This workbook can be used on its own to vastly improve strumming ability.

However, for best results, video tutorials for many of these lessons are available for free on the website at
www.andyguitar.co.uk/strumming.

Video tutorials for the Bonus lessons are only available on the Strumming DVD/ download.
Drum tracks for each strumming pattern are included in the DVD & Download package.

Look out for the following logos on each page to show where each video tutorial can be found:

Video available free on Andy’s website and also

Strumming DVD/ Download product.

Video available on DVD & Download product only.

This book and course includes no song tutorials for copyright reasons.
You’ll find hundreds of beginner song tutorials taught by Andy that
sync perfectly with this course at www.andyguitar.co.uk

This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any manner without
written permission from the author.

© 2015 Andy Guitar Limited

All content written and designed by Andy Crowley
All right reserved. Made in England, UK.
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 Beginners Strumming Course
Contents
1. Introduction – Strumming Pattern Family Tree
2. How to Hold A Guitar
3. Strumming Tips
4. On the Beat
5. 8ths all downs
6. 8ths down and ups
7. Off Beat strumming
8. Adding accents
9. Missing up strums
10.Triplet ‘folk’ style strumming
11.All downs with an up!
12.Miss a D on 3! MOST COMMON IN SONGS!
13.Blues Shuffle
14.‘Daft Punk’ strumming
15. Johnny Cash Strumming
16. Bob Dylan style Folk Strumming
17. Where to go from here

Bonus Patterns (Video tutorials on DVD/ Download only)

18. 16th Strumming
19. Chord Changing trick!
20. Rock Style Strumming
21. Double time!
22. Percussive Hits
23. Bo Diddley Strumming

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PURCHASE- HOPE YOU ENJOY IT! 

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 Lesson 1- ‘Family Tree’ concept
The strumming pattern family tree is largely what makes this course most effective and unique. This
page explains this core concept, which will allow you to use the full ‘family tree’ on the next page.

The top box below shows strumming pattern 1 (shown in more detail on page 8). From here,
strumming patterns can be divided into two similar categories; strumming that work for slower tempo
songs and those that work for faster tempo songs. Tempo is measured by bpm (beats per minute). This
can be shown by a metronome or by using the drumbeats provided with the video downloads.

4th Strumming ‘On the Beat’

Slower tempos Faster tempos

8th strumming ‘all downs‘ 8th strumming ‘downs and ups‘

(70bpm to 100bpm) (100bpm to 150bpm +)

 Silence Is Easy (Song from Level 1)  You Never Can Tell (Song from Level 1)
 Chasing Cars (Song from Level 2)  Have A Nice Day (Song from Level 2)
 Common People (Song from Level 2)  Johnny B. Goode (Song from Level 2)

**IMPORTANT STRUMMING CONCEPT**

Songs have more than one strumming pattern that will ‘work’. To play songs ‘as the record’ or ‘100%
accurate’ you will need to learn to go from one strumming pattern to another. You will also need to
learn where to keep the strumming simpler so you can perform a song well.

Bare this in mind and your strumming journey will be SO MUCH EASIER! 
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5
 Lesson 2 - How to hold a guitar
Key Points
1- Sit in an appropriate chair – don’t practice slumped on a couch
2- Balance the guitar on the thigh at the same side as your dominant hand (right handed? Right
knee!)
3- Hold the neck between your thumb and fingertips.
4- Keep your shoulders down and relaxed
5- Try not to lean over to see the neck better. Feel where your fingers need to go. If needed, use a
small mirror to see your fingers better!

6
 Lesson 3 – Strumming tips
Position
Keep the guitar as close to your body as possible and don’t let it slip down your
leg. Keep your wrist as close to the guitar as possible.

On acoustic, it can be helpful to have the inside of your elbow on the top corner of
the guitar similar to the photo on the left.

Keep loose!
It is so important to keep all parts of your arm and hand as relaxed as possible. Tension is the enemy of
speed and good sounding strums. Any strumming action should feel similar to shaking your hand, even
if the movements are very small, your arm and wrist should be pretty loose, with the main point of
tension being to hold the pick in place only.

Holding a pick
A pick should be held between the thumb and first finger only. The longest point should come out of
the side of your thumb and point towards the strings. Keep the rest of your fingers and arm relaxed.

Fig 1.

Curl your fingers into an arc and place the pick

on top of your first finger. The pick should point
the same direction as your index finger

Fig 2.

Put your thumb on top of the pick. The pick

should come out of the side of your thumb.
Fig 1 Fig 2

Pick depth
When strumming or picking, the pick should be around 1 or 2 mm deep past the strings. Many
beginners have their pick much too deep, avoid this common mistake!

Strumming action
Be sure to catch all 6 strings evenly by keeping the strumming action vertical. This is helped by making
sure the guitar is into your body and not slipping down your leg!

Missing strings
In the beginning, you need to miss out thicker strings on some chords, which is shown by an ‘X’ on
chord boxes. In my beginners course at level 5, we learn how to mute the thickest string with the
thumb, which makes strumming the harder patterns a lot easier!
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 Lesson 4 – Strumming on the beat
What are bars and beats?
Beat- the regular pulse throughout
Bar- 4 beats, to a count of 1, 2, 3, 4
Tempo (aka bpm)- the speed of this count

Strumming Pattern Intro - Spreads

Count 1, 2, 3, 4 at a slow, even pace (out loud if needs be)

and strum an E chord every time you say beat 1.
This is where we strum once per bar on beat 1. The chord should ring out for the rest of the bar. This is
a great place to start when learning any new song as it gives you chance to learn the chord changes.
Plus- many real songs actually start like this!

Strumming Pattern 1 - 4th Strumming (On the Beat)

After 'Spreads', 4 down strums on each beat should be seen as the default strumming pattern when
first learning any new song. Keep the pace and volume even
4 down strums on the beat can be written like this.
The ‘D’ and the arrows
represent down strums

The ’1 2 3 4′ is the beat, and the

symbols mean a 1 beat strum.

Chord sequence 1 (From Andy’s beginners guitar course DVD and book)
The goal is to play this strumming with the chord sequence below; a bar of E and a bar of A!
Song example; ‘For What Its Worth’ by Buffalo Springfield

8
 Lesson 5 - 8th All Down Strumming
This is how a single 8th note looks alone. This is not seen often seen in the early stages but stay with me…

This is a pair of 8th strums. These add up to 1 beat and are joined at the top- the idea is it makes it easier to read
when there are a lot of them!

8th strumming ‘all downs‘ (70bpm to 100bpm)

Song suggestions
All the following song tutorials (free on my website) use the 8th all down strumming pattern;
 ‘Silence Is Easy’ by Starsailor
 ‘Chasing Cars’ by Snow Patrol
 ‘Get Back’ by The Beatles

Tapping your foot to the beat

It really helps if you develop the habit of tapping your foot whenever you listen to any music. This will help you
feel a beat naturally, rather than having to count it. You should also work towards tapping your foot on the beat
with ALL strumming patterns you learn. This means you will internalise the rhythm and make playing in time
natural and easy! Tap your foot on the beat while playing either of the strumming patterns at this level, or any
that you know. This is particularly beneficial along to a metronome or drumbeat or by playing along to the song
itself.

Foot Foot Foot Foot

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 Lesson 6 - 8th D and U strumming

This strumming uses the same rhythm as the previous lesson and we strum 8 times in a bar. However,
we use a down and up motion to use a more economical movement, which is useful for songs of a
faster tempo (100bpm+ for example)

8th strumming with downs and ups

As a rule, the down strums always have to be on the beat. With this strumming, the up strums have to
be on the off-beat creating a down and up strumming motion.

Song suggestions
All the following songs use this down and up strumming pattern or a very similar variation;
 ‘Mr Tambourine Man’ by The Byrds
 ‘If You Wanna’ by The Vaccines
 ‘Johnny B. Goode’ by Chuck Berry (Easy beginner version)

Why ‘all downs’ or ‘downs and ups’?

 8ths all downs is appropriate for slower songs (60 to 100 bpm).
 8ths downs and ups is appropriate for medium to faster tempo songs (100 to 150bpm +)
Why? Because downs and ups are more economical motion - meaning you can do them faster!

The extract from the Strumming Pattern Family

tree to the right shows ‘All down’ and ‘Down &
Up’ 8th strumming. It’s good to note we treat
each of these different at the next level of
complexity (where the arrows point to)

With ‘All downs’ we add accents add more

strums to add complexity. With ‘D & U’ we take
strums away to add complexity, mainly because
of the faster tempo used with these patterns!

10
 Lesson 7 - The ‘Off beat’
Many people find this a lot of fun, and other really struggle with it. The idea is we ‘mute’ the count and
just strum the off-beat, as shown. This rhythm is rooted in Reggae music but is used in all genres. It is
also the first time we’ve encountered right hand muting, where we add silence to our strumming for a
more rhythmic groove – great fun if you can get the technique!

Strumming Pattern 4- Reggae ‘off beat’ strumming

U U U U
This symbol represents a
‘mute’ for half a beat. On
guitar, we do this by laying the
outside of our hand on the
strings near the sound hole or
pickups

Song suggestions
Recommended songs on the website to try;
 ‘Natural Mystic’ by Bob Marley
 ‘The Lazy Song’ by Bruno Mars

Lesson 8 - Strumming ‘Accents’

8thall down strumming can sound a little relentless and flat. To add interest, the first thing we can do is
play beats 2 and 4 louder, known as adding an ‘accent’. We want to play beats 2 and 4 louder as this is
where the snare drum will play, which is the loudest part of a regular drumbeat. The accent is shown
by the > symbol.
Strumming Pattern 5- 8th all downs with accent
The ‘>’ symbol represents an
accent. The accent strum
should sound louder. In
practice, it is more effective to
strum the other strums quieter.

Song suggestions
Recommended songs on the website with this strumming pattern include;
 ‘Yellow’ by Coldplay
 ‘Hey Jude’ by The Beatles
 ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ by Lynyrd Skynyrd
11
 Lesson 9 - Missing up strums
This pattern is used in many pop songs old and new. It’s a crucial stepping stone to mastering which
strums you want to play and learning the control needed to miss out specific strums. This skill among a
handful of others will enable you to nail the strumming patterns in the songs you love!

Strumming Pattern 6 – Missing up strums

It is crucial to keep your hand
moving the same during missed
strums. At these points do an
upward motion – just don’t
catch the strings!

Song suggestions
All the following songs use this down and up strumming pattern or a very similar variation;
 ‘Songbird’ by Oasis
 ‘Cheerleader’ by OMI
 ‘Wake Me Up’ by Avicii (Very fast!)

Lesson 10 - Triplets and Swing Strumming

In this rhythm guitar lesson, we look at how to play triplets. These are useful for blues, folk and also
some pop songs. Triplet strumming is a totally different rhythm to 8th strumming patterns we have
looked at so far. We therefore have a different count, which is shown below.

Pattern 7 - Triplet Strumming

A song either uses a straight rhythm or a triplet rhythm. Straight rhythms, such as 8thstrumming split
a beat into 2. A triplet is a beat is split into 3, shown by the small ‘3’ above the notes linked together.
The best way to count it is ‘1 & a 2 & a’ etc. Play each with a down strum.

Song examples with this strumming include ‘Mull Of Kintyre’ by Paul McCartney, ‘Iris’ by the Goo Goo
Dolls, ‘Tell Her This’ by Del Amitri.
12
 THE MOST COMMON STRUMMING PATTERNS EVER
Lesson 11 – All downs with an up!
This ‘up’ technically makes it a 16th strumming pattern, which is covered in the bonus section of this
book on page 19. It is very similar to pattern 5 on page 11, so if you struggle, make sure you can do
that one first. This is one of the MOST COMMON strumming patterns ever- so take the time to get it
right!

Songs around this level that you can try out these 8th strumming variations include;
 ‘Live Forever’ by Oasis
 ‘Knockin’ On Heavens Door’ by Bob Dylan and also Guns n Roses
 ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ by Lynyrd Skynyrd

Lesson 12 – Miss a D on beat 3!

This is the MOST COMMON STRUMMING PATTERN EVER. Again, this is great for pop songs but is
typically used for more up tempo bpms from 120bpm upwards. The important thing is to keep your
hand moving the same as your normal 8th strumming. If there’s a pause at any point, it will go wrong.
This can be tough but you will get it!

Songs that use this pattern include ‘Hey Brother’ by Avicii, ‘Sweet Child O Mine’ by Guns n Roses and
the classic song ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ by Van Morrison!

TOP TIP!
If you struggle with this strumming pattern, make sure you can do pattern 6 first as the hand
motion is the same!

13
 Lesson 13- Blues Strumming
A blues shuffle palm mutes the & to create a pause. This creates the familiar bounce rhythm used in
blues songs such as ‘Before You Accuse Me’ and ‘Sweet Home Chicago’. Pop songs such as ‘Sit Down’
by James use this too but tend to just muss the & strum rather than muting to stop it sounding bluesy!

Pattern 10 - Blues Shuffle

For and Rock/ Blues sound- pick only the thicker 2 strings out of the
chord and use Palm Muting with your strumming hand! Without this, the
overall sound is still similar to what you have played before.

Adding the palm muting makes it sound a bit darker and less jangly. It’s
best to practice adding palm muting in verses and then playing the
chorus of a song without any muting to make the chorus louder and
more prominent in a song!

12 Bar Blues in E
Play this chord sequence around 4 times with the strumming pattern above
to create an authentic old school 12 bar blues similar to the song ‘Before You
Accuse Me’ by Eric Clapton, which is taught in full on the website.

|E |A |E |E |
|A |A |E |E |
|B7 |A |E |B7 |

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 Lesson 14 - Daft Punk Strumming
This is a really common improver level strumming pattern. It is used in my lesson for the hit song ‘Get
Lucky’ by Daft Punk, hence my name for it!

Song Suggestions
First, practice this pattern in the song ‘Falling Slowly’ by Glen Hansard as it’s
a nice slow one, as is ‘Champagne Supernova’ by Oasis. Then have a go at
my tutorial for ‘Get Lucky’ by Daft Punk or ‘Let Her Go by Passenger (from
the verse onwards).

Lesson 15 – Johnny Cash Strumming

This is very fast! The tricky part usually comes when you do this in real songs with chord changes, so
don’t skip trying out ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ by The Man in Black himself- Johnny Cash, the lesson for
which is on my website.

To sound
authentic this
pattern should be
played ‘Double
time’ meaning it
should be played
twice as fast as it
is written!

A slower song example of this pattern is very clearly heard in ‘These Boots Are Made For Walking’ by
Nancy Sinatra!

15
 Lesson 16 – Bob Dylan ‘folk style’ Strumming
To play this pattern, you’ll need to understand what a ‘root note’ is.

What is a ‘root note’?

The root note is the lowest note played in a chord. It is also the note
that gives the chord its name. e.g. The root note of a G chord is a G and
when playing a normal G chord is located on the thickest string at 3rd
fret, circled left in orange.

Playing single notes & strumming is a common technique in improver

and intermediate level songs and can be known as ‘picked fingerstyle’.
This is because the sound is similar to finger style playing, but we use a
pick!

The most common single note played in picked fingerstyle is the root note. This is a pattern derived
from folk music but is now used in all popular guitar styles. I call it ‘Dylan style strumming’ as it is used
in many Bob Dylan songs, the best example of which is ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’.

Other examples of this strumming pattern include the following songs (lessons on the website);
 ‘Ho Hey’ by The Lumineers
 ‘Let Her Go’ by Passenger (intro and 1st chorus)
 ‘Wild Wood’ by Paul Weller

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 Lesson 17 - Where to go from here
This concludes the strumming patterns featured on my ‘Strumming pattern family tree’ sheet.
However, you’ll find more bonus strumming patterns on the subsequent pages. These didn’t feature on
this sheet because they are at an improver level (not beginner). The videos for these are available on
the Strumming DVD & download package that provides step by step video tutorials for these extra
patterns that are not available on my website or YouTube.

Strumming patterns alone aren’t much use. We need to learn songs that use these patterns so we
know which musical situations each pattern is used in and acquire the skill to perform it. I have
suggested songs for every strumming pattern covered in this course each step of the way. These song
tutorials can be found on my website and YouTube channel.

If this course and my Beginner Course have been followed correctly, you should have the skills to take
on pretty much any song tutorial on my website. You can then look to take on any song of your
choosing by following online chord sheets and listening to the song to figure out the strumming
rhythm. If these skills are still a struggle, you may private 1 to 1 tuition to meet your musical goals. You
should also surround yourself with musicians of a similar level and also higher, which will intern
increase your musical ability in the most beneficial ways!

Look out for my improver/ intermediate course which will have further strumming
lessons following on from this course to take your strumming to the next level!

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18
 Bonus Improver Strumming Patterns!
Lesson 18 - 16th Strumming
This is where we split a bar in 16 strums! This is the gateway to all improver and intermediate
strumming patterns. Put simply, 8th strumming is a beginner level skill. Therefore, this section requires
a step up in technique and understanding, especially when using it in real songs and with harder
chords!

You are more likely to lose the beat with this pattern because we are strumming 16 times in a bar.
It is therefore best to accent the beat to make your count more natural and so the beat is clearly heard
in your strumming.

Bonus pattern 1 – 16th Strumming

Song examples with a 16th strumming pattern include;

 ‘Back For Good’ by Take That
 ‘Wonderwall’ by Oasis (Similar 16th strumming pattern)
 ‘Wake Me Up’ by Avicii (again based on a similar 16th rhythm)
There are many variations of 16th strumming, too many to list. They do all have one consistent for all of
them, which has been a consistent throughout this strumming book – Keep your hand moving at an
even pace.

For most improver / intermediate patterns, trying to remember if it’s a down or an up you should use
is a common mistake and a sign of a beginner guitarist. Improvers think about the rhythm they need to
play, memorise this, and then use whichever downs and ups are appropriate to play this rhythm. They
can do this because the hand is moving as a constant and they choose when to catch the strings.

The following patterns also look at chord hand muting and adding accents in more places. If you
cannot do these- come back to this one as it is the gateway to all improver strumming patterns!

19
 Lesson 19 – Chord Changing Trick!
Often it is the combination of the strumming pattern and chord change that people struggle with, not
the strumming alone. What I want to introduce is making the shape of each chord before putting your
fingers down. This is much better than placing fingers down one finger at a time!

‘Air changes’ Exercise

1. Make the shape of e.g. the G chord 1 cm above the fret board and keep your fingers
still in this position for a few seconds
2. Press your fingers down simultaneously and strum the chord as usual
3. Lift your fingers 1cm from ther strings while keeping the shape of the chord in the air

Repeat this for any chord changes you struggle with. It helps to always go from the one you’re
struggling with (likely the G) between every chord. e.g. G to C, G to D, G to Em, etc.

At an improver level, placing fingers down one finger at a time for chords is incorrect. The idea of this
exercise is to implant the chord shape into the muscle memory of your hand. This is much better than
just remembering which fret and strings the fingers go into but is a tougher skill that comes with time
and focused practice. I promise, do this as a warmup for a few minutes each time you pick up your
guitar it will make you change chords better easier and faster!

Lesson 20 - Rock Strumming!

This pattern is really similar to I Love Rock n Roll by Joan Jett. This riff is rock guitar 101, meaning it has
all the ingredients of straight forward Classic Rock guitar playing and is a song well worth learning!

This simplified version is ideal for electric guitar with some overdrive, but can be played on acoustic
guitars just the same. Loop this and play along to me in the video on the DVD/ download video!

Bonus pattern 2 – Rock Strumming

Each strum or pick should
be done with a down
strumming motion.

Other improver level song examples with classic rock style power chords and strumming hand muting
include;
 ‘Back in Black’ by AC/DC
 ‘Since You Been Gone’ by Rainbow
 ‘Sunshine Of Your Love’ By Cream and Eric Clapton
20
 Lesson 20 - Double time!
Many 16th strumming patterns can be made much easier by thinking of them as 8th strumming patterns
played faster, building up to double the speed (hence double time!) This is essentially strumming
pattern 9 (the most common pattern EVER) but played twice as fast and written in double time - give it
a go!

Bonus pattern 3 – Double time!

Other improver level song examples that use a double time strumming pattern like this include;
 ‘Story of My Life’ by One Direction
 ‘A Little Respect’ by Wheatus

It is also similar to the pattern used by Mumford & Sons among others, which is covered in my
Improver/ intermediate guitar course.

Lesson 21 - Percussive Strumming

This is a technique made popular by Jack Johnson, Jason Mraz and Ed Sheeran. We percussively hit the
strings and mute to make a snare tap type sound.

Bonus pattern 4 – Percussive Strumming

This mute lasts half a
best. The tap sound
should happen here,
which we do by
tapping the strings
onto the frets with
your strumming hand

This pattern is similar to that in the song ‘Better Together’ by Jack Johnson and ‘Stuck in the Middle
With You’ by Stealers Wheel.
21
 Lesson 22 - Bo Diddly Rhythm
Covering a Esus4 is a great excuse to cover the really fun ‘Bo Diddly’ rhythm, so called because its
distinctive grove is found in the song of the same name. It’s also found in Bo Diddley’s songs Mona, Not
Fade Away by Buddy Holly (covered brilliantly by The Rolling Stones). YOU can play all of these songs
with this rhythm and the E and Esus4 chords!

Bonus Pattern 5 - Bo Diddly Rhythm

|E E E Esus4 E |

HELP!
The pattern written above looks far more complex than it is to actually play. Saying a phrase or song
lyric can really help you understand more complex rhythms. There is a lyric in the Spice Girls song
‘Spice up your life’ at the end of the chorus that goes “I, see, ya, hold tight!” that is the best example I
can find of the Bo Diddley rhythm put to words - though not the most street cred ;)

This rhythm is also found in the song ‘Faith’ by George Michael, ‘I Want Candy’ by the Strangeloves,
‘Movin’ On Up’ by Primal Scream and ‘Mamma Do The Hump’ by Rizzle Kicks

Advanced Bo Diddley rhythm

This pattern features the exact same rhythm as above (“I, see, ya, hold tight..”) but with a 16th
strumming hand motion and with added muting, shown by the line of ‘x’ in the TAB (x means a
string is picked but muted with either hand)

This way of playing is way more advanced than the first and is at a true intermediate level. All this
means is it will take longer to master- but follow the steps in this course properly and I promise
you – you will master this!
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23
 Like this Strumming Course?
Be sure to check out the andyguitar.co.uk For more totally free guitar lessons. There you
will find a full beginners course, along with every guitar lesson of mine on YouTube,
structured and easy to find with relevant chord sheets or TAB PLUS help and advice- all
aimed at beginner Guitarists!

Other Andy Guitar courses you may wish to try!

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24