Lesson 7 – Country & Bluegrass Rhythm Course
Lesson ID: A0126
In this guitar lesson, I’ll show you three of my favorite country strumming patterns that’ll improve your pick accuracy and make your guitar sound fuller. I’ll break down each of the strumming patterns in detail and then show you how to apply the strumming patterns to some country chord progressions. After you watch the lesson videos, practice your country strumming over the song “Hey Good Lookin’” by Hank Williams.
Overview
Strumming Breakdown
| Video Start Time | Lesson Topic |
|---|---|
| 00:00 min | Strumming Pattern 1 Breakdown |
| 02:59 min | Strumming Pattern 2 Breakdown |
| 05:15 min | Strumming Pattern 3 Breakdown |
| 08:50 min | Straight vs. Syncopated Rhythm |
Hope y’all like the new country strumming lesson here. I usually set my Spotify radio to shuffle and work on random songs as they pop up…had fun the other morning practicing my rhythm over “Hey Good Lookin'” so figured I’d work some Hank Williams style progressions into this strumming course. Let me know if y’all have any other song suggestions. – Devin
So beautiful…thanks Devin!
Thanks!
Really great lesson Devin. I’ve learned a great deal from your strumming course so far and your teaching style makes it all very easy to understand. Great work and thank you!
Thanks Vince, glad the strumming course is helping out! Good looking pic of dog by the way…I’ve got a lab border collie mix that looks a bit similar to that guy there. Thanks for the comment. – Devin
Thanks Devon. What a great lesson and taught so well.
Thanks Keith!
You are right up there with the best teachers I have come across online. Fantastic lessons. I’m learning a lot and now I’m hooked on the country and bluegrass. Thanks!
Devin, I like this lesson series style after Hank Sr. I will be hung up on this for a while practicing these strumming patterns. If I give you the names old country songs i want to learn would you tell me the best strumming patterns to use for them?
Hey Larry, Glad you’re liking the series. Sure, send the song names and I’ll tell you what patterns I’d use.
Ok, I got Hey Good Lookin’ from the lesson. The songs from Hank Sr are: Your Cheatin Heart, Cold Cold Heart, Jambalaya & Move It On Over. A couple from Merle Haggard, If you don’t mind, are:
Big City, Today I Started Loving You Again and Mama Tried. Thanks Devin.
Sounds good, I’ll put something together. Also you just gave a great idea for the site…might be kind of cool to have a page that you can find under the resources link at the top that has some sort of “cheat sheet” on strumming patterns for these old classic country songs. Usually pretty easy to find song chords these days but tricky to find that right hand strumming. I’ll let you know when I get the patterns for these posted…
Devin, can these 3 strumming patterns be used in most of Hank’s classic songs. A lot of the songs he wrote were very similar in rhythm. I am enjoying learning the patterns. Suggestions on the strumming patterns for songs I asked about?
Hey Larry, I’d say it all depends on the song…if the main strumming idea in a song is the “boom chick” pattern, you can usually try these three patterns to make your rhythm guitar sound a little fuller…to make my strumming blend well with other musicians, I might strip the strumming down a bit so it’s closer to the basic boom chick, but I guess it all depends on the situation. A lot of the classic Hank songs use a variation of the boom chick strumming. Glad you’re still enjoying the strumming lessons! I’ve still got your request on my… Read more »
I assume you’re going to make this list available to all of us, Devin. It sounds like it will be very helpful. I wasn’t a fan of Hank Williams Sr. until I started this lesson. Since I started, I listened to many of his other songs and now I’m a big fan and I’m putting a lot of his songs to memory.
Hey Phil,
I’ll be posting Lesson 7 in the Country Strumming Course this Friday…going to cover a nice Merle Haggard strumming pattern from one of the songs
larrydnewman mentioned in comment #923 . Probably going to work the other songs into some lessons in future weeks, and what I can’t cover there, I’ll post a PDF file that everybody can download that’ll show the strumming patterns.
Yeah, I kind of got into Hank Williams Sr. recently also. It’ll grow on you.
Hope everything is going well with the guitar practicing!
Devin
Awesome, Devin! I look forward to it all. And yes, guitar practicing is going well, thanks to you. I’m also working on committing many Hank Williams Sr songs to memory with all the chords and stuff too. I’m finding that if I go thru the first section of a song (like 4 lines or so) over and over and then go to the next section, etc, etc, that I learn the song faster than just playing the whole song over and over.
Interesting way to learn the songs, Phil. I’m going to give that a shot. Glad you guys are getting into Hank Sr. He’s kinda like the “boom chick” strum to country music and was a prolific song writer.
Devin, I am looking forward to the Merle Haggard song. Great, thanks.
Larry
In “strumming the g pattern” you are playing the G pattern not the C pattern
Which strumming pattern are you trying to figure out there?
Thanks Devon well done again!!
Not sure how to remember everything but love them and keep em’ coming. Wife told me yesterday I was starting to really sound good and that’s just getting decent with easier patterns. I got long ways to go but have to tools now to practice. Thanks.
Nice! Yeah for sure…one little improvement every day..before you know it you’ve improved a ton. That’s how it’s always gone with me too. Hard to see the improvements from day-to-day unless you’re somebody else listening, but if you look back on your pickin’ skills six months ago, that’s where you’ll notice the difference. Glad the lesson videos are helping out and thanks a lot for the comments!
Also work on ramblin man. Thanks a lot
Hi Devin. Hi from Aberdeen in Scotland! These progressions work great over “Hey Good Looking”. Thanks a lot.
For anybody interested these strumming patterns fit beautifully into Bobby Darin’s “Things”, and with a bit of tweaking they are very effective for “Your Cheating Heart” (both key of C). I am sure there are many many more.
You can’t get this type of instruction on country and bluegrass music anywhere. Not on JamPlay, Guitar Tricks, Justin Guitar, or anywhere else I have tried. In most of the online world good old country no longer exists. Great job Devin, The ‘Ol Possum would be proud. Please, keep it up!
Hey Devin, another great lesson. I have a question:
What is the reason you play C with three fingers and switch the bass from 2nd to 1st string when you could play C with 4 fingers holding down both bass strings the whole time?