Essential Strum Pattern in Knockin' On Heaven's Door

Strumming the guitar is sometimes challenging when you’re starting out. The motions can feel awkward, and it seems like there are many different patterns to learn. In fact, there are two main strum patterns that are absolutely essential, and if you get them down, it will make it easier to learn the more complex patterns.

Let’s look at one of these essential patterns, as used in “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door,” an easy song by Bob Dylan. One way of thinking about strum patterns is tempo – is the song slow or fast? “Knockin’” is a slow song and it employs a pattern that works well at slower tempos, where lots of fast little notes, usually known as sixteenth notes, are possible. The pattern is written like this:

Let’s see what’s happening behind the scenes. You’re probably familiar with counting 1, 2, 3, 4, which signifies 4/4 time. The next step is to subdivide the beat, 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &. We now have eight rhythmic spaces, corresponding to eight “eighth notes.” Our pattern for “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” has a down-stroke on each of the four ‘strong’ beats (1, 2, 3, 4), plus a quick down/up on the eighth note right after beat two. These two quick strums on the “&” are the sixteenth notes. Watch the video and you’ll see how it all comes together. Notice that the right hand is always moving, even if it isn’t striking a chord.

Practice the pattern on one chord for a while to get familiar with it, and then try it with the chord changes. You have to hustle after those quick strums to make the chord change from G to D, but that’s a good thing. The right hand leads and the left hand follows, not the other way around. Our strumming pattern is somewhat stripped down. Arranging the pattern this way breaks up the measure into two different parts, so you always know where you are. Also, it's easier to make the rest of the chord changes. A chart for the song is below.

I highly recommend listening to Dylan’s original version of the song (in the link above), because the acoustic guitar is up in the mix, and also, because it's just plain awesome. You may be able to tell that there are more of these quick sixteenth note strums in the pattern that Dylan plays. The truth is, no experienced guitarist plays the exact same strumming pattern all the way through a song. You can add in these notes when you’ve mastered the basic pattern. Then you have two patterns, right? Here is an audio version of me playing and singing the song. I keep it to just the basic pattern:

Knockin'

When I went through my “Dylan phase” in the early to mid-eighties, I was more or less unaware of “Knockin’,” even though it reached number twelve in 1973. But nowadays, almost everybody learns it since it was popularized by G’n R, Eric Clapton and others. Every time my band plays the song in a bar we get a great crowd response.

The other essential pattern that you must learn is based on eighth notes and works best at a brisk tempo. I call it the “basic syncopated strum.” To learn more about this strumming pattern, take a look at my video lesson. For further study, my lesson on compound strumming patterns shows how you can combine the two essential patterns to form a third pattern that's used in the song "Hey Joe" by Jimi Hendrix. Have fun! -Christian Botta

Comments

[jim]

where can i find more music written like:https://onpracticingguitar.chrisbottaguitar.com/2017/07/essential-strum-pattern-in-knockin-on-heavens-door.html

[On Practicing Guitar]

Hi, Jim
This post, https://onpracticingguitar.chrisbottaguitar.com/2017/09/compound-strumming-pattern-in-hey-joe.html
has links to some other similar posts, including the one above and one for Dead Flowers. They're all related. There's also a good one for Wild Thing. Thanks for visiting and for your comment! I'm starting to do some Zoom/Skype lessons. Let me know if you're interested. -Chris

[Bones B Burgess]

That was very helpful in deed thank you very much.so rock on my friend rock on✌️Peace BONES

[On Practicing Guitar]

Thank you, Bones! I'm glad that it was helpful for you. I hope this finds you well and that you're getting plenty of practice in during this challenging year.
Take care,
Chris

[RORY]

Thank you...i've been looking for the knocking on heavens door strum pattern with an explanation i could understand for months and I've finally found it...specifically how the pattern is "shared" between the G and D chords...
Thank you :-)

[On Practicing Guitar]

Thank you, Rory! It's great to hear from you. You might try learning the song "And It Stoned Me," by Van Morrison. It has the same strum pattern but with an extra chord, and then there's a bridge, a chorus and a little melodic figure, as well. Same key/chords. I give Zoom lessons, BTW. You'd be surprised at how much you can learn in one private lesson after you've been working so hard to figure things out by yourself. Thanks again,
Chris

[andy]

thx, neesd this for other songs. Where I can find it?

[On Practicing Guitar]

Thanks for writing, Andy! I give lessons on Zoom and in person, if you happen to be in the New York area. Otherwise, check out my posts on the rhythm for Hey Joe and Dead Flowers. Hey Joe uses a pattern that's a combination of Knockin' On Heaven's Door and Dead Flowers. They're all linked. I hope to do more strumming articles soon. Thanks again,
Chris

[EEEEEEEEEEEEe]

lol