Enhancing Strum Patterns

Okay, so moving on from strum patterns, let's take things up a notch and think about how we can make these even more interesting.

Varied Strumming Techniques

One way you can easily do this, without adding any new notes to the chords, is simply by varying whether you're strumming the strings and essentially playing a chord. You can vary that up with single notes within the chord, kind of like arpeggios within the chord.

Example on G Chord

Let's try this out on a G chord:
1, 2, 3, 4.

• Rhythm: This is rhythmically an eighth note pattern.
• Combination: I'm combining single notes of my chord with chord accents, followed by a little arpeggio on the top.

You can also reverse the order we did that in; there's no problem there. You can hear the dynamic achieved by doing this. It creates a really musical rhythm guitar part with nice movement.

While there's nothing wrong with just blasting away in a chord, we've now injected a nice bit of movement into our rhythm guitar part! This can easily be applied to some chord changes.

Applying to Different Chords

Let's check that out:
2, 3, 4.

Taking that exact carbon copy strum pattern and applying it to different chords sounds really musical.

Changes in Strum Pattern

What you may have noticed, and this is important, is that even though we are still using an eighth note pattern, my strum pattern has completely changed.

Reason for Change

This change occurs because the direction of the notes, or the sequence of notes you're playing, dictates the strum pattern. There's no right or wrong here!

• Aim for beat one to always be a nice strong downstroke.
• For example, I got three upstrokes in a row because that's the direction of my picking hand travel, returning to the bass note for my beat one.

I'm doing two full strums on the chord, then a bass note on its own. This is another really simple thing you can implement!

Incorporating Arpeggios

Following that, I'm executing a little arpeggio on top, which involves three upstrokes. This brings me back to where I want to be on the bottom string.

Taking It Further with C Major

Let's take this one step further and demonstrate on a C major chord.

Adding Movement

We'll take our second finger off the C major chord, resulting in a kind of suspended second chord. As soon as we strum it, we'll hammer on.

This gives us a nice bit of movement within the chord change:

• Instead of a straight strum, we'll get something more dynamic.

Expanding to Other Chords

You can do this with many different chords. It doesn't have to be a specific note in the chord; for instance, you could do it on the A minor chord right in the middle of the chord. You can even incorporate two notes, making it a simple but effective way to add life to a basic strum pattern or chord progression.

Combining Techniques

You could incorporate this concept into the arpeggio techniques we discussed earlier. Let's take it to an A minor chord.

Final Thoughts

Another relatively simple way to make that chord progression sound more musical involves the direction of your picking pattern, which changes based on the direction of the arpeggio.

• Remember: You don't have to stick with the standard down, up, down, up for chord-based eighth note patterns.
• Feel free to vary these up to whatever feels comfortable. There will be many ways for you to experiment with these ideas.

Get Feedback

Why not try these ideas with the examples on the PDF? If you'd like to video your attempts, feel free to send them in for feedback. It would be great to see what you're up to!