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