Learn to play Comfortably Numb [1/4] by Pink Floyd on JustinGuitar!
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I’m going to tackle Comfortably Numb rhythm. Does anyone have a recommended strumming pattern. If not, I’m just going with “Old Faithful.” But I’m open to suggestions if anyone knows a “proper” strumming pattern for the song (if there IS a proper strumming pattern).
Thanks!
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Hi Daniel,
If you have a question about a song that Justin also has as a lesson, it is best to ask that question under the song lesson. Watch lesson 1 of 4 and he explains the rhythm guitar there,
Greetings
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Will do. Thanks!
Ok - I looked at it.
4/4 timing according to the tab.
Justin’s suggestion:
D - D - UUU - D
This is where Justin’s older material sort is out of synch with what he’s teaching now.
So my question would be - "How do you put D - D - UUUD into the strumming box? 3 would have to be an Up not a Down in order to get 4/4 timing. Now you can see why I went with Old Faithful D - DU - UD
I suck at strumming which is why I’m putting extra effort into attempting to understand it as applies to songs that I like while still attempting to stay true to Justin’s current teachings regarding strumming.
So, anyone want to take a shot at clarifying that for me. 
This is the only way I can make it work:
@Richard_close2u can you put this into the Discussion under Comfortably Numb if this (Song Lessons Grade 5 Songs) isn’t a good fit for the question I asked as noted by @roger_holland .
Thanks!
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This is a 16th note strumming pattern, and here is the way the timing works out:
1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + a
D D U U U D
At least that’s what it seems like to me.
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16th note patterns are not supported by the Strumming Machine yet, AFAIK.
Sadly, I don’t think Justin focuses on 16th note strumming patterns in the beginner grades. I remember having to work out some of the techniques myself for songs like Wish You Were Here.
In a nutshell, you want to start with 8th note strumming…down strums on all the down and upbeats.
Then add in the 16ths as upstrums.
This post of mine talks about the 8th note strumming aspect, which might get you started.
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Then use two barres of 8th note strumming pattern at twice the BPM
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Sure, that would work. But last time I looked, SM does not support more than 1 bar.
Maybe it does now?
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Well that sucks. 
I’ve never used it, don’t have a problem with strumming. Should be another thing to add to the request thread on the SM.
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Introduced in Grade 2
Edit: This is a lesson on a Grade 5 song, so OP should be familiar with 16th note strumming.
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Oh, he does indeed…I had forgotten.
Though I hate that title, and someone else complained about that recently as well.
@Richard_close2u, would it be possible to change the lesson title to “16th Note Strumming”. The video thumbnail is already named properly … they really should match.
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From what I understand, the 16th note Strumming Machine is a Work In Progress.
A lot of people commented on the need and I believe they have coders working on it.
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The Op (me) came into Justin Guitar as an Intermediate (i.e., I brought a number of skills with me that are from Intermediate Level practice) however, with a huge number of holes in his practice - like strumming and building a song catalogue and a lot of other holes as well. So I just finished Beginner Grade 1 - starting at the beginning to “fill in the holes.” But this is not outside of what I can do if I apply myself. So I’ll hop ahead to
Learning and applying 16th strumming would be a useful tool, as I’ve run into a similar problem with another of Justin’s older videos - Wild Thing - where you simply can not pack the strumming pattern into as 4/4 time signature.
Thanks for the info!
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I’ve been playing with this, because I always struggle with 16th note rhythms…
To my ear at least, two Old Faithfuls per bar sounds OK for Comfortably Numb, e.g.
1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + a
D D U d U D D D U d U D
(NOTE: lower case “d” indicates a miss - a downstrum that misses the strings. I find this really helps me keep my strumming in synch when learning a new strumming pattern at very slow tempos.
It’s possible that penciling in “u” for up-misses might be helpful as well, but it gets pretty cluttered).
I’d expect 16th note rhythms to be twice as difficult as 8th note rhythms, but for me it’s more like 10 times as difficult…and I’m not sure why.
Can’t wait till the Strumming Machine supports 16ths…suspect it might be a game changer!
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Me too!
I’ll give this a shot for starters. Thanks!
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