Let's face it - a simple up and down strumming pattern does not make a great song. So let's liven things up a bit by varying the way we are strumming.
In this example we are playing on the eighth notes, or playing twice per beat of the song. Consider the following illustration...
![](images/lesson_5_a_3.gif)
Note: You should practice this while strumming both directions. If you were playing a song at a faster tempo, this pattern would be extremely difficult to play using only a down-stroke.
In this next example, we drop a few eighth notes from the pattern to give the song a different feel...
![](images/lesson_5_b_1.gif)
When playing this example, pay careful attention to the strumming pattern because it changes.
As in the previous illustration, this next example varies the strumming pattern and drops a few different eighth notes to create a nice, lazy strumming pattern...
![](images/lesson_5_b_2.gif)
Just to mess everything up, the next example changes from the 4/4 patterns that we've been looking at to a 3/4 pattern...
![](images/lesson_5_b_3.gif)
Note: This pattern works nicely with a 6/8 song as well.
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