Let's take a look at our basic strum pattern with an alternating bass. I will play a little bit of it for you. When I'm playing for you it's definitely down a little bit of a country-style of theory. So you have got a couple of chords down and you want to do something with other than just strum them by themselves.
Alternating a bass strum pattern is a great way to give a chord progression some motion. So let's start out with the first chord that I am doing. It's D major. Our 1st finger goes on the 2nd fret of the 3rd string, 2nd finger is on the 2nd fret of the 1st string and our 3rd finger is on the 3rd fret of the 2nd string. This is the D major we are doing.
On the 1st beat, you are going to hit the 4th string and that's the D and D major, the root, and on this one as a rule we are going to be hitting the root is the very 1st note on the very 1st beat. So, hit the D, 4th string open, then strum the chord on the 2nd beat. Now, we are going to go to the alternating bass note, the alternate bass note, which in this case is the 5th string open, A, strum that on the 3rd beat and then on the 4th beat, you are going to strum the chord again.
Let's move the G, G major, our 2nd finger is going to go on the 3rd fret of the 6th string, our 1st finger is going to go on the 2nd fret of the 5th string and our 3rd finger is going to go on the 3rd fret of the 1st string. That's G. So let's hit the 6th string, which is the note G, here in G major and for the 1st beat, strum the chord for the 2nd beat. Then you are going to hit your 4th string open and then strum the cord on the 4th beat. So, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4.
So, the intro starts with the baseline pickup, starting on beat 2 1, 2 3 4 into an A chord. You are going to hear this type of strumming pattern that he uses throughout the song, where he plays a bass note on beat 1, usually the root of the chord, the letter in the chord, so A on an A chord, and strums the chord on beat 2.
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