strumming patterns

Strumming patterns are something that most beginners struggle with until they have learned a few. It's pretty important that you count out loud the first time you start strumming to help keep time. Once they get a few in their head, a light bulb usually comes on and they can begin to figure out other strumming patterns and even make up their own.If you palm mute the strings and strum the patterns it will help you hear the rhythm a bit better. Most of these strumming patterns you have heard before, but if you aren't used to strumming you may not recognize the rhythm until you get better. But the thing that works best for me is thinking of the strumming patterns as drum beats: bass-bass-treble-bass-treble. The down strums are the bass beats and the up strums are the treble beats.

Some Strumming Pattern

Now this next advice will be a bit hard to do, but keep your arm moving in a constant up and down motion. So if you strum down and you get to a straight line, move your arm back up without hitting any strings, that will prepare you to do a second down strum. You will see what I mean in Strum pattern one. Just like the chord progressions when you get to the end of the pattern just repeat back to the start again for a continuous loop. It is best to first learn the strum patterns without switching chords just to get the hang of the motion.

Strum pattern one:

▼_▼▲▼▲

1 & 2 & 3 &

Strum pattern Two:

▼▲▼▲▼▲
1 & 2 & 3 &

Strum pattern Three:

▼_▼▲▼_▼▲

1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &

Strum pattern Four:

▼_▼▲_▲▼▲

1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &

Strum pattern Five:

▼_▼▲▼▲▼▲
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &

Strum pattern Six:

▼_▼_ ▼ ▼▲▼_▼_▼▲

1 & 2 & 3&a 4 &a 5& 6&

Strum pattern Seven:

▼▲▼▲_▲▼_▼▲▼▲▼▲▼

1 & 2 & 3 &4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 &

Guitar Chord Shapes

Before we get into the chord progressions we first need to get into the chord finger shapes. We won't get into what the chord names mean because that would be a whole new article.

For the SUS (suspended), Add9 and EM7 chords your fingers will always stay on the bottom B and E strings on the third frets. Use your ring and baby pinky fingers for those two strings. The other chord shapes are pretty easy to figure out when you start playing around with them on the guitar. Remember, you may not be able to switch between them fluently at first but just stick with it and practice slowly. Eventually you will be able to pick up speed and play some of your favorite songs.

Now that you know the shapes you need to know which group of chords to play together to make songs. A lot of songs now days can be played with only four chords. After you play the last chord in one of the groups restart back to the beginning of that same group so that it continuously loops. This rule applies for all the following chord groups as well. Here are some Guitar Progressions:

Pages

Inztro

Developing Bass Solo

Reggae Scale

Left Hand Slapping On Bass

Pop on Bass

Practice Slapping Bass