Essential Tips for Strumming 16th Notes - Guitar Lesson

Hey, guitar enthusiasts, in this lesson we're going to be going over 16th note strumming patterns. I feel for a lot of guitar players this really opens up their strumming and it's when they really start feeling like rhythm guitar playing. All right. It adds a lot of versatility to your playing. So what we're going to do in this lesson is the first thing I do is we're just going to talk about the count. How do you count these things out so that you stay in time? Now, the great thing about the 16o strumming patterns, that they sound really good, but they can be really fast. And I'm going to show you what I mean by that in just a little minute.

Then once we understand how to count these strumming patterns, I'm going to give you a few simple strumming patterns around this 16th note idea just to start adding into your playing. I'll show you a few simple ones, but maybe one or two more complicated ones. And if you're interested in learning more about sixteen note rhythms, I highly recommend you check out my expressive rhythm and strumming course. I've got like, I think over like 60 different types of strumming patterns, percussive rhythms. But let's first start off with the count. Okay, so we're going to take things way back just so we, we talk about the timing and I want to talk about how 16th notes can get very quick. So the basis of a lot of counting is just a simple quarter note, four down strums. 1, 2, 3, 4. Okay. 1, 2, 3, four. And if we subdivide this strumming pattern in half, we get eighth notes, which then gives us an up strum. So it's gonna be 1 and 2.

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

Okay. And if we subdivide that again, we're gonna get 16th notes, which means I have to fit in 16 different strums inside this little measure. So it's gonna.

So you can see if I keep the tempo the same, the speed at which I'm playing, and I go from quarter notes to eighth notes to 16th notes.

Those 16 notes sound very, very quick and they can be very, very fast. If you think of a band, I always think of like Mumford and Sons, who do like really, really fast rhythms. And I'm going to give you a rhythm that's very rhythm in one of their songs. They can get very, very quick. Okay. And the thing with 16th note rhythms and when you start playing faster is we have to remember to keep the strumming hand relaxed, okay. You especially on 16th notes. And if you're trying to play fast, you cannot be stiff in your strumming hand. Your hand has to be very, very relaxed. I'm just going to play a 16th note pattern very, very quickly. Just watch my hand. It's going to be like a whip. So we get.

Okay, so you can see the hand is just, it's really going fast. Okay. And it's down, up, down, up, down, down. Now how do we count these rhythms? Okay, so you heard me say quarter notes are 1, 2, 3, 4. Eighth notes are 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 16th notes are 1, 1 e anda 2 e anda 3 e anda 4 e anda so it's basically down, up, down up, down up. So essentially it's like playing two measures, two measures of eighth notes. Okay. Because eight plus eight is 16. But we just count them a little bit different. We count them 1e and a 2e and a 3e and a 4e anda so it gives you 16 strums within a single measure. Okay. So that's why they're called 16th notes. And they can be very, very fast, especially if you're playing a very fast song. The simplest way to start using 16th notes in your playing is just by adding one little strum onto an 8th note pattern. This is a really great strum for ballads. I think of something like, you know, hey Jude, all my Beatles songs. Let it be anything that is a ballad. You can use this strumming pattern on Heart of Gold. I use this on sometimes as well and it just sounds great. Okay, so what is the strumming pattern? The eighth note pattern that you would play would be 1, 2 and 3, 4 and I'm just playing on a G chord right now. Okay, so it's 1, 2 and 3, 4.

And so that's down, down, up, down, down, up.

Alright, so if I play 1, 2 and a 1, 2 and a 34 and a 1, 2 and a three.

4 and a that ah, on the.

End that's the 16th note.

So it's down, down, down, up down down, down, up, down down, down, up.

It just adds a little extra something to your strumming but sounds really nice. So if you were playing just a simple ballad and you were going 1.

2 and 3 4M.

Nothing wrong with that. But.

That one little extra strum really changed, changes the feel. The strum to me seems to come alive a little bit more. See if you felt that way Too, you know, put a comment below. It just gives a little bit more movement to the music, and it feels like, oh, there's a little bit more emotion to the strumming, all just by adding one little 16th note. And that's usually where I start with students, is, hey, let's just get one little 16th note in there, because it is a little bit quicker. Okay. Because you're putting a 16th note on the end, you're going to have to change your courses, your chords just a little bit faster. Okay. So that's why I don't recommend 16th note for beginners who are still learning how to change chords, because you have to be that much faster with your chord changes to do 16th note notes. Okay. Just as a note. So another little variation on this that you can do. I think of a song like if I Die Young by the BAM PERI. It's 1 and 2 and A, 3 and 4 and A. But those first 2 8th notes, the 1 and. And then the 3M, are going to be bass notes. Okay. So instead of strumming the whole song, you know, I could do.

So that's 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and.

But if I add the 16th note.

Again, just that little extra note brings things to life. So if I just kind of play the chord progression to that song.

In here, it just. It just brings things to life just that little bit more. Really, really cool strumming pattern again, another one that's great for ballads. All right, let's talk about a faster pattern. So I mentioned Mumford and Sons earlier, and I did a strumming intensive with some of my students, and some of them were not used to playing very, very fast. I. This song is super fast. I want to say it's like over 200 beats per minute. Like, the strumming is just. It's. It's. You got to get that hand moving. All right? And we slowly worked our way up to it. But the strumming pattern, I wrote it down. 1 and 2 e and 3 and 4 e. And okay, 1 and 2 e and 3 and four e. And 1 and 2 e and 3 and Four e. And so again, it's just one little 16th note that's kind of added in there, but it's going to change the feel. So if I again, just did a straight eighth note pattern.

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

Okay. And I have to do it fast.

And that's what we get. But now we have.

See, because the dynamic. And I could do. I could have done the downs with the eighth notes, you know, 1 and.

You know 1 and 2, 3.

It's just the dynamic changes. So if I did this as eighth notes, I'm just. We're going to put this on the screen. You can see eighth notes. They usually alternate down and up, down on the ones. Ups are on the ands. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4, and on 16th notes. Because your hand is moving so fast, you typically tend to keep the 16th note strumming, which is that the ones and the ands are downs and the E's and the us are ups. All right, so you'll notice if I were going to play an eighth note rhythm, I probably wouldn't go.

I could, you know, I would probably go down, up. They're alternating down and up. Whereas if I play a 16th note.

Pattern.

I'm hitting a lot more downs because I just happen to be hitting one and two and. Okay, so you're hearing a lot more of the. Of the bass in this pattern probably, too. So if I do that again. So it's 1 and 2, E and 3 and 4 E and down, down.

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

One, two. We'll start slow. One, two. Here we go.

One and two E and three and.

Four E and down, down, down, up, down.

Okay, we're going to slowly start picking up the speed.

Okay. So you can. Did your hands start to tense up as I got a little bit faster? And you're like, you know, all of a sudden, maybe you started skipping on some of the strings. That's what you do to build up speed when you're learning songs that are fast like that, or you're learning fast drumming patterns. Take them slow.

And then.

Okay. As you get used to the muscle memory of playing that, your hand and your forearm will start to relax. Okay. So you're going to need a firm grip on the pick, but not too firm that you're tightening things up. That's the other thing. When you're playing fast 16th note patterns, if you're using a pick that is too thick, it's more likely the pick is going to fall out of your hand on the ground because you are moving so much faster. I find this is a 0.73 millimeter pick. I tend to, like 0.73. For faster strumming, slower strumming, I might do something a little bit thicker. But I find if I use a thicker pick and I start going like. So I find if I'm doing something like Folsom Prison Blues and I'm doing a fast 16th note pattern.

If I use too thick of a pick, it's like the pick's just gonna end up on the floor. And it happens, it happens when you're, when you're strumming faster like that. So what was that pattern?

I didn't have that down but.

So it's very similar to what we were just doing. It was 1 and 2 E and A, 3 and 4 E and A. And I was accenting, I believe the 2 and the 4.

Now I'm accenting the and after the 1 and the 3. So it's almost like a boom Chuck style pattern. I wasn't even going to go over this but I played it. So let's go over it since we're here. And you're probably asking what were you doing? Because everyone does that. I play something like what did you do? So it's 1 and 2e and so.

It'S down, down, down, up, down, up, down, down, down, up, down, up.

Now I'm trying to play the bass note on the first one and then I'm really, I'm really hitting the guitar on the. And I'm trying to make that as big as I possibly can. So that's why you're hearing this kind of like this aggressive strum kind of in there.

Okay. And. And the two and ok, end of three and four and the two E and the four. I. I'm trying to keep that strum tight. I'm trying not to strum the entire guitar. I'm trying to keep it tight so that boom sounds bigger.

Okay. So you can hear kind of I'm keeping the strum tight which means I have to be relaxed to do that. And then I'm really getting aggressive on the and after the one and after the three. So the next one can sometimes slip up students because we're using 16th notes kind of in opposite. So let me read the pattern and then you're going to see on screen what I mean. So I have 1 and 2 and a 3e and 4 and a half. Alright, so we've got a down, down, up followed by a down up down followed by a down down up. Okay. And this can happen in 16th notes. Things get, get mixed up. And you know you're sometimes doing down, down ups or you're doing down up downs and it's just something your hand's going to get used to. So for this rhythm, if I go back to my g chord it's 1.

And 2 and a 3e and 4 and a. Okay, 1 and 2 and a. 3 and 4 and a.

All right, so again, if I do that one.

Okay, now what am I doing in my head? I'm counting. I am counting this because, like, I'm not. I'm not reading it off the sheet. But usually when I'm learning rhythms like this, I'll play through them a couple times and I'll try to feel them more so that I don't always have to count. But for something like this, it's easy enough to count. Sometimes the 16th note rhythms can be. Get very difficult. It's actually hard. Harder to count than it is just to feel the rhythm. And as we work into 16 notes, you want to start feeling the rhythm versus always having to count it. You're going to develop an internal metronome, an internal time that you can use. So on something like this, 1 and 2 and a.

3 and 4 and.

Okay, just a nice little simple strumming. I mean, I don't want to say simple. It's something you're going to have to start and build slowly. So it could be one and two and up. Okay. And you stop there.

One and two and up.

You're like, okay, good, I got that. Now let me do the second half.

3E and 4 and up, down, up, down, down, down.

Okay, and then you try and put it together.

Okay, 1 and 2 and A. 3, E and 4 and A. 1 and 2 and.

Okay. And then you start feeling it and then you're like, all right, I'm gonna start picking up the speed.

So you can see. You can build up these patterns so that the speed comes. But in the beginning, you have to take them very, very slowly. So what is an example of a rhythm that I might feel versus count? So I'm going to give you a good example here. This is also great for. For ballads because it provides a little bit more space. Okay. Because when we're strumming on guitar, we don't have to strum everything. Sometimes it's nice to have space in our strumming as well. So I'm going to put the count on the screen here. But it's 1, 2 and a, e, a 4, e and a. Okay, let me say that again. It's 1, 2 and a, E, a 4, e and a. So you could be like. You could see how this in your head might be a little bit trickier to keep track of than the one before. Because we're missing. We're missing a lot of our down strums. We're missing a lot of our ands. We're missing a three. Okay. So it's going to be. It might be trickier to count in your head.

So down, down, down, up, up, up, down, up, down, up.

I might do that instead because that's easy. That's a little bit more melodic. I find if you can sing things with. With strumming and rhythm, you can play them.

So I got down, down, down, up, up, up, down, up, down, up, down, down, down.

Very, very cool strumming pattern. You can use that for a lot of songs, a lot of slower songs. And you can see it just kind of opens up the feel, opens up the emotion of the music a bit more. And I really like that strumming pattern. And if you're looking for a great song that uses a fun 16th note strumming pattern, I highly recommend you go check out my Wonder Wall lesson right over there. So super cool song. This is the song I teach people where they finally feel like a guitar player because of the strumming. It's a lot of fun. Go watch that lesson right over there.