Let's explore the 16th Note Strumming pattern. It's about time, huh? :)
View the full lesson at Ups To The All Down | JustinGuitar
The ākeep your hand movingā part, I get the point. Just curious how far you take it, if there are 5 or 10 seconds of no guitar for part of a song, you keep the hand moving to keep the rhythm, or do you just stop, and the timing of the first beat is easy enough to keep you on track when you start up again?
1 Like
If there is a bar or two of letting a chord ring (or silence), I definitely find it useful to keep my fretting hand movingā¦at least a little.
I also count in my head, or even out loud, especially if there are some tricky syncopations, or things happening in the middle of a bar.
My drum teacher showed me a good trick for really long pausesā¦count each bar on the ā1ā. e.g. for a 4 bar pause:
1 2 3 4 2 2 3 4 3 2 3 4 4 2 3 4
This takes a bit of practice, but really helps once you get it.
4 Likes
Hi Jesse,
If in the middle of a song there is no guitar to play for 10 secondsā¦, yell at someone to stop what he is doing and continue playing togetherā¦ 
I donāt know if Justin says it in this lesson,ā¦but always keep moving, it doesnāt have to be big movements, sometimes they are barely noticeable to others but in your head and sometimes you move very lightlyā¦ ā¦As for 5 to 10 seconds,ā¦theyāll be over in no time,(but Iām sure someone else has something better to add)
Greetings ,Rogier
2 Likes
I tend to tap the guitar to maintain my sense of rhythm whilst continuing to tap my foot. I find it conserves my energy rather than continuing to keep my fretting hand moving. It also allows me to add some percussion if it fits the song.
2 Likes
Could these same patterns be used for a song with a higher BPM, say 160? I can match them both with Justin and a metronome around 120 BPM just fine, but my brain canāt even comprehend how they would sound at 160 BPM. I try and it just sounds like a mess, not sure if Iām just too slow at this point or these patterns arenāt as viable/noticeable at higher speeds. I can do 8th note strums at 160 BPM.
Itās too big a leap from 120bpm to 160bpm, try it at 130bpm and gradually increase the speed if you feel comfortable with it. And you may not even need to go any faster than 120bpm depending on what songs you like.
I assume you meant you are doing a strum for each click of a metronome at 160bpm. Technically 160bpm is 640 x 16th strums per minute which would be insanely fast 
Ultimately you only need to go as fast as the songs you want to play.
2 Likes
Are the 16th strumming patterns supposed to fit to any fast song ?
Iam a bit confused .
I try to use them in songs i used the old faithful , but it doesnt feel right .
Actually it takes 2 bars to fit the 16th pattern .
I cant fit it in one bar .
Is it supposed to fit only in some kind of songs ;
Please help .
I doubt many guitarists can strum a 16th note pattern at 160bpm. Most of the songs with 16th note strum patterns I can think of are funk-style and are closer to 110bpm, often much slower than that.
The fastest song I can think of with 16th note strumming is āLe Freakā by Chic (a 70ās disco song) at about 122bpm.
āOld Faithfulā is traditionally an 8th note strumming pattern.
8th note - 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & (one bar)
16th note - 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a (one bar)
Hope this helps.
1 Like
I absolutely love 16th note strumming. My first venture into it was with Justinās Wonderwall lesson. I probably got a little ahead of myself by learning the actual pattern, but I was determined and the payoff was amazing; zero regrets. Iāve continued to practice 16th note strumming with other songs that sound best with (mostly from module 8), but by doing so have found that I have to take a minute to āre-learnā 8th note strumming for the songs where that sounds better (usually the slower ones) lol. With 16th strumming I find I most definitely āfeelā the songs more too. I really get into it!
1 Like
Sometimes these videos get annoying with how long they are. He could literally split these videos in half and we would still learning everything he wants to teachā¦
Watch them at double speed then. 
Personally I think his videos are well paced.
2 Likes
Why this exercises doesnāt included in the automatically practice assistant as a practice routine?
Quite a few of the lessons have titles that I find confusing. I donāt know what " Ups to the all down" means. The actual video has " sixteenth note strumming patterns" as the title. If I heart the lesson Iām not going to remember what itās about. Can we keep the meaningful name please?
1 Like
Iāll have to agree with this. Itād be much clearer if it was just called ā16th Note Strummingā especially if you are trying to remember where to find a particular lesson/skill/technique. The simpler, straightforward the title will usually be better
1 Like
Hi
We could use a list of songs with 16th-note strumming (besides Free Fallinā)
Preferably, but not necessarily, songs that Justin has done lessons on and/or that might be in the Songs App.
And, use these patterns to varying degrees of difficulty (i.e. beginner moving up the skill level).
Maybe add a tag/filter in the Songs List for 16th note strumming
Thanks
Andrew
1 Like
Hint:
In addition, Strumming Option 3 in the video is the Wonderwall strumming pattern.
Now, go forth and make music! 
1 Like
Well done for writing this down Daniel. The Wonderwall pattern is correct.
Typically, you would play all beats and all āandsā with a downstroke. So if you play the old faithful in a 16th note pattern, it would normally be this:
1e+a 2e+a 3e+a 4e+a
D D D D D