stuck strumming the same way for every new song i play

Hey iceanfire,

I've been playing for about two years and I still do that. I usually fall back into one picking and strumming pattern by default. But yes you can beat it if you spend a few minutes a day trying out any other strumming pattern slowly.

Try this site for some tips on strumming and strumming patterns: http://www.scenicnewengland.net/guitar/acoustic/info/strumming.htm

Also go to any of the beginner's songs on this site for tips on strumming by the one and only David Hodge.

listen more. hear it. don't just try to feel it.

Good old D DU UDU... every time I try and figure out a strumming pattern I start with that... and half the time that's what I end up with too. What works for me is to loop the song I'm trying to learn and play a couple of bars at a time, I won't get the strumming bang on at first, I start with D DU UDU, but I find that after a few loops of really trying to listen to the strums it starts to come together.

Heres another really good site for strumming patterns

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

Hi mate

first of all don't be discouraged since most of us have passed your same troubles. Having said so I suggest you to do a search in the forum since there are a lot of similar topics where you can find some useful tips on how to discerne a strumming pattern.

In a nut:

- yes it is important to learn several different patterns so I encourage you to spend some time in doing specific training about it. The best way to do it is to get a tutorial cd where you can learn how each pattern sounds like and then replicate it on your guitar;
- more patterns you know more chanches there are that you can find out a suitable pattern for teh songs you listen to;
- it is not important to replicate the same exact pattern of the orginal recording but to stay quite faithful to the original it is important to play a pattern which is based on the same resolution of the orignal song;
- the pattern you're playing works wonderfully well for all songs whose rhythm is based upon 4/4 eight notes (folk, pop-rock), it does not work so well for:

a) blues since it is based on triplets
b) most ballads since they're based on sixteen notes (if you play d/du/u/du at say 75 bpm it is a funeral march not a slow song!);
c) hard rock and driving rock employing power chords since the most common pattern is straight eight notes played with downstrums only;
d) reggae songs since they usually involve sixteen notes or eight notes played on off-beats only
e) country which is mainly bass and strum

It also doesn't work at all for songs in 3/4, 6/8 or other time signatures differnt than 4/4

Cheers

Matteo

thanks for all the suggestions. Can you recommend me any specific tutorial cd I should check out matteo?
Also where else can I learn more about songs and their bpm and how to select a strumming pattern based on that (should i just listen to the drum beats ?) Unfortunatley, this stuff doesn't come naturally to me as I do not have any music background. I plan to start studying some music theory hopefully two weeks from now when I'll have more time.

thank you for all your responses.

-hadi

here's another couple places to look at video instructions to boot.

http://www.freeguitarvideos.com/guitar_lessons_rhythm.html

http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?user=kennylim100&s=VTNYf6Nubdk

The second one is kind of song lesson, but will teach strumming patterns for each song.

thanks for all the suggestions. Can you recommend me any specific tutorial cd I should check out matteo?
Also where else can I learn more about songs and their bpm and how to select a strumming pattern based on that (should i just listen to the drum beats ?) Unfortunatley, this stuff doesn't come naturally to me as I do not have any music background. I plan to start studying some music theory hopefully two weeks from now when I'll have more time.

thank you for all your responses.

-hadi

Hi hadi

I used a method by a French guitarist, available at http://www.mega-muse.com , but unfortunately it is available only in French and Italian and I don't know if you understand any of these languages. Anyway here is a couple of links where you could listen to several eight notes strumming patterns:

http://guitar.about.com/od/freebeginnerlessons/Free_Beginner_Guitar_Lessons.htm

and

http://www.fenderplayersclub.com/pdfs/lessons/basic_rock.pdf

In the same French guitarist site there is a link

http://www.mega-muse.com/pages/rythmiques_de_chansonspag.html

where you can find the suggested strumming pattrens for a lot of famous songs which is very helpful to give you an hint.

Just take notice that when he says that the song could be played with a "folk" rhythm he means that it is based on eight notes and so the suggested or at least acceptable pattern is the D/du/u/du you already know, whene he says that the rhythm is "folk-rock" he refers to sixteen notes so the pattern could be

dd/ddu/dd/ddu

when he says country-blues this means the song is based on triplets and must be played with blues rhythms

Regarding the othere questions:

a) how to choose the bpm. Let's remember that most slow songs are played from 70 to 85 bpm, some are even slower (I guess that Wish you were here is around 60-65 bpm), if they're a bit moved they are from 90 to 100 bpm. Except for heavy metal it is quite rare to find out songs well over 100 bpm which employs sixteen notes so if teh song is faster you could assume that is played with eight notes or triplets. The classic mid-tempo is around 110-130 bpm and that's where the d/du/u/du usually works best: most of Creedence clearwater revival calssics works well with that pattern. Over 130-140 it is quite fast songs: classic rock'n'roll songs a la Chuck berry are around 160 bpm so that's where a simple du/du/du/du works well
b) regarding the choiche of teh pattern except for the speed of teh song, as I said the more patterns you learn,teh easier you could recognize one of them in songs you listen to(or maybe if not the exact pattern at least a very similar one). Anyway listening to the drums and to count teh beats it is an excellent way to find out a suitable pattern: don't forget that if you play the same rhythym of the drums your version is ok even if in the original recording teh guitars are playing something a bit different. If you listen to the drums pay attention to the beats: the typical rock sequence is bass-drum, ride, bass-drum, ride while the hi-hat plays eight notes, so you could listen to rhythms like this

dum, ka, du-dun, ka

which means 1,2,3&,4

or du-dum, ka, du-dum, ka

1&,2,3&,4

Sing these rhythms whene you listen to a rock songs and you will soon internalize them

Cheers

Matteo

p.s. if you search back there are some topics where I posted some tips, taken from the aforementioned guitar book, to correctly learn how to play a complex rhythm: try them I can assure that they worked excellently for me!

This is more for coming up with strumming patterns of your own father than figuring out strumming patterns for a song you want to play.

But what I do to find a strumming pattern that fits the mood/feeling/experience of the song that I am writing is play the chord(s) over and over and over really slowly and soon you will start to hear the pattern form itself inside your head. But you have to listen to the chords from the context of the song, i.e: the thought, feeling, experience, and/or inspiration that made you want to write the song - or just really be into the song, get swept away.