Kara Barnard and Jamie Anderson. Photo by Janice Rickert.
The question I get asked most by guitar students is “How do I know what strum to choose?” I could tell you I’m freakin’ brilliant and charge you $100 for a lesson. Or I could simply tell you that most songs* are either in 4/4 or 3/4 so you only need to know five strums, whether you’re playing guitar, ukulele, or a similar instrument.
Here are those five strums in a video tutorial. Because I’m that awesome.
Full tab for the songs I mention in the video:
Blowing in the Wind (DDUDDU)
Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms (BDBD)
House of the Rising Sun (DDDU)
Piano Man (DDUDU)
Good Riddance (DDUUDU) – I don’t mention this in the video but it’s a great song for this strum.
Want lessons? I teach via Skype and in my studio in Ottawa, Canada. Contact me here.
More about my lessons here.
Happy strumming y’all.
*I’m talking about American/European songs such as pop, rock, folk, country, blues, etc. I know little about music of other cultures except that some of it is in time signatures outside of 4/4 and 3/4.
Jamiebobamie 
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