7 Strumming Patterns & Techniques for Acoustic Guitar
Back to strumming patterns. Learning how to properly strum your acoustic guitar will possibly be one of your biggest hurdles as a guitarist. Rhythm and coordination does not come easy to some of us. The videos below are going to change that hopefully. After watching the video lessons below, you will hopefully become a strumming genius. Enjoy and remember to take things slow and try not to get frustrated if you don’t catch on right away….
7 Strumming Patterns & Techniques for Acoustic Guitar
Acoustic Bluegrass Rhythm Guitar Lessons
Basic Bluegrass Strumming Pattern
Great video from Peter Vogl of FreeGuitarVideos.com. In this video, Peter demonstrates some popular Bluegrass Guitar Strumming Patterns, which are excellent building blocks for learning more complicated patterns.
How to play Acoustic Bluegrass Guitar -- Standard Bluegrass Progression
Here is another great lesson from the folks over at Next Level Guitar. In this video, Marty Schwartz demonstrates how to play a standard, but very enjoyable bluegrass guitar progression. He teaches you how to play the chords and the rhythm.
Basic Bluegrass Rhythm Guitar Lesson
In this video, guitarist and teacher Ryan Crist demonstrates how to play some basic bluegrass guitar rhythms, progressions, chords and licks.
Learn Guitar – 7 Top Tips For Strumming Guitar Like A Pro
Try Not To Be So Tense
When you are strumming guitar it’s important to be relaxed. A tense guitarists strumming technique will sound stiff, rigid and amateur to the listeners. An important element of any great guitar players style is relaxed arms, shoulders and wrists while playing. When you are relaxed while playing, your strumming will sound natural and will flow with the beat of the song.
Make Certain That You Hold Your Pick Correctly
It is vital you hold your pick correctly when you are strumming. You need to hold the pick firmly between your thumb and first finger. It should be held in place by the pressure of the thumb.. Try and keep the pick held at an angle of 90 degrees to the strings as you strike them.
Make Sure To Keep Time
Rhythm and beat are really important when you are 
playing guitar. Try and practice with a metronome. If you don’t use a metronome at the very least tap your feet to keep time when strumming. If it helps, count the beats out loud when you are first learning.
Don’t Start Learning Without a Plan
It’s important to listen to the strumming pattern of the song you want to play. Try and hear each up and down strum. At first this will be difficult, but it will get easier. Eventually the strumming patterns will be obvious to you on your first listen. Write down the pattern clearly on a piece of paper and then practice until you can get it to work. This works better than blindly strumming away hoping to get it right.
Don’t Think That You Have To Learn Lots of Guitar Strumming Patterns
Concentrate on just one or two strumming patterns at first. You would be amazed how easily you will pick up new patterns once you mastered the first few.
String Damping Techniques
Learn guitar string damping techniques. There are two main types – one for the right hand and one for the left. This technique basically involves stopping the strings dead immediately after playing them. This creates a driving almost percussive sound.
As an added bonus, string damping can hide your mistakes.
Build Your Finger Strength
Building your finger strength using devices like a grip master will help you change chords quickly. The more confident you are changing chords fast the more variation you will be able to introduce into your strumming patterns
Check out our 3 FREE E-Books on Learning Guitar Chords ($27 value), learning guitar scales ($27 value) and learning guitar tab ($17 value) at learn acoustic guitar
Strumming Patterns of Guitars – By Victor Epand
Are you a guitarist who practices a lot, but is not able to make the proper sound from the strings? If this is the case then the problem might be that you are not strumming the strings properly.
Strumming the strings properly is the most important part of playing a string instrument. There are lots of strumming patterns of guitars. Here are some of them:
Let us start with a basic 4 beat pattern. Tune your guitar first and then settle down with a chord, say D Major chord. Hold this chord properly. Make sure that every single string is sounding properly. Now, start counting the 4 beat rhythm. You do not have to make it complicated first. Just count 1, 2, 3, 4 and strum up and down. Strum down while counting 1. Then strum up while counting 2. Continue this pattern with every beat.
Your second step is to start playing off beats. To do this, start playing the 4 beat rhythm by counting 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and. Here offbeat is referred as and. Now while counting, start strumming the guitar in an up and down pattern. That means while counting 1, strum downward and while counting that offbeat, i.e. and, strum upward. Practice it until you get a proper hold of it.
These are the easy 
strumming patterns of guitars. These are the basics and mainly for beginners. Once you feel comfortable with these patterns then try playing some difficult ones.
Break the rhythm and strum with them. That means now count a 4 beat rhythm as 1 and and 2 and and etc. These two ands means you are breaking 1half beat to two-quarter beat. Use the previous patter of strumming here. That means strum up with the first and. Strum down with the second and.
Go for more complicated ones now. Break a beat into 4-quarter beats and strum with them. After this start to break the beats in as much quarter beats as you can. Remember, the more you break, the more it will become tough for you to maintain the rhythm.
To maintain the rhythms of the strumming patterns of guitars, you can follow some rules.
Tap your foot while playing. Remember; tap your foot downwards when you are strumming down. Do just the opposite while strumming up.
You can even count 1 2 3 4 louder. Count 1 and, when you are playing the off beats.
Do not play fast at first. Start playing very slow. After you feel comfortable with the pattern, then go for a faster speed.
While trying different strumming patterns of guitars, you should be aware of some basic rules.
If you play an acoustic guitar, then make sure that you are strumming over the sound hole. It will give you the best sound.
Be very careful that both the up strumming and down strumming are sounding same. Otherwise it will not deliver the correct sound.
Do not strum too hard. It will make a rattle sound. Do not even strum too soft. It will make a wimpy sound.
When you are playing different strumming patterns of guitars, be careful about your forearm. While playing, your wrist will move, but not your forearm.
So, practice these strumming patterns of guitars, and you will be surprised to see that how brilliant you can play.
Victor Epand is an expert consultant for guitars, drums, and synthesizers. You can find the best marketplace for guitars, drums, and synthesizers at these 3 sites: http://www.sellusedguitars.com , http://www.selluseddrums.com , and http://www.sellusedsynthesizers.com .
