Strumming
Right hand first: downs on the click, ups on the and, then a library of common patterns, then a light mute. Use the metronome in the practice bar. Hold one easy chord — Em or G — so the left hand stays out of the way.
Pick and fingers
This page is strum and pick. Named-finger pima lives on Classical drills.
- Pick: hold it loosely between thumb and index. Downstrokes toward the floor; upstrokes toward the ceiling.
- Fingers: thumb brushes down across the strings; fingers can brush up. Same motions, no pick.
Downstrokes on the click
Start the metronome below, then press Play downs. Each click is one downstrum on the practice chord. Keep the arm moving even if you miss a string.
Upstrokes on the and
Once downs are steady, add Play ups. The metronome still clicks 1 2 3 4; rhythm guitar puts the upstrum on each & — halfway between clicks, not on the numbers. Swing down through the beat; only the & brushes the thin strings. (Sixteenth a ups wait for the pattern library below.)
Mute
Rest the side of the right palm lightly on the strings near the bridge, or lay unused left-hand fingers on the strings. The click stays; the ring dies. Use it for space between strums, not as a new style yet.
The Chunk on 2 and 4 pattern in the library below is this mute turned into a backbeat — a short dead X where a drummer would hit the snare.
Accents
Not every strum in a bar carries the same weight. In notation, a slightly heavier note is marked with an accent — a small > wedge above the notehead (same idea as articulation marks in sheet music). On guitar, that is still the same down or up motion; you simply hit a little louder, like the snare backbeat sitting under a steady strum.
Accents are separate from D, U, rest, and chunk. They do not change which strings you strike or when — only how hard that stroke speaks.
Example — workhorse with backbeat accents
In Putting it all together, each preset ships with a default accent map (reggae stresses the offbeat ups, chunk patterns hit the backbeat, odd meters follow grouped strong beats). Press Edit accents under the grid to change which cells carry >; Reset to Default restores the preset. The same controls appear in Build your own when you design a bar from scratch.
Putting it all together
One bar looped on the practice chord. Pick a preset — any current loop stops first, the stage updates, and the new pattern starts on the click. Play pattern loops whichever preset is on the stage. Keep the arm swinging through rests.
D down · U up · — rest (arm still moves) · X chunk · > accent (louder strum). The small letters under a strum say how long it lasts, up to the next one: q a beat, e half a beat, s a quarter of a beat, a dot after it half as long again, r a rest. Hover a preset for where you hear it. Strum cells are fixed here — use Edit accents below the grid, or Build your own for a full custom bar.
4/4 · eighth notes
Count 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &. Work left to right — each preset adds or removes one strum. Ups brush the thin strings; downs carry the bass.
4/4 · sixteenth feel
Count 1 e & a. Harder — return once eighth patterns run without thinking.
From the Rhythm room
The rhythms the Rhythm room names, strummed on one chord. Each strum sits on exactly the counts its catalogue pattern lists: the hits are the strums and the gaps are the rests. Clap the pattern and count it first, then strum it. The Rhythm room can play any of them on this instrument.
Other meters
Simple and compound time — waltz, march, 6/8, 9/8, 12/8. Sets Beats on the practice bar; see Time signatures.
Odd meters
5/4, 5/8, 7/8, and 7/4 with grouped beats (2+3, 3+2, 2+2+3, 3+2+2). Count the pulse groups first — the click follows the same grouping in Beats.
D-DU-UDU
Accents are the > wedge on a cell — that strum plays louder (backbeats, beat 1, and so on). The preset’s D / U pattern does not change here. Press Edit accents to turn accent editing on, then tap a strum cell in the grid above (not a rest) to add or remove >. Reset to Default restores this preset’s accent map. Clear accents removes every > so all strums match volume.
Editing accents — tap cells in the grid above. Press Edit accents again to leave this mode.
Build your own strumming pattern
One bar in the meter you choose. Set the time signature and note length, tap each cell for D, U, —, or X, then loop it on the practice chord. This block is separate from the preset library above.
Accents (>) mark strums that should hit harder. By default, tap a cell to cycle D → U → rest → chunk. Press Edit accents to switch: then taps only toggle > on strum cells. Reset to Default sets accents from the meter’s strong beats; Clear accents removes all >.
Editing accents — tap strum cells to toggle >. Press Edit accents again to change D/U/rest/chunk.
How to practice
- Two minutes per pattern. Loop it until the count fades and the hand keeps it on its own.
- Arm keeps moving. Down on every number, up on every “and”, whether or not that slot has a strum. A rest is a miss, not a stop.
- Up-strums are light. Brush the top two or three strings only. If the up is as loud as the down, the pattern loses its shape.
- Slow first. Drop the BPM until you can play it clean, then add 4–5 BPM at a time.
- Then add the left hand. Only after the right hand is locked, change chord on beat 1 — Em to G to C. Losing the strum during a change means the pattern is not automatic yet.