You’ll continue playing a downstroke each on the 1st and the 2nd beat, like the 1st strumming pattern.

You can see two upstrokes introduced right after the 3rd and the 4th beat. How To Play: Pay close attention to the chart above. This pattern is widely used by alternative rock bands, so this style will be quite useful if you like playing Alt-Pop. But, if you pay attention to the chart, you’ll be fine.

Once you get the hang of the 4-beat downstroke, let’s add some upstrokes to the mix, shall we? This one is slightly trickier to play compared to the first strumming style.

Of course, you won’t be playing the way the guitar is actually strummed in the song, but you can still play the gist of it. This strumming pattern adds just the right amount of atmosphere to the song, without taking anything away from the singer’s beautiful vocals.īut if you think about it, you can use this strumming pattern to play most of the simple 4/4 songs that you still can’t get the exact strumming style for. The track opens with haunting vocals that are accompanied by a simple 4-beat downstroke pattern on the guitar. Songs That Use This Pattern: Check out the first 30 seconds of this song by Feme Vanille that uses the 4-beat downstroke. But hey, don’t sacrifice accuracy for speed! You can start out by playing this style alongside a slow metronome beat that works for you, and slowly build up your speed to play it faster. This means that you don’t do anything when counting the ‘and’ upbeat – playing a downstroke at 1, skipping ‘the and’ or the upbeat, then again playing a downstroke on 2, and skipping ‘the and’ or upbeat again – and so on and so forth.

How To Play: As you can see on the chart up there, you will be playing a downstroke (move your strumming hand down the strings) on every beat.

Since it’s so easy, it’s perfect for building your sense of timing and gaining confidence to move onto more complex strumming styles later. This is a really simple strumming part that is great for beginners.

Midi guitar strumming patterns