songbook with strumming patterns

This question seems to get asked again and again and again....always seems to disolve into "Just pick them out yourself..."

Note to educators!

How about a book/pdf of say ten, well known tunes with a strumming patterns?

Tutors, usually good guitar players find this stuff easy to play....us beginners find it very tricky!!

Give us I kick start here...

This question seems to get asked again and again and again....always seems to disolve into "Just pick them out yourself..."

Note to educators!

How about a book/pdf of say ten, well known tunes with a strumming patterns?

Tutors, usually good guitar players find this stuff easy to play....us beginners find it very tricky!!

Give us I kick start here...
Very well said !!

Being a beginner, I lack the technical ability to just make up my own strumming pattern. I think that learning the correct pattern of a tune would (A) help people recognise what I'm playing which isn't always clear and (B) give me the confidence to goof about and create my own version of that song.

So, back to the original question : does anybody know of a book that show the strumming pattern to different songs?

(if not, then Misters Hackett and Hodge better go write one!!) :o)

I'm not sure of a song book per se but there are books devoted to strumming etc. I have one but never used it much. I'll see if I can get the name and post it for you

Hal Leonard Publishing has a whole series of songbooks in it's Strum It! series. These books provide the chords, timing and strum patterns for the songs. Some are better than others, but it will provide a start to get you familiar with common patterns.

-- Rob

I seem to remember some of the Hal Leonard folk songs books had suggested strumming patterns in them.

I'll have to take a closer look if I remember when i'm at home.

Edit:
Wow, simul-post

I know this isn't exactly song strumming patterns but it did help me.

http://www.scenicnewengland.net/guitar/acoustic/info/strumming.htm

Being a beginner, I lack the technical ability to just make up my own strumming pattern. I think that learning the correct pattern of a tune would (A) help people recognise what I'm playing which isn't always clear and (B) give me the confidence to goof about and create my own version of that song.

Two things here that compound the problem - first, even as a beginer you do have the technical ability to make up your own strumming. There are zillions of reasons to think you don't, but you do. It's just that (a) you don't think you do because (b) you don't think your strumming is as interesting as what you hear either live or on recorded performances.

Second, and more important, by thinking a song has a "correct" strumming pattern you're setting yourself to think that you have to play one pattern exactly, and continuously throughout a song. Good guitarists flip from "pattern" to "pattern," playing a measure of this and then a measure of that without thinking about it. It's not about getting a correct pattern, it's about keeping rhythm correctly and then playing it in a consistent and interesting fashion. Any "strumming pattern," when analayzed over the course of an entire song, is going to have minor changes in it throughout the song. Are you going to learn where each of those occurs so that you can play it at the precise minute mark? Even the performers play their songs slightly differently every time. That's the organic nature of music.

Instead of worrying about patterns, grab any music book you want to of transcribed music and look at how the strumming is laid out in terms of rhythm and start with that. If you're more comfortable thinking in terms of "downs and ups" (which is part of the pattern mentality and something you want to grow out of as soon as you can), then use this article to translate almost any rhythm pattern in any book in terms of ups and downs:

https://www.guitarnoise.com/lesson/getting-past-up-and-down-part-2/

There are quite a few books that have "suggested" patterns to go along with them. But the reality is that there are just so many ways of dividing a beat in terms of strumming that a book of patterns would be very short and also pretty boring. What makes it work is not just the "pattern" of strumming (or what might be better called your "fallback strum") but also the dynamics, the use of bass notes, partial chords, arpeggios and single note lines mixed into the strumming.

If you can clap your hands to a beat, you can strum a rhythm pattern. Don't go making it a lot harder on yourself by turning the search for the "correct pattern." You'll become a better musician a lot faster if you can get through this stage of development.

Hope this helps.

Peace

You know, I've been going nutzso this week with this. And after all this time, reading David's sage advice I should know better.

I have a downloaded copy of Bill Withers' Ain't No Sunshine. I have to assume it's as he wrote it. I've been watching his YT vid over and over and over. The sheet music and listening to him play calls for a bass note pick and the chord. Well, I can't quite do that yet, but I can strum the chords in the up/down pattern that gets close to mimicking the finger picking.

The problem is that darn extra note aka the bass, plus a few extraneous notes on the sheet that you can discern that he's playing. That all kind of throws off the chord changes where the lyrics change under the chords. That is, you lose a few strum beats. What to do? Strum a few more beats until it's the right time to change the chord. And that's ony if I'm playing with the recording. If I'm playing and singing by myself (yeah, hellooo! :roll: nah seriously), I can extend a chord as long as I want before I start the lyrics and next chord again. As Siggi Mertens said it's called "making music". The point is, make it work for you.

Just for kicks here is the YT vid of him playing, and one of the better covers in a strumming pattern.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIdIqbv7SPo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1seEFYtX28&feature=related

Here's a link to a website that shows some strumming patterns for a variety of popular song.

http://www.grouptherapy.guernsey.net/strumming.html

-- Rob

matteo ? (I think was his name) had a BIG list of songs that he worked out the strumming patterns for that he was handing out AGES ago, I lost mine in the big PC crash of '07 and never got them back.....

Anyone have a copy ?

Cheers
Keith

While looking to feed my new addiction with information at Borders yesterday, I stumbled across "The Complete Guitar Player" by Russ Shipton. It's a 3 part course that I got in a single book and it includes strumming patterns for all of the songs used to teach.

I got it since it includes some popular songs used to illustrate various chords, techniques, etc. There are songs by The Beatles, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Oasis and others. I don't know if they strictly adhere to the original or dumb it down a bit for us beginners, but since it was only $35 and included a CD and a pull out chord chart I figured I'd give it a go.

Hal Leonard Publishing has a whole series of songbooks in it's Strum It! series. These books provide the chords, timing and strum patterns for the songs. Some are better than others, but it will provide a start to get you familiar with common patterns.

-- Rob
And most of their other guitar and easy guitar music books inside of the front title page or the back cover will have 10 strum patterns and 10 finger picking patterns and on the song lead sheet page you will get a suggested strum and pick pattern. Sometimes along with a tab and standard notation of the melody line.

While looking to feed my new addiction with information at Borders yesterday, I stumbled across "The Complete Guitar Player" by Russ Shipton. It's a 3 part course that I got in a single book and it includes strumming patterns for all of the songs used to teach.

I got it since it includes some popular songs used to illustrate various chords, techniques, etc. There are songs by The Beatles, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Oasis and others. I don't know if they strictly adhere to the original or dumb it down a bit for us beginners, but since it was only $35 and included a CD and a pull out chord chart I figured I'd give it a go.
I was going to say that I'd found the answer to my own question but it looks like you beat me to it. I have had a copy of Russ Shiptons "The complete guitar player" for many years but I never looked at it properly. The book was sold with a vinyl disc with all the examples so that shows just how long I've had it ! (some people reading this have never seen a vinyl disc, that makes me feel old! ) :cry:
The disc didn't survive the last 20 years in my cellar (even if it had survived, I no longer have the machine to play it). Since my birthday is coming up soon, I've dropped some serious hint to my wife to get the up-to-date version of this book.
By the way; www.amazon.co.uk are doing a rather interesting deal on all 4 books in the series.

Thanks to all for the different links and suggestions.

A special message to David Hodge: I promise that I wont get hung up on playing the "correct" strumming pattern. Russ Shipton says also suggests different patterns in his book. I'll keep working on your podcast lessons and apply those to different songs. In short: I promise I'll goof about with the songs. It's nice to have a starting point though. :D

Have a good day.

This is a good book that clearly shows strumming and picking patterns for included songs
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Guitar-Player-Books-Omnibus/dp/082561936X

didn't see post above :oops:

matteo ? (I think was his name) had a BIG list of songs that he worked out the strumming patterns for that he was handing out AGES ago, I lost mine in the big PC crash of '07 and never got them back.....

Anyone have a copy ?

Cheers
Keith
hi mate

i remember! well i do also throw the file because i'm into heavy metal and heavy metal songs rarely requires a proper strumming. Anyway a few ideas:

a) each guitar tab book i saw, it does include suggested strumming pattern. I suggest to start with something like Nirvana Unplugged which includes songs approachable by a beginner
b) it is also a good idea to study a book, with included cd, devolved to rhythm guitar because they always suggest the most common rhythms and patterns for each style (reggae, folk, pop, ballads etc). Otherwise there are entire books dedicated to most common fingerpickig and strumming patterns

when you will do step 1 and 2 no songs could give you any trouble unless it is in a style or in a time signature you're not familiar with.

Having said so, to work a pattern by yourself, you can also follow these steps:

a) determine the time signature of the song (probably 4/4 but sometimes it is 3/4).
b) determine the general feel of it: does it use straight notes or a triplets feel? To understand how triplets feel sounds like, just listen to blues or old songs a la platters
c) determine if the song is based on quaver or on semiquavers. If we're talking about pop music a slow number is most often than not based on semiquavers (example One by U2), the other ones on quavers (example Dead flowers by Rolling stones)
d) last thing most important: determine if the chords are changing on beat or on the off-beat (very very common just listen to neil young hey, hey my my or Nirvana's Polly).

when you have done this steps you could play any pattern that has the same resolution of the original

try this ones

common pop/rock songs:
fast D/du/u/du or any variation of it
slow dd/ddu/dd/ddu or any variation of it

if chord changes on the offbeat a very common one is

d/d/du/du/-/d/du/du

if it is in 3/4

Bass note/D/d or any variation of it

Of course other styles have some peculiar rhythms and patterns like this

country: Bd/BD/Bd/Bd
reggae: play on the offbeats only (see david hodge lesson "i shot the sherriff" as a reference)
funky: play a counitnous sixteen notes accenting some strums (i.e. Dudu/Dudu/Dudu/Dudu)