Messing around with strumming patterns in songs

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I’m currently in the module where you learn the G chord and I’m a bit confused about strumming patterns.

I’ve heard Justin mention that you can try a couple of different strumming patterns when playing the songs during the final 10 minutes of a practice session, but I’m confused about how this works.

I’m using the video that comes with the premade practice routine and it, for example, shows that I have to play a C chord on the first and third beat of a bar. So this means you have to strum 1(+2+)3(+4+), not sure how to write this down but between the brackets means you don’t hit any strings.

To mess around with other strumming patterns do I just follow along with the chord changes each bar and strum whatever pattern I feel like playing?

I feel like the answer is probably a very obvious “yes, of course that’s exactly what it means” but somehow I want to make sure. :sweat_smile:

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Yep, that’s pretty much it Mathieu. What also may be useful is writing on a sheet the 1+2+3+4 sequence and just circling some patterns that you can experiment with. Also try it with different emphasis on different parts of the patterns you come up with as this also has a big change on how a pattern can sound or feel.

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Thanks for the quick reply, I’ll try it out tomorrow :slight_smile:

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Confused a bit on this as well. My assumption is to strum when the bouncing ball hits the letter, which may appear only once per line or twice which to my feeble mind means v x x x, v x x x, or v x v x but if i click on the pattern, it will say v v v v or v v v ^ v or something like that. :thinking:. (excuse the poor excuse for down up)