Strumming

Good rhythm guitar is about strumming patterns that stay steady, bar after bar. This chapter teaches you how to strum a guitar in time, from simple quarter-note downstrokes to funky sixteenth-note grooves with accents and muted chucks.

You start with one downstroke per beat, strumming from the wrist and forearm, using rests to make chord changes and accenting beats 2 and 4 like a snare drum. Then you move to eighth notes, where your arm swings down and up like a pendulum and patterns come from choosing which strokes hit the strings, including the popular "down, down-up, up-down-up" strumming pattern. The last lesson adds sixteenth notes, dead-string chucks and accented chords for a tight, percussive feel.

Every exercise plays in the browser with a click, so you hear the groove before you join in, then climb the tempo ladder as it settles. The checkpoint at the end of each lesson tells you when your hand is ready for the next pattern. By the end you'll strum steady patterns over the chords you know and keep your arm moving without losing the beat.