A 6:8 Strumming Pattern

Beginner Grade 1 Module 6: 6:8 Time, Fast Changes & Alternate Picki
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Renan, apparently we don’t understand your question. Could you try to explain what you want to ask? We can’t help you if we don’t understand.

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I’ll try. Forget about 6/8 for now.

We have various time signatures and with each one we have different accents on different beats, correct?

I asked @jjw if we have to keep the accents even when doing variations and dynamics (variations are strumming changes every 4, 8, 16… bars and dynamics means the strumming volume, loud and soft). He said to keep the accents even when changing these things.

I just asked if this applies to all time signatures, like 4/4, 3/4 etc.

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The answer is it depends. You can have music that has very consistent timing that repeats over and over. Or you can have a song that has more of a flow to it like the wind where the dynamics change to add more feeling, even the tempo can change and time signature can change .

So there is no fixed answer it all depends on the music.
That being said you don’t need to worry about that at this part of you guitar journey you need to learn what’s in the lesson.

Trying to learn everything at once isn’t going to help you learn you’re still in grade 1 and there are over 700 lessons over 7 grades in Justins course.

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So there’s no “default”? If that’s the case, then why does Justin teach that in 4/4 time the accent is on the first beat? And in 6/8 time the accents are on the first and fourth beats?

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Justin is teaching a specific beginner-level strumming pattern in 6:8. By definition, there is one way to do that strumming pattern. Many, perhaps most, songs in 6:8 do accent beats 1 and 4. But not all do. And this logic (not necessarily the details, just the meta-logic) applies to all time signatures: there is often a “standard” version, and myriad variations.

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In grade 1, module 6, Justin says:

  • “Songs in 4/4 have for beats per bar. When we count beats, we say “1, 2, 3, 4.” When playing songs in 4:4, we tend to accentuate the first beat of each bar.”
  • When playing in 6/8 time, we tend to accent beats 1 and 4, so it’s two groups of three pulses.

“We tend to” means that we often do, but not always. You are still right at the beginning of your journey. At this point, Justin wants you to practice what’s most common, in essence accenting beat 1 in 4:4 timing, and beats 1 and 4 in 6:8 timing. That doesn’t mean there are no songs where the accent lies not on beat 1, but on beat 3 for example. If you want an example of a song with the accent on a different beat, take a listen to this one (it’s fast, in 4:4) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpvXfLlcHwc&list=RDwpvXfLlcHwc&start_radio=1.

But that’s not something for you to worry about at this point. Learning to play the guitar is hard enough as it is. Try not to overcomplicate it.

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It is, and I love it :fire:

That’s hard when you are a perfeccionist :neutral_face:

@judi Thanks :+1:

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That’s hard when you are a perfeccionist :neutral_face:

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Because you’re a beginner and you have to start somewhere. So one you can do this with simple songs you can move to harder struff.
If he taught the hardest things first you’d quite because it’s to hard.

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Thanks guys :+1:

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I’m having such a hard time hitting the D…UD.D…UD.D pattern. I keep missing either beat 4 or something. Is it imperative to know this pattern? I can handle it better if I add in more strums but that big gap between the first down and the first up is screwing me over.

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Do the practice exercise for 3mins a day for 1 week, then reassess if you want to continue with it. No it’s not imperative, until you come across a song with this pattern.

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Missing beat 4 is a fundamental problem and you need to address it. Beats 1 and 4 are the crucial waymarkers of a 6:8 time signature.

Imperative? No.
Important and useful? Yes.

Yes, gaps that extend beyond one quarter are challenging in any time signature. You need to make either Up - Down - Up or make Down - Up - Down motions without striking the strings. If the gap is causing you issues it may be that you haven’t trained your strumming arm fully to maintain constant Down - Up motion even when playing in 4:4 time.
You could go back to basics of 4:4 and drill rhythms with a gap.

Try some or all of these.
They show 8ths where an _ symbol represents wither a Down or an Up but missing the strings.

| 1 _ _ _ 3 _ _ _ | 

| 1 _ _ _ 3 _ 4 _ | 

| 1 _ _ _ 3 & _ _ | 

| 1 _ _ _ 3 & 4 _ | 

| 1 _ 2 _ _ _ 4 _ | 

| 1 & 2 _ _ _ 4 _ |