It’s time to practice your up strums! Here are a few different rhythm patterns for you to work on.
View the full lesson at Strumming Patterns With Ups | JustinGuitar
It’s quite interesting that the most ‘relaxing’ tempo is sort of heartbeat speed.
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Hello @MilleD welcome to the Community.
The heartbeat is the most powerful beat of all, for sure.
Wait until you begin to record yourself playing and hit the red button - your heartbeat will up several notches in an instant! 
Cheers 
| Richard_close2u | JustinGuitar Official Guide
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Does the capital U in the first pattern signify anything different from the small u in the second pattern?
MOD NOTE
The 2nd pattern did contain lower case u for upstrums. This was a typo as @lickster states. I have now edited them to upper case.
Cheers
| Richard_close2u | JustinGuitar Official Guide
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@SmokeJS No. It’s just a typo. The first pattern has an upstrum after beat 2 and the 2nd one has two up strums - after beat 2 and 3. Hope it clarifies. happy strumming 
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What is the correct technique for holding the pick when up strumming. Do you have the tip of the pick slightly facing down towards the ground as you strum upwards or do you hold the pick in the exact same position when you down strum?
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Hi Dan and welcome to the Community.
In a word yes. Think of it like painting, stroking down and up as you rotate the brush. If you keep it in the same position as the down strum it will snag the strings, so you want glide over them in both directions.
Hope that helps.
Cheers
Toby
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That makes sense. Thanks Toby 
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Wow, strumming patterns feel liberating 
I used to be pretty upset when I got a chord wrong when strumming on the one. The thing is, I can get chords right most of the time when doing chord perfect, but less often when doing 1 minute changes. I was always stressed out when playing songs, but I feel like strumming patterns helped me at least somewhat get over it. Personally, they make the experience a whole lot enjoyable for me.
It’s really true, as long as your strumming is consistent, chord mistakes are less noticeable as opposed to the other way round. So keep practicing 
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Do you generally count out loud the “ands” even when not strumming up or only when strumming up?
For example for pattern 1 I’ve been verbalizing it as “one … two and three … four” and pattern 2 as “one … two and three and four …”
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It really depends on how good your rhythm is. If you’re new to rhythm it can help to count all the ands. That will help you from getting off of the beat. Just put an emphasis on the strumming one, say it louder while muttering the other ands.
E.g. for D D U D D
You would count: “ONE and TWO AND THREE and FOUR and …”.
Once your rhythm and timing is fine it would be normal to just not say what you’re not strumming.
“one … two and three …four”, as you say.
[mod edit - I have changed all strummed counts to upper case in the example above so the only lower case counts are those not strummed]
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Hi, when you go from a down strum to an up strum is there a little twist of the wrist that has to happen to come up?
Cheers
David
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Yes.
If you angle the tip of the pick a little towards the floor, it won’t catch on the strings as much on the upstrum.
I found the best way to develop this habit was Justin’s “strumming with muted strings” exercise.
Note that the upstrums will feel a lot more difficult than the downs, because your muscles are working against gravity.
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Thank you, I’m getting the feel for it and yes Justin’s “strumming with muted strings” a fantastic exercise.
Cheers
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It has to happen and does so subconsciously.
Note, on upstrums you do not need to think of striking all six strings. Two or three or four is usually fine.
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It’s works, when I need to strum all six on the up it’s okay and with 4 or 5 strings I’m getting most of them. Thank you Richard
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Hi, should tip of pick be barely visible(on reddit it says chocking up on pick) while holding pick and strumming ?, because when I do it that way and strum it sound loud not harsh, but if I hold the pick such I am holding pick at back, with tip of pick and some area visible, it sound soft and is most comfortable for me. I just want to develop a bad habit.
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Nishikant @JaxTeller
As a beginner Justin recommends using a 0.36 or 0.48 nylon pick with about 1cm showing for strumming.
By the way welcome to the community 
Michael
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Yes I am using 0.46, and for 1cm showing not there yet, I will keep practicing by adjusting it. Thank you Michael @MAT1953 !
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Is it normal to be missing either your downstrums or upstrums while strumming? Like at time when I strum, the pick doesn’t make contact with the strings and I miss the strum, and also it time it happens the other way around where I hit the strings when I am not supposed to:/
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