflowing enthusiasm or passion and i have been like that before also. But we should never get too carried away by mere excitement to play. Remember that sounding right pays after all. Here i have listed some of the common things beginner players often neglect to do.
1. Not learning to tune the guitar or not acquainting your ears to the proper string tone setting.
2. When performing chord positions with open strings like the families of A, C, E, D ranging from first to third fret, the palm often touches the bottom edge of the fretboard thus making it hard for the pressing fingers to established a good chord positioning and that often results to the first string being muted in the process.
3.  Some beginners are often unmindful of those dead strings showed in the chord chart. They tend to touch the dead strings in playing.
4. The strumming fingers isn't positioned at the center of the sound hole.
5. The fingertips at some point is placed at the top of the metal bar itself thus making the string muted.
6. Not applying enough pressing force on the strings to achieve tone clarity.
7. Not mastering the timing of the song and in the process greatly affects the strumming pace and chord shifting process.
8. The guitar is not in the right angle with your lap and the fretboard not inclined upward that makes the pressing fingers difficult to achieve the right pressing position especially in songs with a more faster tempo.

Learning Songs in the First and Second Strumming Patterns

In our first strumming pattern we do only a single downward stroke by the thumb. Now we are going to learn how to apply this on songs. In this lesson we use the 4/4 time signature wherein our counting is: "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and". The following song below requires you to maintain your timing while playing the song. You will only touch the strings on the numbered parts of the beat, 1,2,3,4 but be sure you maintain your counting. Practice your strumming pattern 1 in this song Love Me Tender. The moment the first chord applies that's when you will begin to count "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and" all in an eighth note count continuously. At the end of the song you will only strum a single downward stroke in a whole note time duration.

For our strumming pattern 2, we do a alternating downward and upward strokes. This means that in every part of the beat, your will touch the strings beginning with a downward stroke like this:
        1  and  2  and  3  and  4  and  -  (all in eighth note duration)
        D   U   D   U   D   U   D   U        D- downward (by thumb), U - upward ( by forefinger)
For our strumming lesson 2 here is the song: You Are My Sunshine

Practicing the Diminished and Augmented 5th Chords

In some guitar lessons these type of chords usually are not being dealt at an early stage but i chose to deal with these as early as the songs you are longing to play may not always go with just simple chords. The diminished and augmented chords are beautiful passing chords one must not treat these as optional chords to play even though when some printed songs with chords say it so. In some songs these chords come in parenthesis as it can be optionally played but you better try to play it when listed because it enriches your tone harmony hearing judgement. You enrich your chord accompaniment analization by always trying to play all even those optional chords. I want to prepare your fingers as early in playing these chords.

Diminished 7th and augmented 5th chords are somewhat difficult for beginners to execute so this exercise is best applied early before youe develop to yourself the unliking attitudes towards hard chords. Some guitar players i've encountered in the past though already learned still have the unliking attitudes towards other necessary hard chords because they tend to get away with those from the early stage of their guitar learning and so their playing enthusiasm affected. Its best to remember in guitar, the harder the chord finger position, the more beautiful it might have been applied. As you maintain your playing, you will realize that your ear will long for this sound later thats why its best if we tackle these chords as early. Here are some of the commonly used Diminished and Augmented chords. For speedier learning, we will include two different diminished or augmented chords for every practice pattern.
   

The important thing to remember is that the Ddim chord formation is also called the G#dim, Bdim or Fdim chord. You can practice your fingers here with some chord combinations like this: D - Ddim - Em - Bbdim - D. Do this in a two downward thumb stroke for every chord with just a single downward thumb stroke at the last chord. Here and in the following exercises below, you will start getting familiarized on how the diminished chord harmonizes with other chords.

                                                                 

  

Adim chord formation is also called the Cdim, Ebdim or F#dim chord. You can try these practice pattern: F# - Adim - G#m - Ddim - F# in a 2 downward thumb stroke for every chord and just a single downward thumb stroke at the last chord.

  

The Bbdim is also being called the C#dim, Edim or Gdim chord. Do this practice pattern C - Bbdim - Dm7 - Ddim - C.

  

The Caug chord formation is also being called as the Abaug or Eaug chord. Try to practice this chord pattern: C - Caug - F - Aaug - Dm7 - G - C.

   

Aaug also goes by the name as the Baug, Dbaug or Faug chord. The practice pattern goes this way: A - Aaug - D - Daug - Bm7 - E - A.

   
Daug is also being called the Bbaug or Gbaug chord. You can have these chords for practicing: D - Daug - G - Gaug - Em - A - D

  

As for Gaug chord position, this is also called the Ebaug chord. So you can have these chords to practice: G - Gaug - C - Caug - Am - D - G. Remember, in all these exercises above you will just strum the chord twice with downward thumb stroke and the last chord with just a single downward thumb stroke. If you're going to practice any of these in countless repetitions, all of the chords are strummed twice and just do the single downward thumb stroke at the very end.

   

Finger Positioning and Tone Hearing Exercise

Another important exercise is not only for your fingers but to start your ears also to get acquainted well with the similarities and differences of the chord tones when strummed. More often learners never get to notice how chords were chosen or preferred to be used in a song. Beginner guitarist or even an average player sometimes dont have the habit of getting the feel of the chords in a song. Here in this exercise not only we are going to practice our finger strecthing technique but also learn how to acquire the ability to feel the differences of the chord sequence patterns.These chord patterns can be used in the same part and melody of the song yet emphasizing a different angle of emotions and mood of the song. Its recommended to do this exercise always so that you will develop the chord tone observing habit and this will help you to develop your song accompanying skills in the future.

First, about stretching, beginners often find it hard to shift their fingers correctly from G major chord position going to C major chord. Here is the whole sequence of chord exercise that we are going to learn today shown below.
G-C-D-C-/G-Am-Bm-Am-/G-C-D-C-/G
In this exercise, you can first familiarize your fingers with just G and C alone repeatedly if you find yourself still slow. After constant practicing you can add a chord to the sequence one by one until you completed the whole pack of chord sequence shown here. Its recommended to do it with just a single downward strum of the thumb for every chord for speedier learning pace. Notice that on the second pack of chords, G-Am-Bm-Am, your fingers are being trained to acquire a faster grasp of the Bm (B minor) chord as this speed is necessary also for a versatile hand movement adjustability.You must be doing this whole pattern repeatedly as one type of finger exercise.

Second, about your tone hearing exercise, your ear will be introduced to hearing and identifying tone similarities and differences in the chords. You will gradually learn to filter sounds that makes the chord a minor or a major one. The ability to analyze tone and feel of it comes gradually through constant everyday practice.

Basic Vertical and Horizontal Finger Movement Exercises

Learning the guitar requires setting priorities at a gradual pace. We also must set our interest at a controlled pace in order for us not to leave out other important factors needed in the skill. Before arriving at a stage where you can simultaneously read and play guitar music sheets or some guitar tablatures, you have to make your hands properly fitted enough to do it. Since you knew already the basic guitar chords, lets have some
finger exercises for more articulate playing.

For our basic vertical movement left hand exercises, you can
1. Start to position your fingers at E major chord,strum a single downward thumb stroke then go to A major, a single downward stroke again then go to D major also at a single strum. After that you can reverse the direction say, from D major to A major and then to E major. Do this at their minor chords alos as in Em, Am, Dm also. D minor chord is somewhat harder to position so better practice it more. Since this is done for every single strum only, start yourself at a slower pace.

For our basic horizontal movement exercise
2.Start yourself with E major chord, then do the F major chord, then G major chord and going back to F major down to E major again for a single strum stroke. Do also the A major chord followed by Bb (B flat major), then the C major chord at the 3rd fret at the same finger position. Reverse the action. Remember the F major and Bb major chord are somewhat harder to execute since this is nearest to the nut of the guitar. Do this also on their minor counterpart like from A minor, to Bb minor, down to C minor. These will require extra pressing force in order not to  leave any strings from being muffled. Practice this at countless times for a better hand grip development.

When doing the barre chord like Fm (F minor), Gm(G minor), support your forefinger by your middle finger to exert more force and  about the Bbm (B flat minor) and the Cm (C minor) chords, this requires constant practice for your wrist to get acquainted with that pressure point since this position is lower and not quite comfortable for the wrist.

The Third Strumming Pattern Lesson

Our third strumming pattern consist of leaving a specific beat empty of action. This strumming pattern gradually makes you play the song with style and somewhat in a carefree mode. Its also good to keep in mind that the first strumming move somewhat gives the impression of a more heavier stroke than the succeeding ones as is what usually happens in any musical score. In our strumming lessons, for the meantime I recommend that you only use your thumb and not the whole four fingers in your downward stroke and use only your forefinger at the upward stroke. If you use the whole four fingers at the downward stroke it will produce a noisy, sharp, dominating tones not ideal to do at an early learning stage because you are suppose to be learning to produce the sound in a milder and observable way. As we go learning different strumming patterns, you also are being brought into appreciating different music genre.
In this illustration below, if you're not still familiar to cope up learning through note representations, you must follow strictly the normal speaking manner of the phrase on the fourth row cause it precisely give the correct strum accent. Notice that the fifth beat which falls always in beat "3" was encircled to denote that its always empty of strumming action. When it says empty of strumming action, I mean you can still perform the movement of your hand in beat "3" in order for you not to loose your beating rhythm or momentum but you must not touch the strings at this point. This may take constant looking at the phrase and with steady repetition to familiarize the strumming style or you can just remember those two words "you" and "buzzed" as the points where you are not going to touch the strings. After constant practice, try playing this without looking at the phrase to gain the true feel of the play.
In this style you will learn how to play the likes of some good country or folk music like "A Horse With No Name by America, "Sugar Mountain" by Neil Young, "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" by Elvis Presley and many more. When you happened to hear the original version of the music, some instrumentation or some movements may be added to the music so just stick to our strumming pattern in order not to be disoriented. The encircled portion are only shown in order for you to map it clearly where you've been through, to allow you to see the difference between strumming patterns and to acquaint your hand to strumming changes.