One of the first skills a ukulele player learns is the art and craft of strumming, playing rhythm. This refers to an accompaniment technique suitable for the singer, singer - songwriter or someone who plays a support role for another instrument.

Strumming requires a specific set of skills:

• Memorization of chords
• The ability to switch chords smoothly
• The ability to choose and execute a suitable rhythmic strum

It's this 3rd skill that is our focus in A Guide to Ukulele Strums and Rhythmic Patterns.

Though strumming looks natural to the casual observer, it is anything but natural to the beginning ukulele player. Even experienced players have difficulty in identifying and executing certain strums. Though this is one of those topics that is typically taken for granted, there is much to learn about rhythmic feels, accents, dynamics, strum direction, feel, percussive accents, idiomatic styles and tempo variation.

First and foremost, the subject of strumming is inseparably linked to rhythm. Though an ability to read rhythm is helpful, it's not necessary to profit from this material.

Each strum is identified with a term that differentiates it from every other strum. This term is typically called a feel. Drummers learn these terms early in their studies so learning this language is not only helpful to learning the strums, it's also helpful with communications among musicians in general and drummers in particular.

The strums in this book work in any tuning or instrument. Chord examples shown for ukuleles in C tuning.

One strum is different from another based on the stroke direction, the stroke density, the subdivision of the beat and the accent pattern.

Strums covered include: Quarter Note, Sustain, Rock, Light Rock, 12/8, Shuffle, Power Shuffle, Double Time, Gallop, Flowing 3/4, Ska, Bass Note Patterns, 3/4, Reggae and Broken Patterns.