Many students come to me complaining that they are stuck in the same strumming patterns and don’t know how to invent new ones. It’s easy to get out of a rhythm guitar routine like this. Here are a couple of ways to do it.
One of the best ways to learn is through mimicry. This is how babies learn everything and it works for us adults. And I can hear the battle cry now. “I don’t want to sound like other people!” Don’t worry, you won’t. Learning new patterns and styles by imitation gives you a start and then you can develop it into whatever you want. In my own experience, I usually copy it wrong the first few times anyway, and come up with something different that I like.
So let’s say you’re stuck in an indie rock vein. Go find something extremely different, like Afro-Cuban jazz. Sit down with that music, pick just one chord (even if it doesn’t sound right), and try to play a rhythm that fits with it. You can even do it with muted strings if you can’t find the right chord. Listen carefully to the drums and bass and see if you can create something that fits with them. After a while you will realize that you are playing strum patterns that you did not know before. It’s a body movement thing, not a brain thing.
Another way is to take the patterns you know and modify them using the different elements of a strum pattern. We often approach a pattern like a drummer approaches his kit. Different parts of the kit for different times in the measure. Like a bass drum on 1 and 3. Snare on 2 and 4. On guitar, we can hit the lowest strings on 1 and 3 and the highest strings on 2 and 4. Or flip it over and create something different.
You can also use muted hits or ghost notes to add a percussive aspect to your strumming. To do this, simply loosen your grip on the chord and run the pick over the dead and muted strings. Mix them with your regular strummed notes.
So not only can you change the rhythm, but you can also change the part of the chord you’re using or use ghost notes for texture.
Now, for the last, we’ll get a little technical. Let’s take a measure full of eighth notes. Each “” is an eighth note in this case:
1 2 3 4 &
That’s your basic eighth note strum. For the exercise, go over and skip one eighth note at a time to create a new pattern. R= Rest.
R\\\
1 R 2 and 3 and 4 and
\\R\
1 and 2 and R and 4 and
Try removing each eighth note, one at a time. Those rest places can be actual rests (rest), tied notes from the previous strum, or a muted hit. Each type gives you a slightly different feel.
Once you’ve gone through all 8 possibilities, try skipping combinations of 2 eighth notes. Then 3. Then as many as you want. Then take some of those combinations and put them together into two-measure sentences. For example, in the first bar you leave the & of beat 3. In the second bar you drop the downbeat of beat 2.
Mix and match as you like. You can begin to see how many possible patterns emerge this way.
And if you want to learn specific types of standard rhythms for a variety of styles (and you should), I recommend Jody Fisher’s “The Encyclopedia of Rhythm Guitar.” There are hundreds of strum patterns in tone styles.
