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:
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