I got D U D U, but other strumming patterns are not working for me.
First of all, there's nothing wrong with "D U D U". It's a great strum. So is "D D D D" for that matter (which I assume you can also play, right?)
Don't feel like you can't learn new chords and songs just because you're having trouble with more fancy-pants strums. I could probably play every song in my repertoire with one of those two strums.
Second, don't concentrate too much on the "D" and "U" of it. In fact, I'd recommend not even thinking about strums in terms of moving down and up at all.
See, when you're strumming, your hand and arm should
always move down and up at a steady pace. Even when you're playing a "D D D D" strum, you're still
moving as if you were playing "D U D U" aren't you? I mean, you have to have an "up" in order to get back to the top so you can play the next "down", right? The only difference is that you're not making contact with the strings on those "up" parts. Pretty much every strum you're going to play is the same way. It's a
constant down-up movement by your hand/arm, but a
selective contact with the strings.
The trick is just to think of the
sound of that rhythm. Don't worry about whether you're on an up or a down. Just worry about whether or not you want the strings to make a sound or not at that particular moment in time. The physical mechanics of it are ultimately irrelevant. You should be able to bang out the same rhythm on a tabletop, or clap it out, or beatbox it with your mouth if you wanted too, even though those require completely different physical movements.
If I thought about the mechanics of walking (right, left, right, left) I'd probably fall over.
It might've helped when I was first learning to walk, but now it would just screw me up. Strumming isn't too different.
JJ
