Can you help me understand guitar strumming patterns?

Question

I'm trying to learn Our Song by Taylor Swift, it's the first song I've ever tried to learn and I picked it because it seems an easy one to learn. The tabs I Found are here: http://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/t/taylor_swift/our_song_crd.htm?no_splash

The strumming pattern is D D DUDU, but I'm not 100% sure what that means. Does it mean down, miss a strum, down, miss a strum, down, up, down, up? So do I play the D D DUDU pattern for the D chord, then do the same thing for the Em and so on? I've looked on Google, but i couldn't find a website that made it clear. Thanks.

Answer 1

D means strum down, U means strum up.



It's easiest to learn using a metronome and practicing the strumming pattern over and over keeping in time with the metronome. In your head you can count one and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and........ .

Strum down on 1 then move your pick back up without strumming and strum down on 2 then move your pick back up without strumming and strum down on beat 3 and sweep the pick back up on 3 1/2, then down on 4 and sweep up again on 4 1/2, then repeat that pattern on the next measure (each measure has 4 beats).

If you tap your foot to the beat you might also notice that the D (down strums) fall where your foot is moving down and the U's (up strums) fall when your foot is moving up. After a while strumming will just be natural and you won't have to think about it so much! You'll find your own patterns based on the sound and feel of the song.

Answer 2

Sometimes, the strumming pattern is written, but pretty rarely. Eventually, you'll be able to tell the difference in sound between a down and upstroke. Usually, if it sounds more bass-y, it's probably a downstroke and if it's more treble-y, it's up. It really all depends on the song; in some, the strumming for each chord is pretty much the same throughout the song, but in some, there are variations. Just listen to the song and you'll figure it out.

Answer 3

Yep, you're doing it right. The easiest way to learn the strumming pattern of a song is simply to listen to the song. Try to focus on the guitar part and hear the rhythm in which she strums, and imitate it using the D D DUDU as a blueprint.



In general, when you're strumming your guitar, your picking hand moves in a continuous down/up/down/up motion over the strings, and you hit the strings at certain times to produce a certain rhythm. If you watch guitarists strum, you should notice that it looks like they're just strumming down/up/down/up, but they're actually missing certain beats according to their rhythm.

Answer 4

D is down U is up :) simple as that :D

the space means that the two downs are more slow, then the down up down up is more fast.

Yess, you play it for the whole song, but if you feel like it could sound more better if you change it, then do.