how many strumming patterns are possible?

jjgirl13 · 08-01-2001, 09:18 PM

Just for 4/4 time.. (Most song's are 4/4.... aren't they?!)
I keep on ending up strumming the campfire strum..
or something that sounds similiar to it..
Around how many strumming patterns are there for 4/4 that are
used most often for worship?

If any of you blessed people know any common strums..
Can you post em up pls?

nate95366 · 08-01-2001, 09:50 PM

There are many many many 4/4 strum patterns, and here are two general ways to get quite a few of them:

1) Break the 4-beat measure up into eight eighth notes. Start by strumming all of them (down-up-down-up-down-up-down-up), repeating that......then,

"Mute" a couple different "downs" or "ups" or both, in different places. Muting is a technique where you quiet the strings (even if just for the moment in time that an eighth note goes by) either with your strumming hand (by resting your palm on the strings) or your fretting hand (by letting the string(s) come off the fret but not quite taking your fingers off of them. Muting with the strumming hand creates an audible "pause," while muting with the fretting hand while you keep strumming creates a "chuck-uh-chuck-uh" sound.

2) Break the 4-beat measure up into 16 sixteenth notes. This will sound twice as fast as the eighth notes if you keep the same pace for each measure (but you aren't locked into keeping that pace, understand). Anyway, start creatively muting and see what happens.

For each technique, you can also add certain places of emphasis to accent your muting by strumming a certain eighth note, sixteenth note, or two or three of either with extra "zest."

If I can get my good 'ol .wav to .mp3 file converter working tomorrow, I may post a couple of the many many examples here.

Nate

ShyStrings · 08-02-2001, 10:33 AM

Another good way to enhance what seems to be an endless "campfire" strumming song: you dont always have to hit all the strings!!! Learn to strum once or twice per measure and fill the rest with totally random picked strings in between. At first, it will sound wierd, but eventually you get comfy with your chords enough to where you can pick easy, great sounding picking patterns without ever moving your left hand. This will also make it a lot easier to add emphasis when you do strum more, as in the chorus or bridge, because its a noticable difference to everyone listening. Have fun all...

-shy-

Schteve · 08-02-2001, 10:37 AM

16 and a half

nate95366 · 08-02-2001, 11:01 AM

eh Schteve? 16 and a half of what?

**thesteve** · 08-02-2001, 11:35 AM

I think Shy is talking about arpeggios wo which there actualy is a pattern...that I discovered that I learned subconciously from playing alot of them. Essentially the patterns in 4/4 are endless...well not really endless, but they seem that way. you don't always have to stay on beat or anything. Like take the song "You have broken the chains" (I'm assuming this is 4/4 because I have no clue)...at the beginning of the song ("Oh God, most high, almighty king") it is tradition to play on "Oh God" then muted a space "most high" mute another space then playing normally. In my case I let the keyboardist play those "on" beats and I play guitar what is normally the space. Arpeggiating gives you an almost endless amount of freedom. My essential arpeggio pattern is this. Bass note of chord...followed up essentially whatever. Just make sure your frethand stays holding the chord. for example while holding a G chord I usually hit low e followed by d, b, g then back to low E (if the chord lasts longer than a note spacing)...slow arpeggios sound excellent on slow songs and faster arpeggios work on alot of fast songs...especially if you have more than one instrument playing the same set of chords (i.e. have the piano play normal chords while the guitar arpeggiates). Just experiment alot, and listen to other peoples recordings of songs untill you lose the "campfire" feel (I'm assuming that that's the d-u-d-u pattern). It has its place on some songs, but not too often. Also that "campfire" (d-u-d-u) can be manipulated by not coming all the way up, but only hit the first three strings (g,b,e) and going back down. Anywho...my two cents. Oh yeah...as Nate already said...mute. Muting is like God's gift to guitar...well prolly not but muting can be really usefull

nate95366 · 08-03-2001, 11:59 AM

OK....here's a quick recording of just a couple of strum patterns.
I started with "campfire" for a couple bars and slowly let things mutate.....never changing the actual pace, though (you should be able to tap your foot to a constant beat throughout the whole thing is what I mean). You'll notice that I start to introduce muting and emphasizing of certain parts of the strum rhythms...The way I do it is a lot like playing a drum on guitar. Anyway, I tried to keep it simple and just play E and A chords so that you hear the rhythm better....

jjgirl13 · 08-03-2001, 06:39 PM

Uh... WOW...

I don't think I could strum like that though

How many strum patterns did you use for that?
(oh and does the strumming change every 4bars? or whenever?)

and.. btw

THANKS A MILLION (Again)

Nobody would have been able to help me out if it weren't for you

**thesteve** · 08-03-2001, 07:09 PM

You can strum like that. It just takes time and practice. go with the flow ya know. just play with the rhythm...experiment.

Phil · 08-11-2001, 08:57 AM

I am just learning how to play the guitar, and I downloaded the strum pattern mp3. That sounded REALLY good. Could you write down like the d/u strokes for all or some of that???

ShyStrings · 08-11-2001, 09:45 AM

I thought arpeggios were when you bent at least one note in the scale? Maybe no? Oh well...

Also remember that the strings sound different when you move your strum point: try it at the sound hole, around the 20th fret or so, and right in front of the bridge. I can't get the sound clip to play on my PC, but in case it wasn't in there, try using a couple strums on just the lower four strings and pick the higher ones every few seconds (hard to imagine til ya see it done, i guess)

-shy-

**thesteve** · 08-11-2001, 10:35 AM

No...arpeggios are the playing of a chord in single notes rather than a strum. Changing strum positions is cool. it can really change the sound like you were saying. Like playing closer to the bridge gives a tighter sound.

Beth · 08-18-2001, 11:14 AM

Hey, Nate! That is SOO cool!! Makes me wanna go play around right now! How long have you been playing anyway? Just curious how long it took you to be able to play like that.

- Beth

nate95366 · 08-18-2001, 05:51 PM

Thanks to all of you who enjoy the little recording!

fillup07: It would take a really long time to write out down-up patterning even for that short of a recording, and it would miss the point of the exercise. The real "pot of gold" at the end of the strumming rainbow has nothing to do with down-ups written out, but rather a "connection" between the beat of the song (like, your foot tapping to it) and what your strumming hand is doing. For some, it can seem like the pat your head and rub your tummy excercise for a long time......but working at tapping and strumming really does produce some results - maybe not overnight or overweek or sometimes overmonth (goodness, the guitar can be frustrating at times, but so much fun you've just gotta stick with it, you know...).

grace_saved:

I've been playing for a while. I think it's been going on 7 or 8 years now. I made a lot of progress in college, when I would sit around the room with a buddy of mine and play literally for a day at a time. For a while, life was like......eat, sleep, class, guitar. I've got my priorities straightened around now, but guitar still gets a good bit of work, and I try to make it an every-day thing to practice something that I "can't" do until I "can" do it and then until I can do it well.

Nate

Playn4God · 08-19-2001, 11:34 AM

Hey Nate, I just tried that, i can do all of the patterns except for the last one, how do you strum muted like that? I could easily do the palm muting part, but that part where you strum muted, i am trying to figure out how to get it to sound right? How did you do that?