Strumming: Rests and Sixteenth Notes

When to read this: after Session 3, “The Rest Stop” (5 minutes); after Session 8, “Sixteenth-Note Patterns”, “The Eighth-Note Click” (10 minutes); after Session 29, “The Pushed Pattern with Muted Strums”, “The 6/8 Pattern” (10 minutes). None of this reading is part of a session’s 50 minutes.

What You’ll Learn

You read this handout in three parts, each after the session that sends you to it:

• After Session 3: the rest stop.
• After Session 8: the sixteenth-note patterns, and the eighth-note click.
• After Session 29: the pushed pattern with muted strums.

The last section is on the 6/8 pattern, which is taught in Session 26: you read that section from Session 29, when the pattern’s click changes to two clicks to the measure.

The Rest Stop

• Rest stop — Stopping the strings with the strumming or picking hand on a rest, so that the sound ends on that count and the silence can be heard. (Session 3)

The rest stop: on the count in square brackets, lay the edge of your strumming-hand palm (the fleshy side below the little finger) flat across every string you have just played and leave it there, so that the sound stops. The pick does not touch the strings.

Copy of Session 3: the rest stop (quarter rests)

Count:  1  [2]  3  [4]
Strum:  D       D

A count in square brackets, such as [4], is a rest: stop the strings on that count and keep counting. The silence lasts through every count in square brackets after it.

Copy of Session 3: the rest stop (eighth rests)

Count:  1  [&]  2  [&]  3  [&]  4  [&]
Strum:  D       D       D       D

In both blocks every strum is a downstroke on a numbered count, and your hand keeps its swing. In the first block the hand comes down on 2 and on 4, and the palm lands in place of a strum. In the second block the palm lands as the hand comes back up.

The metronome clicks the beat: one click to each numbered count.

Tempo: 60 BPM, the click on the beat

In the week’s practice, in the row “Rest stop”, you play each block on E5 (the open shape), then on Em. The figure is not raised.

The rest stop is one of three things the strumming hand does to stop sound:

Name	What the hand does	Written
Palm muting	the edge of the palm rests lightly on the strings just where they cross the saddle while the pick plays	PM in a PM: row
Muted strum	the strings are held still (by the palm on open chords, by the relaxed fretting fingers on moveable shapes) and the pick strikes them	chk in the Strum: row; x in a TAB
Rest stop	the edge of the palm is laid across the strings; the pick does not strike	the count in square brackets, [4]

The three are different, and they are never used for each other.

In a picked line a rest is made with the same rest stop: lay the edge of your picking-hand palm across the strings you have played.

Pain rule: tender fingertips are normal. Pain in the wrist, forearm, thumb joint or knuckles, numbness or tingling, any sharp pain, or pain that lasts into the next day means stop. The full rule is in START HERE.

One check of your rest stop: record four measures of the first block on Em at 60 BPM, then listen and count the rests in which a string still rings. Pass: 0 rests with a string still ringing, in all 4 measures. If a string rings on: lay the edge of the palm flat across every string you have just played, the low strings included, and try again. Never press the palm down harder.

Sixteenth-Note Patterns

Fast strumming: if your strumming hand or forearm aches, that is tension. Stop playing for today, and next time loosen your grip on the pick.

Pain rule: tender fingertips are normal. Pain in the wrist, forearm, thumb joint or knuckles, numbness or tingling, any sharp pain, or pain that lasts into the next day means stop. The full rule is in START HERE.

1 e & a is one beat in four equal parts, the sixteenth notes. The number and the & stay where they are in eighth notes; e (say “ee”) comes between the number and the &, and a (say “uh”) comes between the & and the next number.

Copy of Session 8: the plain sixteenth-note pattern

Count:  1   e   &   a   2   e   &   a   3   e   &   a   4   e   &   a
Strum:  D   U   D   U   D   U   D   U   D   U   D   U   D   U   D   U

In sixteenth notes your hand swings down and up twice in every beat: down on each number and on each &, up on each e and on each a.

The block above is the plain sixteenth-note pattern. You play it on Em: sixteen strums to the measure, none left out. With the metronome clicking eighth notes, which the next section, “The Eighth-Note Click”, explains, the plain pattern is stroke for stroke the down-up strum you already play, with a new count.

The other pattern of this section is the sixteenth-note pattern with accents. It is played only in the “Sixteenth-Note Strum Study in E minor”, and it is never called the plain pattern.

Copy of Session 8: the sixteenth-note pattern with accents

"Sixteenth-Note Strum Study in E minor" - the pattern with accents
Chord:  Em
Count:  1   e   &   a   2   e   &   a   3   e   &   a   4   e   &   a
Strum:  D   U   D   U   D   U   D   U   D   U   D   U   D   U   D   U
Accent: >               >               >               >

> = accent: play that strum louder.

Your strumming hand never swings down and back more than 100 times a minute in this course.

The plain pattern never goes above 50 BPM in this course, which is 100 swings of the hand a minute.

One check of the plain pattern: with the metronome set to twice your figure for the week and clicking eighth notes (70 for 35 BPM), play four measures of it and count 1 e & a aloud all the way through. Pass: 16 strums in each of the 4 measures, with no stop. If not: set the metronome 10 lower (5 BPM lower) and try again the next day.

The Eighth-Note Click

• Eighth-note click (the click as an eighth note) — The metronome set so that each click is one eighth note, not one beat. In 4/4 that is two clicks to a beat: for a beat of 40 BPM the metronome is set to 80. (Session 8)

Set the metronome to twice the tempo, so that it clicks eighth notes. Every click is a downstroke, on a number or on an &; every upstroke falls between two clicks.

The plain pattern starts at this figure in Session 8:

Tempo: 35 BPM, the metronome set to 70 and clicking eighth notes (two strums per click)

Raise the metronome 5 BPM at a time, and only after three clean runs in a row. With the metronome set to twice the tempo, a step of 5 BPM is 10 on the metronome. For the week of Session 8: This week, take one step at most.

A run is clean when every note or chord lands on its count, every string that should sound rings, and you do not stop.

Why the click is an eighth note here: every click is a downstroke, so your hand has a click to meet twice in each beat while the count is new.

The Pushed Pattern with Muted Strums

Three-string power-chord work: no more than 5 minutes a day in total.

Fast strumming: if your strumming hand or forearm aches, that is tension. Stop playing for today, and next time loosen your grip on the pick.

Pain rule: tender fingertips are normal. Pain in the wrist, forearm, thumb joint or knuckles, numbness or tingling, any sharp pain, or pain that lasts into the next day means stop. The full rule is in START HERE.

In this section the metronome clicks the beat, as it has for the plain sixteenth-note pattern since Session 19. The two sentences below are said of the plain pattern, which has a strum on every count.

The metronome clicks the beat: four strums to each click, the first of them with the click.

Four strums per click at 50 is exactly as fast as two strums per click at 100.

chk = a muted strum: a strum on strings that are being held still, so that you hear a dry “chk” and no note.

Here the fretting hand holds the strings still: keep the chord shape, relax your fretting fingers so they touch the strings without pressing, and strum the same three strings.

A chk is a stroke like any other: down or up as its count says.

Step 1, from Session 26: the muted strum with the fretting hand alone, in eighth notes on F5.

Copy of Session 26: the muted strum with the fretting hand alone, in eighth notes on F5

Chord:  F5
Count:  1   &   2   &   3   &   4   &
Strum:  chk chk chk chk chk chk chk chk

Step 2: clap and count the pattern, with no guitar, from the clapped block below.

Copy of Session 29: the pushed pattern, clapped

The pushed pattern, clapped
Count:  1  [e]  &  [a]  2   e  [&]  a  [3] [e]  &  [a]  4   e  [&] [a]

Clap on every count that is written, and stay silent on a count in brackets. Say the count aloud as you clap, including the counts in brackets.

A count in square brackets, such as [4], is a rest: stop the strings on that count and keep counting. The silence lasts through every count in square brackets after it.

Step 3: the pattern on a muted F5, with a chk in place of each chord stroke.

Copy of Session 29: the pushed pattern on a muted F5

Chord:  F5
Count:  1  [e]  &  [a]  2   e  [&]  a  [3] [e]  &  [a]  4   e  [&] [a]
Strum:  chk     chk     chk chk     chk         chk     chk chk

• Pushed chord — A chord that arrives early, just before the beat it belongs to. In this course it is strummed on the “a” before the beat. It is a kind of syncopation. (Session 29)

Step 4: the pattern with its two chords.

Copy of Session 29: the pushed pattern

Chord:  F5                          Bb5
Count:  1  (e)  &  (a)  2   e  [&]  a  (3) (e)  &  (a)  4   e  [&] [a]
Strum:  D       D       chk chk     U           D       chk chk

A chord name over the count “a” means that the chord arrives early: change to it for that upstroke and let it ring through the beat that follows.

A count in round brackets, such as (2), is a count on which you play nothing new: keep counting and let the note or chord ring on.

Here a rest needs no rest stop: your relaxed fretting fingers are already holding the strings still.

The metronome clicks the beat. On beat 3 you play nothing: the chord you struck one count earlier, on the “a” of 2, is still ringing.

The pushed pattern starts at this figure in Session 29:

Tempo: 40 BPM, the click on the beat

The pushed pattern never goes above 45 BPM in this course.

One check, with the pass mark of exit criterion E7: on F5 alone, leaving the second chord name aside, at the figure your row has reached that day, record four measures of the pushed pattern and then 1 more downstroke on the next click, and listen. Pass: 4 measures with no stop, the 1 downstroke with its click, and every muted strum a dry tick with no note in it. If a muted strum has a note in it: relax the fretting fingers further, so that they touch the strings without pressing. If the hand aches, stop playing for today. Take this check on a practice day, inside the row “Push pattern”, and never on the day of Session 29: that session’s own work is the day’s whole limit of three-string power chords.

The 6/8 Pattern

6/8 is counted 1 2 3 4 5 6, one count to each eighth note, in two groups of three: the strong counts are 1 and 4.

The step towards the pattern, from Session 26: six downstrokes, with the weight on counts 1 and 4.

Copy of Session 26: the count with weight on counts 1 and 4

Count:  1   2   3   4   5   6
Strum:  D   d   d   D   d   d
Accent: >           >

D = strong downstroke on counts 1 and 4, d = softer downstroke, > = accent (play that strum louder)

Then the 6/8 pattern itself, on Em.

Copy of Session 26: the 6/8 pattern

Count:  1       2   &   3       4       5   &   6
Strum:  D       d   u   d       D       d   u   d
Accent: >                       >

D = strong downstroke on counts 1 and 4, d = softer downstroke, u = softer upstroke, > = accent (play that strum louder)

In 6/8 every numbered count is a downstroke. An upstroke falls only on an & between two counts.

The Plain 6/8 Strum

A piece may use a plainer form while its chord changes are new. Its name is the plain 6/8 strum.

Count:  1  (2) (3)  4  (5) (6)
Strum:  D           D
Accent: >           >

The first click, in Sessions 26 to 28:

The metronome clicks eighth notes: one click to each count, six clicks to a measure.

The second click, from Session 29. Exit criterion E9 is taken with this click:

The metronome clicks twice a measure, on counts 1 and 4: three counts to each click.

Three counts per click at 30 is exactly as fast as one count per click at 90.

Tempo: Metronome at 30, two clicks to the measure (three counts per click)

If your metronome does not go down to 30, use a metronome app on your phone.

One check, in the words of exit criterion E9: record eight measures of the 6/8 pattern with the metronome at 30, two clicks to the measure, and listen. Pass: the strumming never stops, and counts 1 and 4 are the loudest strums in all 8 measures. If not: play four measures of the count with weight on counts 1 and 4, then the 6/8 pattern again, and try again the next day.