Strumming patterns for songs sheets and tabs

Hey all, been plugging away at my Ukulele for a few weeks now (2-3 hours/days) and after spending some time playing single note songs for fun and practicing my chords (know about 10-12 by heart and Bb is killing me, hate that one...), I have recently started picking up song sheets to play while by beautiful wife sings along. One recurring problem I keep running into is strumming patterns. They never tell you what the strumming patterns are for songs on song sheets and tabs.

So far I have been listening to the original song, and trying to figure out a pattern that matches the pace of the song, but being as rythm impaired as I am (severely I must add, still have trouble following a metronome... ), this is not turning out very well. Also, most of the songs are based off of a guitar and I am having trouble figuring out what the musician is doing.

Let me know what you guys do in these situations or if you have any tips to help.

Thanks!

Aloha Tantal,
I used to hate the Bb chord...try this method....sit in a chair
Put the bottom right bout rest on your right thigh
position the uke just above horizontal about 170 degrees
If you are right handed. tuck your left elbow on your left ribs..
open your left hand and keep your inside palm facing up
rest the neck of your ukulele in your palm facing up
keep your palm facing up and make the Bb chord position
make sure your thumb is positioned behind the neck as if your forefinger and thumb is pinching the neck..
now try to strum....it should be easier...Good Luck, MM Stan..

Tantal,

I understand your frustration. I too am frustrated and find it hard to figure out what strumming pattern to use for songs. For example, I really love ukisociety's "Can't Find the Words" song, but for the life of me, can't figure out how he is strumming it. I have even used audio software to play it real slow but no luck. I have decided on a different course of action. I recently bought Ralph Shaw's Essential Strums for the Ukulele and have been working through that DVD. My plan is to learn a variety of strums and then try them against the chord progressions. Hopefully I will find something that sounds good. One advantage to this approach is that I might even find something that I like better.

Any way that is my suggestion. I am sure the more knowledgeable folks here at UU will offer more suggestions.

- Jack

I too was surprised to find that strum patterns are never included in tabs. I bought Woodshed's ebook "How to play ukulele strums" and it has helped. You can find the ebook here: http://howtoplayukulele.com/how-to-play-ukulele-strums/.

As for Bb, I have found tucking my left elbow into my body (causing my palm to point upward as MM Stan recommends) really helped me get into the Bb chord position. I also started practicing the F chord progression and switched to Bb between every chord change. It really has made a huge difference in being able to quickly change to that position and play it more cleanly.

Which Bb chord are people having trouble with? First position, 3211? Like MM Stan says, keeping your thumb pressing the back of the neck is generally a good idea. If all else fails, try the A# chord instead ... just kidding!

For the Bb (and B, for that matter) chord I use 4 fingers. I don't try to bar the two first strings with my index finger. I can bar three or four strings, but not two. I've never been able to do that kind of joint-bending trick on guitar (been playing since I was a boy, was never near to manage that, but then I found there's no need). And I can't do it on ukulele either. It's a bit tight to use four fingers for Bb on a soprano, but it works for a tenor-sized neck. But of course it's also possible to just bar more strings than two, as well.

Tantal said:

I have recently started picking up song sheets to play while by beautiful wife sings along. One recurring problem I keep running into is strumming patterns. They never tell you what the strumming patterns are for songs on song sheets and tabs.

So far I have been listening to the original song, and trying to figure out a pattern that matches the pace of the song, but being as rythm impaired as I am (severely I must add, still have trouble following a metronome... ), this is not turning out very well. Also, most of the songs are based off of a guitar and I am having trouble figuring out what the musician is doing.

Let me know what you guys do in these situations or if you have any tips to help.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Here are some previous threads on strumming patterns.
http://www.ukuleleunderground.com/forum/showthread.php?32978-Strumming-patterns-are-a-mystery-to-me.
http://www.ukuleleunderground.com/forum/showthread.php?29329-STRUMMING-patterns.
http://www.ukuleleunderground.com/f...9-Strumming-Patterns...-Do-I-really-need-them
http://www.ukuleleunderground.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-5889.html

Just my dos centavos, strumming patterns are not set in stone. You need to find the rhythm/beat to the song you're playing. I would start off with a simple strum and as you get familiar with the song, add your mutes, chunks, doubles, whatever. If the chord changes are made in rhythm without skipping a beat, you're one step ahead. Far too many people try to emulate the orginal song and figure if I can strum the way the artist did it, it's gonna sound good. Make the song your own.

I second Kanaka916's suggestion to "make the song your own". Not that it has to be really different, just strum it the way you sing it.

In my Ukulele Boot Camp (below) I suggest that strumming is the LAST thing to be concerned with when learning to play a song because becoming familiar with the melody and chord changes, not to mention the lyrics, is much more important and useful.

Once you have the chords, chord-changes, melody and lyrics down pat, then you can experiment with strums and rhythm patterns.

If you can't make the song sound exactly like you remember hearing it in the recording, no worries. Make the song your own. Strum and play the way you can sing it. After a while, with lots of practice (ie playing time) you'll become comfortable with your own style. It will be satisfying too.

Above all, keep uke'in',

One of the biggest myths in ukuleledom is that every song has one, single, correct strum pattern. And that if you don't use that exact strum, you're not really playing the song.

Hogwash.

As you gain experience, you get better at coming up with a way of strumming that more and more closely approximates all the different rhythms and instruments that are going on in a particular version of a song, if that's even your goal in the first place (which it might not always be). That takes practice in both learning new strums and developing your listening skills.

But until then, just play whatever you want and can, and don't stress about it.

Remember: Most of the songs you'll play don't even originally have a ukulele part anyway. They might have guitar, piano, bass, drums, strings... you name it. Any attempt to play the song on ukulele is an attempt at song arranging/adaptation. You're trying to distill the entire recording down onto four strings! The strum pattern is whatever you decide to make it. And that means you are making creative musical choices. Some choices might sound better to you than others, but that doesn't mean that one is "right" and others are "wrong". It's art. It's all subjective.

JJ

Tantal said:

...but being as rythm impaired as I am (severely I must add, still have trouble following a metronome...

Click to expand...

First of all, kudos to you for using the metronome. That said, the metronome's a tough horse to ride. You might try drum loops instead: http://www.tallgrassu.com/free-drum-loops

If you can tap your foot in time to a song, you're halfway there. Imagine there's a string tied between your foot and your strumming hand. Your hand and foot should rise and fall together. Every strum comes from this motion––get this down solidly and you'll have no trouble leaving certain hits out, accenting specific beats or adding a few extra fingers to create rolls and such.

And you needn't be holding your uke to practice this––you can do this in the car or at work (more specific details here: http://www.tallgrassu.com/practice-away )

Also check out the many youtube tutorials on strumming. It's good to learn the same technique from a variety of teachers, as it's a crapshoot as to whose explanation will "click" in your brain. Here's mine YouTube.com/TallGrassUkes

Ukulele JJ said:

One of the biggest myths in ukuleledom is that every song has one, single, correct strum pattern. And that if you don't use that exact strum, you're not really playing the song.

Hogwash.

JJ

Click to expand...

I agree with the premise of this, there is no single strum pattern that is correct. I do think there is a balance of finding a strumming pattern that actually works for a song. You can't just play all songs with down strums, it just won't sound correct. You can make the song your own with different strum patterns, but you have to find one that will work with the song. Sort of like folks saying if you know C-G-Am-F, you automatically know 97 songs, it just isn't true, at least that is the case for this noob.

elisdad said:

You can't just play all songs with down strums, it just won't sound correct.

Click to expand...

Ah, but what is "correct"?

It might not sound exactly like a particular version/recording of the song. But who's to say that's "wrong"? And if a certain strum works better than another one, by whose yardstick do we measure "better"? Yours? Mine?

I guess my main point is that new ukers should not let themselves get all hung up on strum patterns. The search for the "one true pattern" is always in vain because such a thing doesn't really exist.

And, most importantly, new ukers certainly shouldn't let confusion or uncertainty about what pattern to play get in the way of learning and playing the song. That's like not dancing because you're afraid you have on the wrong color shoes.

JJ


P.S. I actually do think that you can play pretty much any and every song with all down strums. Will it be the best way in the world to play it? Maybe not. But it will do the job, and that's what counts.

But maybe I'm wrong. So here's a challenge: Name a song (or a few songs, if you want). I'll see if I can figure out how to play them using DDDD.

When I'm trying to learn a new song, I like to start by playing the whole song with down strokes only. This gives me at least an outline of the song, then I can find a strumming pattern that fits into the outline -- whether it's one I know, one I make up, or just dudu with varying emphasis. This way I don't feel stuck with what I've seen somebody do on youtube (although that's definitely useful for inspiration, or to help me hear the rhythm of a particular song I'm not as familiar with).

Ukulele JJ said:

But maybe I'm wrong. So here's a challenge: Name a song (or a few songs, if you want). I'll see if I can figure out how to play them using DDDD.

Click to expand...

Hopefully I didn't come off the wrong way there. I think a lot of the frustration for noobs is that it seems that folks dismiss strumming patterns as non-essential to a song, but when you try to play a song, it seems to jump out at you as something that you need to understand. I know that it is my lack of experience on the uke. I do believe there are folks out there than can do incredible things on the uke, just listen to James Hill cover of Billie Jean.

That will be one of my goals this year, to not sweat the strumming and just make sure that I am pushing on through learning the song and trying to make it my own.

I appreciate you offering up the challenge, it might be quite fun to see what folks can do with a song by using only specific strumming patterns.

Here are a couple of songs that I have been messing with:

Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show
Folsom Prison Blues
House of the Rising Sun

Eric

If you watch a video of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, you'll see that they don't all strum the same way on any given song. Some use picks, some finger pick, some have complicated strums, and others are simply up/down.

If it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me.

Learning different patterns is great, but playing something that you feel like playing, however you want to play it, is even greater.

Happy New year!

-Kurt

When I look at songs I tend to listen to the original and play along to find a rhythm first which will allow me to pick up some sort of strumming pattern, although it is fairly easy to tell the strumming pattern by listening.

It's not easy to replicate a guitars strumming pattern at times though I've found atleast. Some strums may only consist of the guitars lower strings or higher strings, I find this hard to replicate on a uke, at least to make it sound the same.

Once I know the song I'll then go back and look at the strumming pattern and mess about until I find something more suitable even if it isn't the same as the original.

All in all I've found it to be a good exercise in experimenting and developing strumming patterns.

elisdad said:

Hopefully I didn't come off the wrong way there.

Click to expand...

Not at all!

Here are a couple of songs that I have been messing with:

Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show
Folsom Prison Blues
House of the Rising Sun

Click to expand...

I was hoping to have time to explain these in a video, but alas... not this weekend. In the meantime, I'll try to describe what I mean by playing a song with all downstrums. I'm going to get really, really basic here, so forgive me if you already understand most of this:

The very first step is to identify the beat of the song--the underlying rhythmic pulse that everyone in the song is synced up with. Even if it's not being explicitly played by any instrument, it's being "felt" by the musicians and played along with.

If you can't tap along with the beat of a song, you'll never be able to do any kind of strum with it. You can even just flip your uke over and tap on the back of it to do this. You're looking for a steady, even tapping that "goes along" with the song.

Check out AC/DC's "Back in Black", for example. Hear how it starts with the guitar going "chunk, chunk" and the drummer playing just the hi-hat cymbal? That's the beat of the song.

Another example: Springsteen's "Born in the USA" at about the 4:11 mark. You can hear him shouting out the beat in the background to cue the band to come back in with the main riff.

Often (but not always!) this beat is grouped into fours and counted "one-two-three-four-one-two-three-four". So, as you tap, you can even say or think that count to yourself to help you group the beats. These groupings are called "measures" or "bars". You can hear Paul McCartney count the beats out loud at the beginning of the "Sgt. Pepper" reprise.


Okay, once you've gotten that far, you have several options for the "all downstrum" strum pattern. You can...

• Strum on every beat
• Strum just on beat "one" (that is, strum once per measure)
• Strum on every other beat (beats one and three or beats two and four)
• Strum on every beat except for one of them (leave out beat one, for example)
• ...or whatever else you want to invent! Once you identify the beats, the sky's the limit.

Now "House of the Rising Sun" is tricky because there are two different valid ways to count that song. (I'm speaking specifically of the version by the Animals.)

One way is to think of it as a fast beat that's grouped into threes (one-two-three-one-two-three...). If you look at the video of the song, at 1:04 into it you can see the drummer more or less playing that beat on the ride cymbal. And at 2:50, you can see the guitarist doing a perfect example of down strums on every one of these beats!

Another way is to think of the beats as slower, but grouped into the normal fours (one... two... three... four...). If you count it this way, the beats would then be further subdivided into threes. This is hard to explain in text! But, in other words, if you took the previous way of counting and only strummed on beat "one", you'd have the exact same strum as if you counted this new way and strummed on every beat.

Hmmm... maybe it's best to forget about that second way for now*. I only bring it up because if I didn't, someone would post here and correct me.

JJ

*But if you want an audio example, go back and listen to the drummer at 1:04. If you count the beats this second way, then he's playing the kick drum--at the same time the bass player is playing a bass note--on beats "one" and "three". He's playing his snare drum on beats "two" and "four".

Gonna bump this thread because the post above by Ukulele JJ was very helpful to me. Thanks!

When in doubt---common strum. Down on the beats, up on the off-beats. Common strum with love and it will sound goooood.