Hey there, the base note strum is a very common strumming pattern especially in a world of
country, folk music but in this lesson I am not only going to teach you the strum pattern
I'm gonna use this as a technique that will improve all of your strumming.
Let's do this.
Hey there, I'm Tomas from Real Guitar Success.
One of the problems guitar players have when learning to play guitar is hitting the correct
strings when they are strumming a chord.
One way that really helps with that is just practicing hitting the base note of the chord
and then strumming.
In fact, we're gonna call that a strum pattern, the base note strum pattern.
It's not only a strum pattern that's perfect for certain kinds of music but it doubles
as a technique to practice getting the base note and training your hand to hit the right
strings for each chord.
In fact, after practicing this strum for just a little while you'll find your right hand
just close to the right place with the chords.
Here's the basic idea of the base strum pattern.
I'll start with the G chord.
The base note is gonna be the low sixth string and then well strum so it sounds like this
- strum base strum.
You see where it gets his name.
If I were playing a D chord I'd hit the D bass note.
Whoop, that was an alternate bass note, not wrong but we'll save that for another lesson.
Now a large portion of popular songs is in what we call 4/4 time, that means four beats
per measure one two three four and so on.
So this is the strum for that kind of song.
Bass, strum, bass, strum that's four beats one two three four.
You're hitting the bass on one and three and then strumming the chord on two and four.
Now that you understand the basic pattern, the trick is to practice it with a number
of chords, preferably chords that you're going to use often.
Now you could go about just choosing chords at random but the best way to do this is to
use chords in keys that are common for guitar players.
I've made a whole video on that and I'll put a link at the end so you can get that also
but we're going to start with one of those common keys which is the key of E.
We're going to use three chords: the E chord, the A chord and the B7.
Those are the three most used chords in the key of E so what you want to do here is practice
the bass strum with each of those chords and then practice going from one chord to the
other.
So here's an example, for the E we're going to use that low sixth string that's the base
note.
For the A, the fifth string is the base note and for the B7 the fifth string also.
The B7 is a four note chord and if you want to leave the pinky off it's a little different
sound but it still works just a little easier.
So a good exercise would be to play one chord and then go to the next chord same strum.
Try to do it without stopping.
Now once you can do that slowly and reasonably well, I'd say at about 80% of perfect let's
say.
Go ahead and try a song with that.
Here's an example.
I'll do Leaving on the Jet Plane.
I'll go right to the chorus
I'm leavin' on a jet plane Don't know when I'll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go
Okay so that's one of many, many three chord songs that you can practice using those chords
but let's take it up a notch now.
A lot of songs are in that four beats we call 4/4 time signature but those quite a few songs
are also 3/4 time.
What that means is three beats per measure.
If I were to use that same E chord it'd be base and then two strums and we'd count it
1 2 3 - 1 2 3.
Now practicing chords especially in the common keys for guitar with that strum opens up a
whole bunch more songs and now you've covered probably about 90% of the popular songs.
Now let's go ahead and try another one of those common keys.
Another one is the key of G and the three chords that you'd want to start off with in
the key of G is a G chord, next a C chord.
I'm going to use my four finger C but any C chord will be fine for this, that's the
three chord time 1 2 3 and then the D chord.
So that bass note's on the fourth string D, the C is on the fifth string and the G is
on the sixth string like the E. By the way I often start students in the key of G so
if you're just starting out that's a good place to start.
And you don't have to do the full four finger G either but I'm going to go ahead and go
with that for now.
So again what you want to do is practice strumming and changing chords preferably very slowly
and without hesitating a change of course at first it might take a little while to get
your fingers there but you want to practice it slowly so you can do it without stopping
or without slowing down before you change chords then try a song.
Here's an example of a three chord song in the key of G and this could be an any key
but I'll do Amazing Grace.
Amazing Grace, how sweet - the C chord - the sound
That saved a wretch like me I once was lost, but now am found
Was blind but now I see
So that's pretty much it for today's lesson.
If you'd like to take this farther, go ahead and go through each of the five keys one key
at a time.
I'd suggest starting with G if you're just starting out.
If you'd like to learn more about the most common keys for guitar I made a video just
for you.
The link is right here