Strumming question

#1

Hi I am a beginner that just completed grade 1 but I do not want to move on to grade 2 until I feel comfortable playing songs.
My question is in a song like Hero by David Bowie the strum pattern is D D U U D (old faithful I believe).
There is 4 beat to a bar so what is the correct way to play this.
Thank you and I hope this makes sense

#2

image

Move your arm like youā€™re playing both the up strums and the down strums but donā€™t actually play the strings in the parentheses

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#3

Understood but my confusion is the 5th down strum on in a 4 beat bar

#4

In 4/4 time strumming 8th notes means there are 8 strums in the 4 beats, 4 up and 4 down. Think about it as 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and where the down strums are on the count and the up strums are on the ā€˜andā€™sā€™.

#5

Welcome to the forum Jack

When there are 4 beat to a bar you have 4 down strums and you have to move your arm up
to get another down strum. So there are 4 down strums and 4 up strums.
Old faithful has 4 down strum but strum 3 down is not played.
The count would be
1(and) 2and (3)and 4(and) the Brackets mean donā€™t strum the strings

So when Justin says D DU U D Itā€™s the same as D(U) DU (D)U D(U)

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#6

If you were to strum on both the counts and the ā€œandsā€ you would be strumming 8 times per bar.

#7

Okay thank you for the explanation .
When it shows D D U U D
I wasnā€™t sure whether you were supposed to strum D D U U D ,D D U U D or D D U U D, D U U D apparently I was wrong on both
Thank you for clearing this up for a newbie

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#8

I am still confused as that is 5 strums played in a 4 beat bar.
For example to play an A chord if all down it woud be D D D D but when the strum pattern is D D U U D how should it be played

Sorry if Iā€™m missing something Help :wink:

#9

This may help better than I can.

#10

This one might help even more

#11

So do I play the last DU together
ie D D U UD

As there is 4 beats to a bar but 5 in the strum pattern

#12

Theres 4 beats to a bar.

each beat is a whole strum, both down and up (indeed you cant eb ready for another down strum if your hand is below the stringsā€¦). Down happens first at the start. Regardless of if you are playing the strings or not.

so
beat 1 = Down then up.
beat 2 = Down then up.
etc

The pattern is which part of those you are making contact with the strings

So in your example

Beat 1 you play Down
beat 2 you play Down and up
beat 3 you play up
beat 4 you play down

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#13

@Crackedfingers do yourself a big favor and go back to the videos
I posted and learn them. You need to know how to count the
beat with the and before you go any further.

#14

There are 4 beats to the bar but you actually can strum 8 times within it (in 4/4 time at least) by strumming down on the beats and up on the ā€˜andsā€™ in between the beats. The second video @stitch posted explains it way better than I ever could.

#15

D (one) DU (two and) U (ā€œandā€ of the third beat) D (four) = total four beats

#16

@Crackedfingers try to forget the number 5ā€¦ there is 4 downs and 4 ups always keep your hand moving down and upā€¦ but donā€™t hit the strings on (skipped)

1 down strum
and up strum(skipped)
2 down strum
and up strum
3 down strum(skipped)
and up strum
4 down strum
and up strum(skipped)

Dave

#17

Thank you

#18

for Heroes, I play
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
D D U U D

as a start.