Hello! I am working on the first song, “Feeling Alright” by Joe Cocker, and am trying to visualize the sheet music notation of the “more advanced” strum pattern Justin shows us. He does “down, down, up, up, up, down” per measure.
What is the count on that, if I need to think in terms of 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & ? Is there such a thing as 5/4 time? I keep coming up with an extra 1/2 beat per measure if I use 4/4 time.
A little bit of information is a confusing thing, but, that is where I am at. LOL. TIA
Hello Kelly,
The song is using 16th note strumming 1e&a2e&a3e&a4e&a. Looking at the video it looks t9 me like Justin is playing 1(D) 2(D) a(U) e(U) a (U) 4(D).
For beginners Justin normally represents this as broken up into two 8th note strumming patterns |1&2&3&4&||1&2&3&4&| until he teaches 16th note strumming.
So in eighth note strumming this would be
1 - Down
&
2
&
3 - Down
&
4
& - Up
1
& - Up
2
& - Up
3 - Down
&
4
&
Hope this is of help and others may correct me if I’m wrong.
Thank you Socio, My level of theory is ragged, so this helps a bunch. 
No worries Kelly. The song lessons may include the approach to the song for beginners as well as for more advanced players. That way you can learn the songs and go back to it and develop further as your knowledge and skills develop.
At this stage in the beginners course, the most important thing is to strum the chord right on the beat. Not before, and not after. Therefore, for Grade 1 Module 1 start with just strumming on beat 1. Then when you have mastered that with the chord changes move onto strumming on beats 1, 2, 3, 4. Its all about building a solid foundation. Later on you will learn missing beats, up strums and 16th note strumming.