Guitar Strumming

With 3 chords and a good variety of strumming patterns you can play thousands of songs!
Strum with the edge of your thumb or with a Light Plectrum or whatever you are comfortable with. The up and down strokes lightly brush against the strings and the up strum only really plays the first two/three strings. I write strumming patterns in the easiest format I can think of,

D = Down U = Up

So DDUUD = down down up up down sometimes I put in a " / "(slash) or a " - "(hyphen) to indicate a slight pause as in D/DUUD or DUD-DUD-DUDU
If "English" is not your first language the D = Down and U = Up may work better for you if you translate them into your own language (as long as they are words of 1 syllable)
For example in German DDUUD(down down up up down) could be Ab Ab Auf Auf Ab ( I Hope ! :-) )

Musically we write "Timing" as in Beats to the bar as in 4/4 that is 4 beats to the bar or 3/4 8/4 that is; 3 or 8 beats to the bar
As Guitarists often we get confused by all that "Proper Music stuff" so it may be better for you to just think of it as a strumming pattern
As strumming is so difficult to convey in writing, These are available for you to listen to as MP3 files
This is probably the most important thing you can doespecially if you are a total beginner The idea is not to stop or interrupt the strumming pattern while changing the chord, regardless of the sometimes horrible noise of "dead" strings.
Just "Plonk" your fingers on the chord and keep going, there will be a point where it will click and you will be able change smoothly.
"So be a Plonker!" If "English" is not your first language you may not recognise "Plonk" and "Plonker" which are not real words but mean (in my context) to just put your fingers on the strings in the approximate position (Plonk) and the person that does it! (Plonker)
The secret is to keep the strumming going and you perfect the chord later This may happen straight away, (be able change smoothly) or in a few minutes, but can take longer. The easiest chord change while keeping the strumming going is;Gadd5 to Cadd9 and vice versa.This is because you only move the index and the second finger, which you use for lots of other things, so your brain is already aware of how to move them!
Once you start to get control of your fingers you can then move on to other chords but it is not necessary (or advisable) to learn lots of chords when you start as you can play lots of songs with the same 3 or 4 chords in different orders and with different strumming patterns Follow
these links to hear some strumming patterns Some have been converted from older files and the audio quality is not so good others are the newer recorded MP3 files

Listen to these MP3s of Strumming Patterns

• DDUUD good starting point (MP3new) This works over anything with a count of 4 !
• DDUUD as in "Sweet Child O' Mine" (count of 4)
• DDU/UD as in "Knocking on Heaven's Door" (count of 4)
• DD/UDUDD & DUDU as in Cannonball Damien Rice (count of 4 then 2 )
• DD/UUD as in Rollercoaster or Breakdown (using Am G)(count of 4)
• D/DUDU as in Iris Goo Goo Dolls (count of 3 ie 3/4)(also Sugarland Already Gone)
• D/D/UDUDD as in Stop Crying your heart out (count of 4)
• DDD/UDUDD as in Wise men James Blunt(count of 4) & Faster for Oasis Slide Away! also for the verse of Avrils' My Happy Ending(all on one chord)and perhaps for Blue
  October's Hate Me (twice)
• D/DUUD as in Wonderful Tonight (count of 4)
• DD/DUDU/UUUUDU as in "Back to you" (count of 8 ie 8/4)
• DDD/UDD/UD as in "The Masterplan" and "Champagne Supernova" (count of 4)
• DDD/UDD/UD as in "Hang" (count of 4)
• D/DUDU as in "Dont look back in anger" and "Every Rose has it's thorn"( some bits!)
  also, slowly for "Hey Jude" (count of 2 ie 2/4)
• D/UD/D/UD/DUD as in Breakfast at Tiffany's (count of 4)
• D/DUDU as in "Easy" (count of 2)
• DD/UDU as in "Good Riddance (Time of your Life)(count of 2)
• DDU/UD as in "Good Riddance (Time of your Life)" (count of 4)
• DD/DUDU/UD as in "Every Rose has it's Thorn" (count of 4)
• D/DUDU as in "Runaway" (count of 3 ie 3/4)
• D/DUDU as in Nothing else matters (count of 3 ie 3/4) or "Knights in white Satin" (Em-D)!
• DDD/UDD/UD as in Talk Tonight (count of 4)
• DUDUD/D/UUDUD as in "Torn" (count of 4)