Beginner Guitar Strumming Lesson
Develop Your Rhythm & Timing

As a guitar player, you need to develop your guitar strumming hand to play in-sync with a beat/rhythm. Rhythm is so important to get to grips with early on so your sense of timing will become second nature.

Note: This lesson is strictly for beginners! If you want to work on some more complex strumming try here.

The strumming pattern you use determines several things, but the most important is when to change chord.

I'm going to take you through 4 basic guitar strumming patterns, each one progressively more complex. You'll be using upstrokes and downstrokes with your plectrum (or "pick").

The first essential pointer is to relax your strumming hand. A tense hand will sound like it is - rigid. Plus, a relaxed hand is more rhythmically versatile. Almost let momentum carry the strumming hand up and down over the strings.

A way to tell if you're doing it right is to check your wrist is doing most of the work here. Your arm should support the movement, but your wrist joint should provide the leverage for the strumming, more so than your elbow.

If you're playing an acoustic, strike the strings over the sound hole, a little more towards the neck of the guitar.

If you're playing an electric, the positioning is the same, but you'll be strumming over the first pickup.

You might find a metronome (a.k.a. "Chinese water torture") useful to help you keep your timing. If you'd rather play with the next best thing to a real drummer, go here.

For this exercise, I want you to play along using the A major chord.

Note: Have you taken the guitar basics lesson first? If you don't understand the above diagram, you will need to! It's right here!

We're going to start with a simple downstroke pattern. I want you to count in groups of 4 to help you keep your rhythm and perhaps put more emphasis on your guitar strumming on beat number 1. Take a look at the diagram below...

Play this rhythm track below to get an ear for the sound...

Once you've mastered the basic guitar strumming rhythm and you think you have a solid timing you should learn to combine those downstrokes with upstrokes for a more accessible rhythm.

Still playing the A major chord, let's look at our next strumming pattern.

You're basically filling in that small "and" gap inbetween those initial downstrokes with an upstroke. This adds some movement to the rhythm.

Let's take a listen...

Notice how I've put emphasis on the downstrokes - this supports that strong 4/4 rhythm, especially in rock n roll songs.

The guitar clearly sounds more percussive and versatile thanks to those added upstrokes.

Metronome here!

Ok, if you're following this, you're doing great. It's time to move on another step...

First - for this pattern I'm using the G major chord as detailed below...

You've heard of that cheesy phrase "my heart skipped a beat" - well to add a little spice to your guitar strumming rhythm you can consistantly leave out a beat in the bar.

Take a look...

Look at the diagram - where the X lies just mimick a downstroke, don't actually play it. All you are are really doing here is what you did in the second strumming pattern but taking out a downstroke every three beats.

Have a listen to make things clearer...

This one will take a little more practise if you've just started to learn, but start off slow, work from the first strumming pattern again if you lose your rhythm and keep building on it.

The next step is to just combine the two last guitar strumming patterns together to create a kind of alternate rhythm (still within 4/4 rock n roll though!)

Metronome here!

I'm using the D Major chord for this example as detailed below if you're still learning chords...

Some really well written songs with interesting chords can keep the same rhythm all throughout and not become boring, but it helps to liven up the rhythmic aspect of any music.

Observe...

Draw out a diagram similar to the one's you've seen on this page with up and down arrows representing the up and down strokes, plus any symbols you want to attach to a certain rhythm characteristic.

Try taking out beats consistantly, e.g. every 4th beat do the normal upstroke but don't hit the strings to "miss that beat".

Keep the rhythm constant so your hands will stay in sync with what's going on.

If you feel like you're losing the timing, think back to that second pattern, 1 2 3 4, up down up down - keep that strong 4/4 rhythm branded in your mind to start with.

Don't forget that metronome, or drummer!

Experiment with guitar strumming patterns and see if you can change it for what my be the bridge or chorus of a possible song (rhythmically). The more comfortable and relaxed you feel, the better.

Need More Beginner Guitar Lessons?

Use the "Beginners" link on the left column or use the links below.

Keep at it!