I, too, love the bouncy sound the musician gets. This is one of my most favorite rendition of song. What exactly is the strum pattern? D D U D. What is that called
Thanks very much Phyllis! The pattern I'm using is D DU DU DU (I use an arrows graphic in the video to indicate this). As I indicate with the fatter arrows, I strum a little harder on beats 2 and 4 (the 'back beat' aka 'off beat'). Be sure to play the pattern with a bounce/swing (notice how the up-strums on the &s are close to the down-strums they precede). I think of it as a country style pattern.
Hi, I'm new to the ukulele and I love how you play this song. I've gotten my chords well practiced, but I'm struggling with the strumming pattern. What do the slashes mean (/)? And how does the strumming pattern line up to the lyrics? I feel like if I could map the strumming to the lyrics, that would help me practice it. Thanks!
Each '/' represents one beat. Most popular music is in '4/'4' (four-four) time), which means there are four beats in every bar. So, 'C / / / ' represents a four-beat bar of a C chord, and '/ / / /' represents a four beat of the same chord as the preceding chord. So, 'G7 / / / / / / /' represents two bars (8 beats) of a G7 chord. The strumming pattern is one bar long (they usually are). The numbers in the strumming pattern refer to the beats in each bar. So, when you see 'G7 / / / / / / /' you play the G7 chord using the strumming pattern twice. Then, just keep the strumming pattern going in time with the beat of the song, changing chords where indicated. I hope that helps. It may be a good idea to take a couple of lessons from a uke teacher to get you started - Jez