7 ESSENTIAL Beginner Guitar STRUMMING Patterns You MUST KNOW

Hey, guitar enthusiast Lauren Bateman here. In this lesson video we're going to be going over the seven essential strumming patterns that I feel you should know as a beginner guitar player to help you play along to the songs you know and love. So let's get into the lesson.

So these strumming patterns are a subset of some of the strumming patterns that I go over in my complete set seven level guitar system. But I think they're important ones for people to know. They get used in a lot of songs and we're going to start off with the easiest one first. Now, strumming pattern number one is super simple and it just ensures that I know you have a good basis for rhythm. So what we would call this is just a simple quarter Note strumming pattern. Four down strums. 1, 2, 3, 4. So every time you count, you strum down. Let's do this on an E minor chord, alright?

1, 2, 3, 4. Down, down, down, down. 1, 2, 3, 4. Down, down, down, down.

That's super simple and it's a great way to get started with playing along to songs you know and love. You can throw it behind my very beginner four chords that I teach the G E minor CD and it'll start sounding like music. And just with that strumming pattern and those four chords alone, you'll be able to learn tons of songs on the guitar. So that's strumming pattern number one. Make sure you have the understanding of that because now we're going to talk about eighth notes in strumming pattern number two. So we just discussed quarter notes as the downbeat, the down count. One, two, three, four.

Down, down, down, down.

Well, the eighth notes are the upbeat or the up strum that comes between the quarter notes. So these are your quarter notes. Ready? 1, 2, 3, 4. 8th notes.

1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1, 2, 3, four. 8th 1 and 2 and 3 and 4.

And so that is going to be the basis of our next strumming pattern. And is it's just an eighth note strumming pattern.

Down, up, down, up, down, up,down, up.

Now if I play an E minor chord, it's going to sound like this.

One and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up.

And if you play it really fast behind a chord progression, say I do G, E minor, C, D, it'll sound like this.

So that's strumming pattern number two. Let's go to strumming Pattern number three, which is just the same strumming pattern you just learned, except instead of doing down, up, all we're going to do is downs. And this is very important to know because this is used a lot in, like, classic rock, any type of rock music alternative. All downs, I'm going to play an E minor chord and I'm just going to hit the top three strings, mostly more of like an E power chord. And we're going to do all downs, same timing.

1 and 2 and 3 and 4.

And so it sounds like this.

1 and 2 and 3 and four and down, down, down, down, down,. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down.

So if you put this behind some cool power chords.

Very cool. Used a lot in rock music. And why, I think it's a very essential strumming pattern for beginner players to learn. So the next strumming pattern that we're going to learn, we're going to be removing one of our up strums. We're actually going to be removing the up strum after the one. Now, I know what you're saying, Lauren. Does this really make a big difference? Yeah, it can actually make a big difference in sound, and I'll show you why. But first, let's learn the strumming pattern. Getting back to our E minor chord, it's going to be down, down, up.

Down, up, down, up, 1, 2 and 3 and 4 and 1, 2 and 3 and 4and 1, 2 and 3 and 4&.

So here's the first one.

1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4& 1, 2 and 3 and 4 & 1, 2 and 3 and 4.

AND. So this creates like a little bit of an accent on that down strum. It makes that down strum ring out more. On the first, the first strum. If I put a chord progression behind it, G, E minor, C, D.

It'll sound like this 1, 2 and 3 and 4 and 1, 2 and 3 and 4 & 1, 2 and 3 and 4, 1, 2 and 3 and.

4 AND. As opposed to 1 and.

2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3.

And 4. See, that way it kind of sounds a little flat, but if you just take out that one strum, it opens it up and gives a little bit more dynamics to your strumming. So super fun strumming pattern. If you guys can pull it off, Give it a try. Hey, guys, I hope you're enjoying this video so far. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel and turn on your notifications. This way, you'll see when I release new videos just like this one. So this next strumming pattern is a variation I do on the one that we just learned where we remove the up strum after the four. Because some of my students, especially when you're a beginner and you're just learning to play guitar, sometimes changing the chords fast enough and getting that up strum in can be tricky. So sometimes we'll just drop the up strum. So it's going to be 1, 2, and 3.

And 4. Down, down, up, down.

Up, down. So it sounds like this. So it's going to be 1, 2.

3, 4. 1, 2 and 3 and 4. 1, 2, and 3 and 4. 1, two, and three, and one, two, and three.

And.

Four. Okay. Down, down, up, down, up, down, down, down, up, down.

Up, down. All right. So if you're someone whose chord changes just might be lagging behind just a little bit, just drop that last up strum, and it might help you keep your timing just a little bit better and still have a really great sounding strumming pattern. Now, this strumming pattern here is probably my go to strumming pattern for a lot of beginners once we get into eighth note strumming patterns. And if you go to my website, laurenbatement.com, you'll see I have a lot of chord charts there. And this is one that I commonly recommend for students to use. So back to our E minor chord. This one's going to be 1, 2, 3, and 4. And 1, 2, 3.

And 4. And down, down, down, up, down, up, down, down, down, up, down, up, down, down, down, up, down, up, down, down, down, up.

Down, up. And again, if that up strum is too much, you can always remove that up strum if you need more time to switch between your chords. So I've put this one behind a chord progression. G, E minor, C, D. It would sound.

Like this. One, two, three, and four. And one, two, three and four. One, two, three and four. And 1, 2, 3.

And 4. And already sounds very musical in a lot like a song. I'm sure there's plenty of songs that use that chord progression, you and that strumming pattern, and you would sound fantastically well. So the last strumming pattern I'm going to show you can be somewhat tricky because it's a little bit of a round. But, you know, think of a song like Night Moves by Bob Seger. You'll probably hear this once we get into the round. It might sound familiar. So it's going to be 1, 2 and.

3, 4. And 1, 2 and 3, 4. And down, down, up, down, down, up, down, down, up, down, down, up. 1, 2 and 3, 4, 3, 4. And down, down, up, down, up, down, down, up, down.

Down, up. So again, if I put it behind a chord progression. G E minor cd. Love these four chords. These are the first four chords I teach all my students because you can play so much music and songs with it. G, E minor, C, d.

We got 1, 2 and 3, 4. And 1, 2 and 3, 4. And 1, 2 and 3, four, and 1, 2 and 3.

4 and.

So that's seven essential strumming patterns I think you guys can use right now today on some of the songs you know and love. If you're interested in learning more about strumming or learning more about playing the guitar, I do have a seven level guitar system where I teach you all about chords, strumming, picking, how to get your chord changes even faster. That's something we work on a lot in the course. So if you're interested in checking that out, I'll put a link in the description below for you guys. Okay. And YouTube's gonna pop a couple more videos over here if you want. Go check those out and I hope to see you guys in another lesson video.