To see and hear

Guitar strumming patterns

13 strumming patterns for guitar, from four down-strums to the shuffle and reggae. Each is shown as a bar of counts with an arrow under every strum: ↓ down, ↑ up, × a muted chuck, a small arrow a lighter strum. Press Play to hear it over a few chords, and play along.

How to read the patterns

Count each bar out loud: “1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and”. Down-strums fall on the numbers and up-strums on the “and”s. The strumming hand keeps moving down and up the whole time, even where there is no arrow: it just misses the strings. That steady motion keeps you in time.

Tempo80
1

Down on every beat

4/4

The first strum: one down-strum on each beat. Count out loud and keep the hand moving at an even speed.

2

Down eighths

4/4

Twice as many downs, every eighth note. Keep the wrist loose and let the beats be a little louder.

3

Driving down-up

4/4

Down on the beat, up on the “and”. The hand goes down and up all the time, like a pendulum; this is the motion every other pattern comes from.

4

Old faithful

4/4

The one strum most songs can use. The hand keeps moving down and up; on beat three it moves down without touching the strings, which is what gives the pattern its lift.

5

Syncopated pop

4/4

Old faithful with the last down-strum left out, so the next chord arrives early: much modern pop.

6

Pop with a muted backbeat

4/4

A muted chuck on beats two and four, where the snare drum would be: lay the side of the strumming hand on the strings as it strikes them.

7

Boom-chick

4/4

Pick the lowest string of the chord, strum, pick another bass string, strum: country, folk and Johnny Cash.

8

Waltz with up-strums

3/4

Three beats to the bar, for waltzes and songs in 3/4.

9

12/8 ballad

4/4, triplets

Each beat split in three: slow ballads, 6/8 and 12/8 songs.

10

Shuffle

4/4, swung

Swung eighths, long-short, long-short: the blues and rock and roll.

11

Sixteenth folk-pop

4/4, sixteenths

Old faithful twice as fast: busy acoustic pop. The hand moves down and up on every sixteenth.

12

Reggae skank

4/4

Short chops on beats two and four, choked at once by lifting the fretting fingers.

13

Ska upstrokes

4/4

A short up-chop on every offbeat, faster and brighter than reggae.

Practising a pattern

  • Start slow. Play along at 60 or 70 beats a minute, and only go faster when the pattern feels easy for a whole minute.
  • One chord first. Learn the pattern on one chord, then on two, changing on beat 1. If the change is late, leave out the last up-strum of the bar to give the fretting hand time.
  • Keep the hand moving. Most mistakes come from stopping the hand for a missing strum. Move it anyway, just above the strings.
  • With a click. The metronome keeps a steady beat to strum against.

Where next

Learn the chords to strum on the beginner chords page, practise the changes with the chord change trainer, or strum along with any chord progression: every progression plays with the pattern you choose.

Questions

What is the most common guitar strumming pattern?

Old faithful, also called the calypso or campfire strum: down, down-up, up-down-up (D DU UDU). It fits a great many songs in 4/4.

What is the easiest strumming pattern?

Four down-strums, one on each beat. Then down-up on every beat, then old faithful.

Should I strum with a pick?

Either. A thin pick is easiest for strumming; fingers or the thumb give a softer sound.

How do I get faster?

Play the pattern slowly and evenly with a metronome, then raise the tempo by five beats a minute once it feels easy. Evenness first, speed later.