New Strumming Pattern and Some Music Theory

New Strumming Pattern and Alternative Chords

I've got a new strumming pattern for you this week.  It goes along with 2 songs I've already given you. These songs are:

• How He Loves
• Who You Say I Am

Here's a link a soft printable copy of this sheet

Generally, most worship songs have beats that can be counted in and/or divided by 4 beats (4/4 time signature). The first strumming pattern we discussed goes with those kinds of songs. For review it looks like this:

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
A			A			A		A			A			A

Accents (hard strums) are on counts 1, 4, and 7.


There are however, a number of songs where the beats can be divided by 3 (in 6/8 time signature). The songs above are like this, and I would say that this strumming pattern is something of a natural pattern for playing the guitar. It looks like this:

1	2	3	4	5	6	1	2	3	4	5	6
A			A			A			A

Accents (hard strums) are on counts 1 and 4. Notice that the accents follow a consistent pattern of two quieter strums between the accented strums. Also, these strums in the tables above only count the ‘down’ strokes. It’s totally valid to throw in some quieter upstrokes in between them. Also, try not to make it feel too ‘mechanical’. It should feel natural, so if you feel like you’re getting tense and tight trying to make these work above, forget about the accents for a while and just strum naturally.

I don’t know if this helps at all, but as a bit of a guide, here’s the first bits of those songs above overlayed onto the strumming pattern:

E

He                  is jealous              for me           

1	2	3	4	5	6	1	2	3	4	5	6
A			A			A			A

Loves     like a         hurr - i -   ciane I am       a tree       

C#m

G

Who              am I       that the high        - est King   - would    

1	2	3	4	5	6	1	2	3	4	5	6
A			A			A			A

Wel                   - come                       me            

Em                                D   G

Alternative chords

I love alternative chords. They are additions, subtractions, or just tweaks to chords we’ve already looked at.

E (open E)
This is a wonderful chord!                              

                               

E7
When alternated with the one above, they sound great
Notice only 1 string changes - I lift my pinky and put down my middle finger.

                     

A 

                     

Another A