Right Hand Strumming Basics

Once we have a learnt a chord or two then it's time to learn to strum the guitar. It is our right hand playing the strings that generates the sound and rhythm of the guitar so it is important to work on the right hand as much as the left. Strumming the guitar is the moving of the right hand across the strings of the guitar.

In basic terms, we have a down strum (or down stroke) which is when we strum from the low (bass) strings to the top (treble) strings (thick strings to thin strings) i.e: we are moving down towards the ground. We also have the up strum (or up stroke) which is moving the hand from top strings to the low strings i.e: from the ground towards our head.

Typically, the up strums have less emphasis and are played lighter unless going for a specific sound (see patterns 11 and 12 below). Also strumming should be a relaxed movement involving the elbow joint and the wrist working together to get a smooth even strum.

Have a listen to the various patterns on this page and have a go at playing along. I've played the patterns using an 'E Major' chord so you can use this to play in tune. The term BPM is beats per minute and is a count of how many beats occur in one minute (or 60 seconds). So 60 BPM would be 60 beats per minute (1 beat per second). The higher the BPM, the faster the song. The rhythms on this page have been grouped into measures of 4 beats that repeat, once you get to 4 - start again at 1.

Note: it can be a bit confusing following the diagrams as a down strum is shown as an arrow pointing up the page. This is because the bass strings are shown at the bottom of the diagram so the arrow is pointing from low to high in pitch (thick to thin strings)