Guitar: Railway and Western Strumming Pattern: An Open Learning Guide

Most of the stroke patterns are derived from the alternating stroke. First of all, "alternating stroke" means nothing more than that you move your arm evenly up and down. Like the pendulum of a clock, the right arm swings evenly up and down.

All rhythms are created by touching the strings of the guitar sometimes and sometimes not. If the strings are not touched, the alternating stroke of the arm is not interrupted. In the following diagrams, the so-called air strokes are represented by greyed-out and dashed arrows. It is important that 8 beats are performed per bar. Sometimes as a serve or downstroke, sometimes as an air stroke, but in total there are always 8 strokes in a 4/4 time. By the way, you don't count to "8", even if there are 8 strokes, but only to "4" and add an "and" after each number:

A bar is divided into 8 equal parts, so the beats that we learn here in the campfire diploma and later in the folk diploma are summarized as an quaver feeling.

The thumb is simply moved over the strings with the thumbnail at am upstroke. You should avoid twisting your hand or forearm too much. This is not necessary. If you imagine that you are turning a ball of plasticine or something similar between your fingers, you will get as close as possible to the movement required for the strokes. The thumb should also point slightly towards the neck of the guitar (so that it doesn't get in the way of the other fingers). It looks a little bit like hitchhiking.

This lesson today serves only as a preliminary exercise for the "western strumming pattern" and is not the primary learning goal of this second lesson. The reason: The railway strumming patternt is not really suitable for accompanying many songs. It quickly becomes monotonous and is therefore much more often used only as a transition or for short passages (such as the chorus).

The 8/8 strumming becomes much more interesting if you alternate between bass strings (the top three) and treble strings (the bottom three) just like you did with the 4/4 strumming above.On "1-and" the top strings are struck up and down,on "2-and" the bottom strings;on "3-and" the top strings again, andon "4-and" the bottom strings again.The count is "a-bove, be-low, a-bove, be-low" or "1-and, 2-and, 3-and, 4-and".

The strumming pattern can be used throughout the whole song (e.g. "Let's Twist Again"), but it is more likely to be used for a single verse or for a transition.

As I said above, the "railroad strumming pattern" is currently only used to explain the structure of the following strumming. So it is enough to try it ou briefly.

This strumming pattern is not only suitable for cowboy and country songs, but also for many folk songs.

It's best to listen to a music example and try to count along. Start by counting without strumming so that you get a feeling for the rhythm. When you're able to count fairly well, try to follow the strumming pattern.

Source and licence

Text adapted from Guitar/Railway and Western Strumming Pattern by Wikibooks contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0. Paragraphs have been selected and abridged, and formatting adjusted. This adapted text is shared under the same licence. Contributor history.