Lauren Bateman breaks down a classic country strum pattern: down, down, up, down, down, up on a 1, 2 and 3, 4 count, with alternating bass notes on different strings depending on your chord. She shows it in action with Johnny Cash's "I Walk the Line."
Questions this video answers
Down, down, up, down, down, up (counted as "1, 2 and 3, 4, and 1, 2 and 3, 4").
Alternate between the 6th (low E) string on beat 1 and the 5th (A) string on beat 3.
Alternate between the 5th string on beat 1 and the 4th string on beat 3.
Alternate between the 4th string on beat 1 and the 3rd string on beat 3.
Chapters
So I get asked all the time, Lorem, what is the top strumming pattern I can use for those old school country songs? Well, I'm going to show you that in this lesson right here.
So this lesson is going to be broken up into three parts. The first part is we're going to go over the foundation of the rhythm for this pattern. I'm going to show you how you can spice it up and really give it that old country feel. And then at the end, I'll do a little song demonstration to show you how it will sound in a song. So this is what we're going for by the end of the video.
So the first thing we're going to talk about is the rhythm behind this pattern. So the rhythm is 1, 2 and 3, 4, and 1, 2 and 3, 4. And so if I just play a G chord, okay, it's going to be down, down, up, down, down, up.
Up, down, down, 1, 2 and 3, 4. And 1, 2 and 3, like this.
Okay? It's a nice easy down, down, up, down, down, up, down, down, up, down, down, up. So that's going to be the foundation for our rhythm. Now what we have to do over that rhythm is, is what's going to give us that country feel. And what we're going to be doing is playing alternating bass lines. What do I mean by that? So if I take something like a G chord, and this would apply to all six string chords, whether you're playing an E major chord, an E minor chord, anything that is six strings, we are going to be alternating the bass line, the lowest note of the chord, between the sixth string and the fifth string. So the first beat will be the sixth string, the third beat will be the fifth string.
Okay? So it's going to be one, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2. Okay, a C chord, or any five string chord for that matter. An A major chord, an A minor chord, a B minor chord, anything that requires five strings is going to be alternating between the fifth string and the fourth string. Okay? 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4.
Okay? And anything that is a four string chord, a D, a D minor. If you're playing like an F major, seven would be the fourth string and the third string.
Okay? So that's what we're going to be doing. 4, 3, 4, 3, 4, 3. On beats 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. Now you guys are watching me being like Lauren. Okay, I. You don't have to look at the guitar when you're doing this alternating Bass stuff. But I gotta be watching my strings. That's okay. What you might want to do to start is just sit and learn those strings for the alternating bass line before you go into the next step, which is adding the strums in to this country strumming pattern. Hey guys, hope you're enjoying this lesson so far. Don't forget to subscribe to the channel and turn on the notifications so that you know when I release more videos just like this one. Okay, so the next step is we're going to try and put all of this stuff together. So we're going to be doing a bass note on the one beat and then we're going to follow that up with a down up. Okay. And I'm trying not to hit that top string again. I want that bass note to ring out. Okay. And then you would go to the next note which would be the fifth string on that G chord. Okay. So we got the top string fifth string. Top string, fifth string. Okay. When we go to the C chord now we're going to play the between the fifth and the fourth. So we get 5, 4, 5, 4. Okay. So it sound like this.
So it's basically bass down up, bass down up, bass down up, bass down up, bass down up.
Okay. And then the D chord, chord 4 and 3.
So it's bass down up, bass down up, bass down up, bass down up. And that is the foundation of our old school classic country strumming pattern. What I'm going to do now is just demonstrate really quick with a classic song to show you how this will feel. Alright, so right in front of me here, I kind of got a Johnny Cash song, walk the Line. So I'm just going to use this as an example for you guys to hear how this will sound in an actual song. So we got 1, 2, 3. Ready?
Keep a close eye on this heart of mine I keep my eyes wide open all the time I keep the ends out for the tides that bind because you're mine I walk the line.
Apply this strumming pattern to your favorite countrysides. And let me know below if you liked this lesson. YouTube's gonna pop up a couple more videos over there. Go check those out and hope to see you guys real soon.
