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
Move your arm like youāre playing both the up strums and the down strums but donāt actually play the strings in the parentheses
Understood but my confusion is the 5th down strum on in a 4 beat bar
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 āandāsā.
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 donāt strum the strings
So when Justin says D DU U D Itās the same as D(U) DU (D)U D(U)
If you were to strum on both the counts and the āandsā you would be strumming 8 times per bar.
Okay thank you for the explanation .
When it shows D D U U D
I wasnāt 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
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 Iām missing something Help
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
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
@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.
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 āandsā in between the beats. The second video @stitch posted explains it way better than I ever could.
D (one) DU (two and) U (āandā of the third beat) D (four) = total four beats
@Crackedfingers try to forget the number 5ā¦ there is 4 downs and 4 ups always keep your hand moving down and upā¦ but donāt 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
Thank you
for Heroes, I play
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
D D U U D
as a start.