# Where does your "strum" rhythm come from?



## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

I have this co-worker who loves music, loves guitar, & plays guitar. When he plays, he can form all the chords but it's like his strum/pick hand belongs to someone else. He cannot play a song and make it sound like anything but a jumbled mess. I was thinking of way to explain it to him when I realized that when I sit down to play any song, I have the song playing in my head and I'm playing along. If I'm not singing, I'm singing in my head with the song.
That's where my rhythm comes from.

He doesn't have that. When he sits down to play, he's got nothing in his head.....or even a totally different song in his head than what's he's playing. Or there's a radio playing in the room. I'm pretty sure that's his problem.

Or am I weird?

Where does your rhythm come from?


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

This will be an interesting thread. 

I think that I'm a bit like your friend, but through time I have improved. Please be sure to tell him that...LOL

I continue to have difficulty learning, remembering and maintaining a rhythm pattern. 
If I "break" rhythm, I just seem to crumble into a total mess and have to virtually start over

I can hear reggae in my head.....but can't seem to come close to playing it.

However, If someone starts a rhythm (and I know the chord progression), I can follow them quite well...unless they throw in a change of tempo or pattern or something.

Looking forward to what others write about this.

Cheers

Dave


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## kw_guitarguy (Apr 29, 2008)

I am one of the lucky ones born with rhythm...but I can certainly sympathize with someone who has a difficult time grasping on to it.

I would tell him to turn anything else in the room off, and just have the song he is playing, playing on the stereo or something. That would help him learn the rhythm I would think. A metronome might help him learn the basics of rhythm as well.

~Andrew


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## Starbuck (Jun 15, 2007)

Fortunately I have never had a problem with this. I don't know if it is a natural sense of timing or the way I practice, but I can tell you that my brother never, ever can play a tune right. EVERY song ends up having the exact same timing and this has ALWAYS been irritating (as he does not think he has a problem) maybe I am cognizant at how easily a song can go south if you don't pay attention to timing, therefore I can manage.


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

greco said:


> I continue to have difficulty learning, remembering and maintaining a rhythm pattern.
> If I "break" rhythm, I just seem to crumble into a total mess and have to virtually start over
> 
> I can hear reggae in my head.....but can't seem to come close to playing it.
> ...


Ire man you have to count da tings in da muusic and feel da riddems ... countin da time learn da time. When you know the time then you get play off the time.


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

shoretyus said:


> Ire man you have to count da tings in da muusic and feel da riddems ... countin da time learn da time. When you know the time then you get play off the time.


OK mon...evry ting you be sayin


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## lbrown1 (Mar 22, 2007)

for me.....I have a loop of what I interpret the song to be running through my head as I'm playing it.....mostly the vocal melody stands out for me......and when playing live - add in the drummer...I REALLY try to tune into what the drummer is doing.......helps a lot....but I do remember when I first started out - it seemed to come fairly naturally to me

but Im still a hack


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## Stratin2traynor (Sep 27, 2006)

I've always had pretty good rhythm but it does get difficult at times while playing. I tend to get distracted easily and lose track of what I'm playing. I find that food taping the tempo helps alot.


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## f2fanatic (Jun 26, 2009)

I have barely any rythm at all; when I try to dance in a party, I put my other half to shame!! When I started to learn guitar, I started on classical cause I had only to follow notes, so my right hand had not to follow any rythm but just follow note by note. But I had aways wanted to play rythm guitar and sign (another way to put someone to shame!!)
A few yesrs ago, in the little city where I live, I see a guy advertising guitar lessons so I have decided to give it a try. His format is something I have not seen a lot; we are 3-5 persons with guitars and He stands in front of us with his guitar plugged in to make sure we can hear him and not so the other 3 to 5 around.
He goes through the chords, then the strumming pattern, then we play it all together and we leave with the strumming pattern we can download and the tune without the guitar track thah we have to fill in for. It has been going on for more then 2 years now and I can now say that I can play ryth guitar now. When we get a new tune (once a week), and the strumming patter is new, it is for me the hardest part to get right but it takes me far less time now to succeed.
I can now listen to songs and figure somme strumming patterns by myself and this is a big accomplishment for me; something that has really helped and was told to us by our instructor was to "Focus on the drum and/or bass track to find the rignt pattern". After a while, you can hear downstrokes and upstrokes and even chucks (string mutes) when the drum brushes or snares.
Hope this helps.
Michel


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

My rhythm blows. It always has but I've been doing what I can to improve it. I started taking lessons last year and found they really helped a lot, but I stopped because I couldn't afford them. I just try to really pay attention to a song and really put in the time to counting beats and it's something that works sometimes but other times goes right out the window.


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## puckhead (Sep 8, 2008)

Starbuck said:


> my brother never, ever can play a tune right. EVERY song ends up having the exact same timing and this has ALWAYS been irritating (as he does not think he has a problem)


a friend in a group i jam with is like this. whether we are playing Gordon Lightfoot or AC/DC or the Ramones, he always eventually morphs into the exact same strumming pattern.
I tried a couple of different things to break the trend (fortunately with the support of the rest of the group). Everytime he hit that rhythm, we would stop the song. He'd be left solo doing that same thing... hopefully he started to hear what the problem was, and we'd bug the shit out of him over it 9kkhhd
the next thing I tried is to forbid upstrokes. His job was downstroke on 1-2-3-4. that's IT. If it's a faster song, he can have the 1/8s or 1/16s, but they all still have to be downstrokes.
It seems to be working, slowly but surely.

for me, I have the same mindset as Lincoln. The song is playing in my head, and I'm just strumming or noodling along to it.


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

The key to good strumming is keeping your hand moving at the same speed whether you're striking the strings on a down stroke or an up stroke.


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## Peter (Mar 25, 2008)

When I play I hear the drum track in my head like a metronome. Even if there's no actual drums.


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## Beach Bob (Sep 12, 2009)

I just do what the voices in my head tell me to do. Sadly, those voices aren't much better than I am.....


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## Wiser (Jan 6, 2010)

I have this problem sometimes. I think I screw up when I'm focused on the lyrics and not the beat. When I try to place a downstroke on a certain lyric I get derailed. Maybe your co-worker is the same.

As its been mentioned starting slow may help. Sitting with a metronome and just strumming a G, whole, half, quarter notes. If that's too boring try to pick up a strum pattern.

Down . . . . Down . . Up . . . . Up . . Down . . Up!


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

Beach Bob said:


> I just do what the voices in my head tell me to do. Sadly, those voices aren't much better than I am.....


My laugh of the morning ... tee hee


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## Nohtanhoj (Jun 30, 2008)

One of the most important technical things to remember about strumming is that you need to keep a constant speed with your right hand. Down, Up, Down, Up, Down, Up..... To create actual strumming patterns, just miss the strings on some beats. If you're looking to get better at strumming, first practice with a strum on every eighth beat, then start cutting out beats by lifting your hand a little bit.

Practicing with a metronome (or at least a constant tempo foot tap or drum beat), is one of the best things for strumming. It also works for scales and solos, as playing live requires you to stay with a drummer or bass player.


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## megadan (Feb 5, 2006)

I was a bass player for 10 years (just bought an electric guitar today, though I had an acoustic for many years). My strumming patterns are based on note divisions first, then "molding" or taking away from those patterns ( 1/8th or 16th based) to create the rhythm you want. I also use a lot of triplets, and I try and intentionally go off time and then come back in on the next '1' in order to make more interesting patterns.


It irritates me when people play guitar and every song is the exact some strum pattern.


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## Powdered Toast Man (Apr 6, 2006)

FlipFlopFly said:


> The key to good strumming is keeping your hand moving at the same speed whether you're striking the strings on a down stroke or an up stroke.


You have obviously not listened to much Keith Richards!


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## Powdered Toast Man (Apr 6, 2006)

Ok, so here's something where I excel at rather than technical playing. I'm not the best lead player - I can hardly solo - but rhythm is where I have my chops. I've found I've run into several players who, in their learning, seem to have focused entirely on the fretboard and ignored the other hand. 

Before I even learned to pick up a guitar, I was listening very heavily to the Rolling Stones. I even got my hands on Keith's solo albums. His rhythm inspired me then and still does today. Recently, my buddy who's been playing with me forever finally started listening to some Stones stuff and he commented that he never realized until now exactly how much Keith influenced my playing. Another friend was over jamming one day and he's much more straight ahead in his playing and even he commented on my odd strumming style. This song is the best example I can find that illustrates what I'm talking about: YouTube - Keith Richards You don't move me anymore (not really a video, audio with still pictures)

My one biggest recommendation to anyone who struggles with rhythm playing is put down your guitar and pick up a bass. When I switched to bass for a while it opened me up to a whole different way of playing and thinking about rhythm. It made me a better and more rounded player overall.


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