Eighth-Note Down-Up — 4/4 Strumming Pattern
Sixteen strumming patterns, each on its own page: the arrow chart with counting, the tempo sweet spot, the genres it drives, and a one-tap hand-off into the play-along trainer preloaded with that pattern.
- All Downstrokes — 4/4, beginner
- Eighth-Note Down-Up — 4/4, beginner
- The Most Common Strum — 4/4, beginner
- Driving Downstroke Eighths — 4/4, intermediate
- Boom-Chick (Country) — 4/4, intermediate
- Backbeat Eighths — 4/4, intermediate
- Reggae Skank — 4/4, intermediate
- Ska Upstroke — 4/4, intermediate
- Slow Ballad — 4/4, intermediate
- Anthem Ballad — 4/4, intermediate
- Folk Alternating Feel — 4/4, beginner
- Waltz — 3/4, beginner
- Three-Beat Downstrokes — 3/4, beginner
- 6/8 Ballad — 6/8, intermediate
- 6/8 Rolling — 6/8, intermediate
- 16th-Note Funk — 4/4 (16ths), advanced
Eighth-Note Down-Up is a beginner 4/4 strumming pattern: DU DU DU DU, counted 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &. Your strumming hand never stops — it swings down and up through every slot, and the pattern comes from which passes actually touch the strings. That constant pendulum is what keeps the rhythm locked, so practice the motion before the notes.
Continuous down-up eighths that keep the hand in constant pendulum motion — the groove machine behind fast folk and pop rhythm playing. It sits best between 60 and 120 BPM — start near 90 with a metronome, and only speed up once every strum lands clean. Heard most in folk, pop.