Good Guitarist’s Guide To:

Strumming
& Rhythm Guitar
Good guitarist’s guide to:
strumming & Rhythm guitar
A note from James...

A professional marketer told me I was crazy for giving away this eBook
for free. They said I should cut it down and just give people a sample. I
disagree; that's not what GoodGuitarist is about.

I want you to be able to play songs confidently. If this book helps make
that happen, even if you don't ever give me one cent, I will already have
accomplished my goal. I am so proud of every one of my students (and
now that you've downloaded this eBook that means you, too!)

It’s an honor to be your guide through the early phases of guitar and I
just want to take a moment to sincerely say, "THANK YOU!"

If you wish to (and are able to) provide further support...

I have some premium offerings that will help you in your guitar journey!

(click on them for more details)

Complete Beginner’s Course - It covers the same stuff as this eBook (and
a whole lot more), using an easy step-by-step method.

Fingerpicking Mastery - A beginner to advanced course that covers

everything fingerstyle!

Barre Chords Made Easy - A gradual path that’ll help you build the
strength and technique to handle barre chords.

Strumming (Intermediate & Advanced) - COMING SUMMER 2020!

 And once you’ve started developing some basic skills, you’ll want to
learn some tunes! Chord charts and TAB’s are available at:
[Link]

Either way, I really want you to get better at guitar, so please enjoy this
eBook and if you need any help just ask! info@[Link]

About the eBook itself...

This eBook is for those who wish to learn how to strum songs on a
guitar. It is not your conventional method book - it is meant to show you
everything a book can show you.

Music exists in the air as sound and printed materials cannot fully
demonstrate this. Rather than bother your eyes with walls of text, we
have decided to explain certain concepts visually and aurally, taking
advantage of the digital age while still retaining the useful aspects of
printed material. We feel that this cross-media educational method is
the future of music education.

Also, I have a ton of free videos that go along with this eBook. You can
follow along with them here!

Interested In Lead? Check out Good Guitarist’s Guide To: riffs & lead guitar

Copyright c 2016-2020 by GoodGuitarist (info@[Link]).

All rights reserved. Made in Canada.
Cover photo provided by Irina Kosoric (@irinatakesphotos).
All materials used in this book are the original work of the authors.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or
transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written
permission of the authors, except in the case of certain
noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

-i-
 table of contents
The Most Common Chord Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 - 4

Troubleshooting Chord Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Chord Switching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 - 8

Learn To Read A Chord Diagram (optional) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 - 11

Using A Capo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Strumming and Rhythm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 - 16

Putting it all Together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Helpful Accessories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Appendix A - Chord Progressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

B - Strumming Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
C - More Chords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
D - Track Your Progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Want to master the basics? Take my Complete Beginner's Course and learn
to strum along with your favorite songs! Click here for more info...

- ii -
 The Fastest Way To Master The Basics
To me, mastery is being able to play something with musicality,
effortlessly and to the best of your ability - consistently.

Many people will claim to be masters, but that implies they have nothing
left to learn. No one can truly master the instrument, we can only seek to
develop mastery and be the best we each can be.

THESE YOUTUBE TUTORIALS COVER EVERYTHING IN THIS EBOOK

From seven to seventy- three. Doctors, truck drivers, teachers... it doesn’t

matter who you are, what kind of learner, how big or small your hands are.

Only one thing will determine your success: practicing and playing guitar as
much as possible. But I don’t want you to put practicing on the pedestal!

PRACTICING GUITAR IS A VERY EASY HABIT TO DEVELOP

STEP 1) Ask yourself, realistically, “how much time can I practice?”

STEP 2) Write this goal down (example: 30 minutes, 6 days a week)
STEP 3) Practice right now, even if it’s just for 10 minutes
STEP 4) Schedule tomorrow’s practice (just tomorrow, look forward to it!)
STEP 5) Keep scheduling your next 1 or 2 sessions around your life

TIP - A LOT OF THIS EBOOK IS CLICKABLE

 The most common chord shapes
Learning these 12 chord shapes will give you the most reward for your efforts -
allowing you to strum through hundreds of thousands of songs! It’s best to learn
a few at a time and practice switching between them (there’s more on that later).
Also, don’t be afraid to

Here is the name of the chord -

This is a traditional chord diagram this one is called “E Major”
(See pages 8 - 10 for more info)

E This is what the chord diagram

looks like on a guitar

2 31

This is what the chord looks This is what it looks

like from your perspective like from the front
1
This list of chords is just a reference. If you actually want help memorizing and using them,
I made some free video tutorials for each of the shapes!

A D
X XX

123 1 32

G G (played a bit differently)

21 34 32 4

This “voicing” for G is an excellent choice for

songs that switch regularly between G and C

2
 C Am
X X

32 1 231

Em Dm
XX

12 231

The “m” stands for “minor” - on paper we write

“Em” but when speaking we say “E minor”

3
 B7 “little” F
X XX

2 13 4 32 1 1

F barre* Both these F chords have a barre

in them, but the “little F” is far
easier to play since it only barres
2 strings.

It’s worth it, learning the “F barre”

134 211 chord, as it has a deeper, richer sound.

Don’t worry if you can’t get it yet -

it can be tough. Your grip strength
will improve as you practice switching
between chords - try your best!

For more help with this, try "Barre

*A barre chord involves pressing Chords Made Easy"

4
Get To grips with these chord shapes

Finger Placement

Finger Pressure
not pressing hard enough.

Thumb Placement

Arched Fingers
-

5
 Chord Switching
Learning a chord shape is only half the battle! Now we need to practice switching
from chord to chord. This is the best way to memorize a chord shape and you’d be
amazed at how many songs you can play, switching between just 2 or 3 chords!

CHORD CLARITY: FIX THOSE FRUSTRATED FINGERS!

Make the chord shape Strum the strings Pick each string
individually
Hear any buzzing?
arched and make sure Start at the low E and
Tips: Press harder, if any strings aren’t
you’re applying enough
pressure with your
and keep trying! the culprit soon enough!

Practice makes perfect! - let go of the chord shape, relax your hand
a bit, and repeat until the chord shape becomes second nature.

How to practice chord switching:

Step 1: Make the chord shape Step 3: Switch to the next chord
shape and strum it 4 times

E A
Step 4: Repeat, over and over again,
Step 2: Strum it 4 times until you can make a clean transition.
6
 Practice switching between the following chords:

1) E A PUT THESE CHORD SHAPES TO USE!

Learning songs that use 2 or 3
shapes.. that's probably the
best way to cement this

2) C Am information.

Here's a playlist containing

tons of songs like that.

I also have an easy songbook

3) G D available on my patreon.

* If you’re really feeling keen, try these exercises with all the chords from pages 1-4 *

This symbol means, “stay on the same chord.” Here, we keep playing E.

4) E A B7

5) C Am F G

6) G Em C D

My Complete Beginner's Course focuses on teaching you to play longer

chord progressions just like this. Click here for more info or to sign up!
 Troubleshooting

steady rhythm, try the following exercise:

Instead of strumming all 4

beats, just strum the chord
once, on beat 1
E A

Now you can use the time during This way, you’ll “land” the next
beats 2, 3 and 4 to make the switch chord perfectly on the beat

As you get better at this, you can increase the challenge by strumming the

A few words of advice...

You may not realize it yet, but in learning the 12 chords we’ve selected,
you’ve unlocked the power to play thousands of songs. There may still be a long

while maintaining a steady rhythm, is the very foundation of rhythm guitar.

Here are some tips to help you memorize these chords and improve your
rhythm guitar playing:

Learn as many songs as you can

Test the chords out (using the method on page 6) to make sure they are
sounding their best

Strive to memorize the chords by name. Over time, you will accumulate
a “chord vocabulary” and eventually, as you learn new songs, you’ll

There is no substitute for hard work, but if you spend your practice time effec-
tively, and focus on the right things, you can reach your goals a lot quicker than
you may have thought possible.
8
Reading a chord diagram
“OPEN”
A chord diagram
is just a picture
of the fretboard
1st fret with the guitar
standing upright.
The vertical
2nd fret lines represent
the strings and
3rd fret the horizontal
lines represent
E A D G B E STRINGS E A D G B E the frets.

We draw circles to
More circles!

1 1

The number in the 3 2 1

circle shows which 4 If the diagram is
really small, we

number under the

diagram 1

9
If we want to play a chord
higher on the neck...
1
2
5
3
4
5
...all we need to do is write
down the fret number beside
(to the left of) the chord diagram.
If no fret number is mentioned, we assume
our chord is to be played starting at fret number 1.

We know where to place our fingers, but which strings should we strum?
Of course we strum the We label the remaining strings “X” or “O”
strings with circles on them X = ignore the string, O = strum it!

XX

In this example, we’d play these 4

strings and leave the other 2 alone

10
 Let’s review!
This is the name
of the chord D7 These X’s and O’s tell us
which strings to play

XX
These dots show us
1 where to press down
on the fretboard

If we’re playing a chord

further up the neck, we
put a fret number
beside the diagram

213
(Normally, we don’t need a
number if our chord starts

one here just for example Finger numbers go under the diagram
purposes :)

11
Using A CapO
A capo is a device used to hold
down all the strings of the guitar
at a particular fret. It allows the
guitarist to play chords they already
know but at a higher part of the neck -
changing the key. This is useful if a song
is too low or too high to sing along with.

When a song says “Capo 2” or “Capo 7” it means

you need to place a capo behind that fret.

Simply count the metal frets, starting from the

1 head of the guitar, and place the capo before
2

to play that fret).

Here, the capo is on
the 2nd fret

placement makes perfect 1

2
3
Take the time to ensure your 4
capo is securely placed just 5
beside the desired fret. If you 6
7
place it too far from the fret,
you may experience “buzzy”
open strings. If you place it
overtop the fret, it may cause And here, the capo is
the strings to sound dead or on the 7th fret
“Capo 2”

12
 Strumming and rhythm
The idea is simple, you hold down chords with one hand, and then hit the
strings in a rhythmic way using your other hand. To make these repeated
rhythms, we use a combination of two motions:

Downstrokes AND Upstrokes

Explanations often fall short of capturing the idea of strumming a rhythm,

so let’s jump right in and learn by example.

We’ll begin with the simplest strumming pattern of them all...

four downstrokes, on beats 1, 2, 3 and 4.

a) Count: “1 2 3 4”
b) Say: “down down down down”
c) Play!

13
 Note: If these strumming patterns are giving you trouble, I have a huge
secret to share with you: there's a difference between rhythm and
coordination. I go over this extensively in my FREE 7-Day Mini Course.
You can sign up here if you want to "fix" your rhythm :)

Here come the upstrokes! We’re going to add just one,

Pattern #1 and we’ll place it between beats 3 and 4.

a) Count: “1 2 3 and 4”
b) Say: “down down down up down”
c) Play!

This pattern is missing a downstroke on beat 3. It is very

Pattern #2 important that you still “feel” the beat happen.

a) Count: “1 2 and and 4 and”

b) Say: “down down up up down up”
c) Play!

Upstrokes are played on the off-beat. “1, 2, 3, 4” are the on-beats -

cult to feel an off-beat if it has no on-beat before it (like in Pattern #3, where
we play an upstroke after beat 3, but we are not playing anything on beat 3).
Here’s a trick that’ll help with those off-beats: simply whisper “miss” during the
missing beat, and still make the downstroke motion with your strumming hand
- just avoid making contact with the strings.

14
 Pattern #3 all the strings, hit the lowest note of the chord when you see “R”.

R R

a) Count: “1 2 and 3 4 and”

b) Say: “root down up root down up”
c) Play!

This is the root... ... for these chords:

E Em G Fbarre
This is the root... ... for these chords:

A Am C B7
This is the root... ... for these chords:

D Dm “little” F
15
 Continuous Arm Motion
Your arm is constantly moving up and down, like a motor. It does this in
order to keep the rhythm, and to line up the strumming pattern with the
beat - downstrokes line up with numbers, upstrokes line up with “and.”

While the arm is moving down and up, maintaining a steady beat, the
guitarist chooses when to make contact with the strings.

This approach is essential when learning to produce a proper “groove.”

The arm is always moving down, then up - over and over again. No matter which
pattern we use, the downstrokes always line up with on-beats, and the upstrokes
always line up with off-beats.

Arm:

Count: “ONE and TWO and THREE and FOUR and”

Pattern 1

Pattern 2

Pattern 3

R R
Pattern 4

If strumming isn't your thing, fingerstyle is a valid alternative. If you'd like an easy
way to get into that, try "Fingerpicking Mastery."
16
 PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
On the most basic level, this is how we go from “absolute beginner” to
“someone who can strum a tune.” It’s what I do with all my 1-on-1 students
whose goal is to strum along to their favourite songs:
1) Pick an easy song that you'd like to learn, that uses just 2 or 3 chords
and a simple strumming pattern.
2) Practice the chord shapes individually - your goal right now is to
memorize the shapes. You also might want to get started on a
strumming pattern.
3) Practice switching between the shapes, 2 at a time. Once you’re good
with that, try it with the strumming pattern as well.
4) Look up the chord order for the song you chose in step 1. Practice it
with downstrokes only. Then try adding the strumming pattern.

Overwhelmed? Let me walk you through the process...

1) Pick an easy song

One of the biggest challenges for new guitarists is trying to find easy songs
that they recognize and enjoy. To help you with that, I’ve made a list of
simple strummers that use 2 or 3 chords.

Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door – Bob Dylan (G, C, D)

Leaving On A Jet Plane – John Denver (G, C, D)
Brown Eyed Girl – Van Morrison (G, C, D, Em)
The Joker – Steve Miller Band (G, C, D)
We’re Going To Be Friends – White Stripes (G, C, D, A)
What I Got – Sublime (G, D)
Lively Up Yourself – Bob Marley (G, D)
Anyone Else But You – The Mouldy Peaches (G, C)
Everyday People – Sly And The Family Stone (G, C)
Jambalaya – Hank Williams (G, C)

For this example, I’m going to choose “Leaving On A Jet Plane” by John
Denver, which requires the following chord shapes: G, C and D.
 2) Practice the chord shapes individually

We’ve chosen a song that requires the G, C and D chords. Now we need to
figure out how to play them, and start memorizing the shapes.

The following 3 videos will guide you through this:

We should also get started on a

strumming pattern (In the tutorial for
"Leaving On A Jet Plane" we use this one.
The final exercise in this tutorial might
be a bit tricky since you haven’t worked
out your switches yet. Just try your best!

3) Practice switching between the shapes

We gotta practice switching, but before we do all 3, let’s focus on 2 at a time.

Now, go back to that strumming tutorial and try it again. The last exercise
should be a lot easier now that you’ve worked on your switching.
 4) Look up the chord order

The next thing I do with my 1-on-1 students is to work out the chord order
(also called “form”). Rather than jump right in and try to switch chords, count
out the beats and strum all at the same time, let’s just keep it simple and
focus on chord switches + counting.

This is EXACTLY how my tutorials go, so you don’t have to do too much
thinking here... just load up the tutorial and follow along. At this point, since
you’ve practiced the shapes and strumming, it shouldn’t be too hard to figure
out!

If you need this process broken down further, check out my premium
beginner's course. It's a foolproof method, guaranteed to get you strumming
along with a song within just a week or two.
 Stay tuned and strap in!
Aside from a capo, here are two other pieces of gear that we recommend...

If you want to play guitar standing up, a strap is absolutely

necessary. It can also be helpful for keeping the guitar in a
comfortable position even when sitting down.
Adjust the length of your strap to ensure
your guitar does not hang too
high or too low. If it’s low, your
wrist has to bend too much, putting strain

strap on your tendons and possibly causing problems

like carpal tunnel syndrome. If it’s too high, your
strumming arm will not be able to rest comfortably on the top of the guitar.

An electronic tuner can be an invaluable tool.

While it is still very important to know how to t u n e r
tune by ear (because you know... batteries
die) almost every guitarist uses one for a
reason. A good quality clip-on tuner is
the most popular and most useful since it
works even in a loud environment. And for
those of you who want to keep
their piggy banks in tact, there’s
a plethora of tuning apps for all
kinds of smart phones and
devices available for free!
You should tune up every
time you play guitar!

20
 Appendix A
Here are 5 more common chord progressions for your practicing pleasure!

7) A D E A

8) D G D A

9) Em C Am B7

10) C E Am F

11) D B7 Em A

21
 Appendix B
Here are 3 more strumming patterns. Don’t forget to keep your arm moving
in a continuous up and down motion!

Pattern #4
downstroke with a root note.

“1 2 and and 4 and”

“root down up up down up”

Pattern #5 This pattern is good for making a half-time feel. Try to

play the last “down-up” a bit quieter, for maximum effect.

“1 2 3 4 and”
“down root down down up”

Pattern #6 This pattern is heavily syncopated, as it is comprised

mostly of upstrokes.

“1 and and and and”

“down up up up up”

22
 Appendix C
Here are 12 more chords that you will find very useful as you learn more songs.

C7 A7 G7 E7
X X

3 241 2 3 32 1 2 31 4

Cma7 Ama7 Fma7 D7

X X XX XX

32 213 32 1 213

Asus2 Asus4 Dsus2 Dsus4

X X XX XX

12 123 13 134

23
 Track your Progress
Chords
E A D G
Galternate
C Am Em
Dm B7 F Fbarre

C7 A7 G7 E7
Cma7 Ama7 Fma7 D7
Asus2 Asus4 Dsus2 Dsus4

essential troubleshoot chords (p. 5-6)

read a chord diagram (p. 9-11)
Concepts know how to use a capo (p. 12)

& Skills understand continuous arm motion (p. 16)

Strumming Patterns

Pattern #1 Pattern #3 Pattern #5

Pattern #2 Pattern #4 Pattern #6

24
 Chord-switching workouts

Basic Chord Switching Play-alongs

A to E A to D D to E
G to D C to G C to D
C to Am G to Em F to Dm
Am to Dm Am to Em Dm to Em
A to B7 E to B7 C to F
F to G G to A

Chord Progression Play-alongs

A- D - E -A E - A - B7
G - Em - C - D D -G - D -A
Em - C - Am - B7 D - B7 - Em - A
C - E - Am - F Am - Dm - G - C
C - Am - F - G F - C - Dm - G

25