Strumming patterns

Down on the numbers, up on the "and"s: the hand swings eight times a bar in 4/4 even when it only touches the strings on some of them.

A hand that never stops

Strumming means brushing several strings at once. On the ukulele most players strum where the neck meets the body, using the index finger: down across the strings with the back of the nail, up with the soft pad. The secret of an even strum is a hand that keeps swinging like a pendulum, down on every beat and up between the beats, whether or not it touches the strings. In 4/4, count "1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &": every number is a down stroke and every "&" an up stroke. A pattern is made by choosing which swings actually hit the strings and which pass just above them, a move often called a ghost or missed strum.

Start with four down strums per bar, one on each beat, while saying the count out loud. Then fill in the "&"s with up strums for eight even strokes, "down up down up". When both feel steady at 70 to 80 BPM, try leaving gaps. The most common ukulele pattern, often called the island strum, is D, D U, U D U: down on 1, nothing on the "&" of 1, down and up on 2 &, nothing on 3, then up on the "&" of 3, down on 4 and up on the "&" of 4. The missing down stroke on beat 3 is what gives it a lilt. Your hand still swings down on 3; it just misses the strings.

Strumming is rhythm

Every strum pattern is a rhythm made of eighth notes, so everything from the rhythm course applies. In the island strum the strokes start at 1, 2, 2 &, 3 &, 4 and 4 &. Written as note lengths that is a quarter, an eighth, a quarter, an eighth, an eighth and an eighth. Notice that the up stroke on the "&" of 2 rings across beat 3: that is syncopation, an accent between the beats carried over a beat that has no stroke of its own. The Tap along tab in the lab below has this rhythm, so you can check your timing before adding chords.

Accents bring a pattern to life. Hit beats 2 and 4 a little harder and the strum takes on the backbeat of pop and rock. A light, quick wrist works better than a stiff arm: the motion should come mostly from rotating the forearm, as if shaking water off your hand. For 3/4 songs use three down strums per bar, or D, D U, D U, and for slow 6/8 songs try a down stroke on each of the two beats with up strokes filling the threes.

Practise a new pattern in small pieces. Play only the first two beats, "D, D U", over and over until the hand moves without thinking, then add beats 3 and 4. Keep a metronome on and set it slow: at 80 BPM each eighth-note swing lasts 0.375 seconds, which is plenty of time to check the direction of every stroke. Say the pattern out loud as you play, "down, down up, up down up", because speaking keeps your place when you start changing chords. When the bar loops cleanly ten times in a row, raise the tempo by four or five BPM and repeat. Record yourself on a phone now and then; strumming that feels even often turns out to rush on the up strokes.