All Down 8th Note Strumming

Learn An Easy Strumming Pattern With All Down Strums 

We already know how to downstrums on beats 1, 2, 3, and 4. You're also familiar with adding upstrums on the 'ands.' This strumming follows the natural movement of your arm when you're strumming, so it's pretty easy!

But what if you want to make things feel faster and have more energy without speeding up? This lesson will teach us a high-energy strumming pattern that will add speed to your sound without changing your tempo! And, you'll learn some tricks to make it more dynamic, which will help develop your overall guitar technique. :) 

 

All-Down 8th note Strumming Pattern

This easy strumming pattern is very effective. It's also often used in pop music. Coldplay often uses this all-down strumming style. It allows you to double the number of possible strums in a bar! You'll start with four downstrums in a bar. Then, you'll want to add a downstrum for every 'and' of the beat. This will give loads more energy to our strumming. You'll feel it picking up! Later on, we'll start exploring by adding upstrums in there too.

 

 

💡 Remember about counting ands? We usually add upstrums on those 'ands,' but now you'll play only downstrums.

 

Accenting the Back Beats

Now, strumming eight identical notes can be tedious. It's also time to introduce the idea of adding an accent to your strumming. This means you'll be playing some beats louder than others! To add some groove to your strumming, you'll want to play some strings louder than the others.

To accent the backbeats, strum louder on Beats 2 and 4. You can also play all the other strums quietly. Give it a go, and see the dynamic difference it makes! It should add more momentum to your strumming and pulse to the pattern. With practice, you'll be able to accent back beats with all the other strumming patterns you've learned. Keep it simple with the eight-down strums and make it feel nice!

 

 

How To Pick The Right Strings 

Let's go through how to pick the right strings for a few common chords for this strumming pattern. First, with the A chord, you want to pick from the 5th string down. You can mute the thickest string by reaching your thumb around the fretboard.

Make sure that string does not ring out! With the C chord, it's easier to mute the thickest string with finger 3! Playing the D chord might feel trickier - you're picking from the fourth string down.

It won't be perfect at first - and that's okay! Developing picking string accuracy happens with progress. Your picking hand will eventually find the correct string to play. That's a skill that will come with practice. For now, be aware of your string accuracy, so you can encourage this idea to grow. :)

 

Strumming Pattern Practice

First,  get familiar with playing this way! It might feel a bit awkward at first. Keep going at it until it feels good. 

To practice this strumming pattern, pick any chord you like and start strumming. Go slow and easy. Don't overthink it - you already know how to strum; you're just doing more of it now. 

Once you're feeling comfortable, start practicing the strumming pattern with a metronome. This is where it can get tricky for beginner guitar players. With more notes in the bar, it can be easy to get off tempo. Find a speed that's not too fast or too slow, and set your bpm between 60 and 80. 

The ultimate goal is to play this all-down strum pattern on any chord. For now, try to make it feel good. Get your groove on. Then, you can start thinking about the string accuracy and chord progressions you play! 

 

Now - let's explore how you can improve pick manipulation!