How To Play Guitar Chords – Strumming Patterns:
In order to play a good rhythm guitar, you have to be consistent above all other factors.
If you need to ponder how to strum each chord as a rhythm guitarist, you are not yet “ready for primetime”. A great rhythm guitarist needs to have a rigid rock-solid rhythm and be ver decisive in making chord changes.
You need to employ some basic strumming strategies and what this involves is putting your right hand on “auto-pilot” so to speak, an not having to be concerned about it.
Be sure to memorize the techniques shown in this lesson. Play them until you do not need to think about them at all, and can smoothly transition between chords, between chord strumming patterns, and much more.
Try these first few examples.
Most importantly, note the pattern of the right hand – more specifically, the up and down strokes of the right hand picking hand. Note the symbols used for up and down strokes are located directly beneath the TAB portion of the staff. The “V” indicates an upstroke or up-sweep of the pick and the other symbol, which looks like a little bridge indicated the downstroke of the pick.
Downstrokes of the pick are on what is called “on the beat”, which means that to play the chords on the timing of the beats of 1, 2, 3, 4. These indication for timing are shown between the notation and Tab staff in the music.
This concept of strumming styles is very fundamental and it is essential that you master this concept to be able to be a solid rhythm guitarist.
How To Play Chords – Example 1 and 2:
How to Play Chords - Example 1 and 2:
The first measure in the diagram above indicates one of the most simple strumming patterns. All you need to do is to form the C Major chord and play each chord as quarter notes with one beat per strum and 4 strums in the first measure. All chords are played with a downstroke.
The second measure steps it up a bit by using eighth notes. Notice the timing between the staffs. This measure still is a 4-beat measure, but this time you have to play 2 chords per beat for a total of 8 strums. Also, most importantly note the down and up strokes.
How To Play Chords – Example 3:
How to Play Chords - Example 3
The third and fourth measures combine both quarter and eighth notes, with the quarter notes played on the beats of “1″ and “3″ and the eighth note chords played on the “2″ “and” & the “4″ “and” portions of the measure. Carefully note the mixed down and up strokes of the picking hand.
How To Play Chords – Example 4:
How to Play Chords - Example 4
Measures 5 and 6 have a slightly different pattern with a quarter note strum on beat one and the balance of the measure is played with down and up strokes for the eighth note chords.
How to Play Chords – Some Tips For Timing:
One tip is to tap your foot as you play these passages. Your foot taps the floor on the downbeat and is up on the upbeat or the “and”. Another great learning aid is to count out loud as you are practicing when first going through these exercises. For quarter notes you just count “one-two-three-four”. For eighth notes you would count “one-and-two-and-three-and-four-and”.
How To Play Chords – Example 5:
How to Play Chords - Example 5
Example 5 indicates all eighth notes without any quarter notes. Played with just straight even-toned chords can make this style very boring. In order to bring interest or ‘color’ into this strumming pattern you need to add accents to certain beats. Try experimenting and see what sounds good. Be sure to watch your down and up strokes of the pick.
In order to make these beats or accent stand out, simply strum the chords harder or more forcefully to make them a bit louder.
To get you started, you can start by adding accent to the 2nd and 4th beats and note how much this changes the color of the measure.
