Ok, I can strum several different patterns and even mix and match them within songs and vary tempo and soft and loud, I play with the backing tracks and listen to and use the other instruments for timing. BUT if I even try to move my foot I may as well burn the guitar and go get a set of spoons!
How the heck do you train the feet to stay in rhythm?
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Donāt stress man. If youāre internal rhythm is solid, and on the money, then tapping your foot, or whatever else is incidental.
Iāve never really been a foot tapper.
Cheers, Shane
Craig @Towerguy
Tapping you feet is just one of those things with most people just happens after a while. I couldnāt play, sing and tap my foot at the same time until one day I just noticed I was, without thinking about it.
Michael
Thanks for the link. Even in the video as I understand he seems to only refer to the first beat as the downbeat, and not all beats right?
I looked this up and it is called the downbeat because, traditionally, a conductorās baton/hand moves downward on this beat. In a measure of 4/4 time only the first beat is considered the downbeat. The other beats within the measure are simply referred to as beats.
But I still need some clarification on this.
@Richard_close2u Any updates on this from Justin? Thanks.
I havenāt asked Justin for comment in truth. I hesitate to do it now, knowing that he has he has come back to work following parental leave and a family holiday to a huge backlog of work.
As mentioned, THE downbeat, if there is an insistence that each bar of music has only one such, is the first beat and is when a conductor would move the baton in the downwards motion.
Then there are other names - on beat, off beat, back beat etc. There are some widely accepted conventions.
Do I have to learn all strum patterns from the video? What strum patterns should I learn?
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Thatās great, thanks
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I cannot find your blank pdf with 1+2+3+4+ printed many times on it. Can you tell me where it is? Thanks.
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Hi Paul @pspan, welcome to the community! If youāre inclined to do so, visit over here and tell us a bit about yourself.
If you scroll down below the video, where the āLearn Moreā tab is, there should be a tab called Resources. There youāll find a document called Strumming Circles. I think thatās the .pdf Justin refers to. 
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A post was split to a new topic: Question re: the JG Rhythm Reading book
when i am practicing i donāt skip the note that i need to skip so i hum like this 1 & 2 & & 4 & is it correct or i will have problems further in learning
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Hi Shabbaj, welcome to the community. I donāt see any problem as long as you remember the 3 is in the count. Perhaps you think 3 silently, so that you have the proper number of beats.
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Do these principles for learning and practicing strum patterns for 4/4 time also apply to 3/4 or 6/8 time? Or perhaps thereās another forthcoming lesson on this at some point?
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Yes. Strumming should feel relaxed and your posture or technique shouldnāt be any different.
As for down/upstrums: 3/4 and 6/8 also have downbeats and upbeats, just like 4/4 timing. As a rule of thumb:
- in 3/4 timing, the downstrums go on beats 1, 2, 3; the upstrums go on every āandā
- in 6/8 timing, the downstrums go on beats 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 - with an accentuated strum on beats 1 and 4; the upstrums go on every āandā
Just
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I assume, as well, one can create and practice for 3/4 and 6/8 times different patterns for playing and skipping the strum on the down and up beats?
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Absolutely 
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Thank you. 
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Iāve included Justinās rhythm exercise in my practice routine, and I think my rhythm is already improving. I also had a happy accident. Blisters developed on my fingers and when they busted open, I could not fret well enough to make fast chords changes. wonderful right? In this state, I was still able to practice rhythm with muted strings. And for song practice, since I couldnāt play the chords, I just tried to lock in to the rhthym. I did this with several original recordings for songs that are in Justinās beginner song book, but not in the song app. It was tremendously satisfying to be able to lock into the rhythm. And Iām guessing when my fingers have healed, Iāll have a leg up in playing the songs having spent some time with the rhythm already. As a side note: I have had a terrible time with injured muscles and joints in my back, and for years Iāve had trouble sitting. It sidelined me from guitar for three years. But now I find that sitting and playing guitar, along with a year of physical therapy, is actually helping me get better. The therapy was key, of course, but the guitar brought an immediate improvement that was not there before.
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Someone suggested to me that I learn to play with a strap, so that when playing sitting or standing the guitar would be in the same position. This has come in handy when my back protests about extended time sitting. I stand and the guitar is in the same relative position.
Iām new enough that if the position of the guitar is too different, I find it more challenging to make quick chord changes when the neck to arm relationship changes too much.
May you find yourself pain free,
Bruce
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