Rhythm, Meter, Tempo and Strumming

Notes and chords are only half of a song. The other half is when things happen. A great lyric over a stumbling rhythm sounds like a drunk reading the minutes at a council meeting. Steady time is the first thing listeners notice, even if they never put a name to it.

Beats and bars

The beat is the pulse you tap your foot to. Beats get grouped into bars (also called measures), and the first beat of each bar gets a little extra weight. Count a march: ONE two three four, ONE two three four. That grouping of four is the most common meter in American music.

The time signature tells you the grouping. It looks like a fraction. Ignore that. For the meters this lesson covers, read it like this:

• 4/4: four beats per bar, each beat a quarter note. Called "common time." Most country, rock, folk and gospel lives here.
• 3/4: three beats per bar. The waltz. ONE two three, ONE two three.
• 6/8: six eighth notes per bar, grouped in two sets of three. It is felt as two big beats, each split into three.
• 2/4: two beats per bar. Polkas, fast bluegrass breakdowns and some marches. Often charted as 4/4 anyway because it reads easier.

4/4: counting the in-between

In 4/4, count each beat as a number and the halfway point between beats as "and":

1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &

The numbers are downbeats. The "ands" are upbeats, or offbeats. When people talk about a groove "on the two and four," they mean the backbeat: the snare drum hits on beats 2 and 4. Clap along to a country song and clap on 2 and 4. If you clap on 1 and 3 at a honky-tonk, somebody will notice.

3/4: the waltz

Country music has always loved waltzes. The feel is a heavy ONE and two light beats: OOM pah pah. On guitar, that usually means a bass note on 1 and strums on 2 and 3. Slow waltzes give a sad song room to breathe. Faster ones are for dancing.

Count:  1    2    3   | 1    2    3
Guitar: bass strum strum | bass strum strum

6/8: two beats in threes

This is the one that confuses people, because it can sound like a waltz. Count it this way:

1 & a 2 & a

Six little pulses, but the foot taps only twice per bar, on 1 and 2. Each foot tap holds three pulses. That rolling, rocking feel is everywhere in old Irish and Scottish ballads that came over with settlers, in slow gospel numbers, and in plenty of soul ballads.

Some slow songs feel like 6/8 at a slow pace and are charted as 12/8: four big beats per bar, each split into three. If you hear a slow blues shuffle where every beat has a lilt of three, that is 12/8 or 4/4 with a triplet swing. Writers argue about which to call it. Pick one, write it on the chart, and stay consistent.

Tempo in BPM

Tempo is the speed of the beat, given in beats per minute, or BPM. 60 BPM is one beat per second, which is a slow ballad. 120 BPM is two per second, a brisk walk. Rough ranges for the styles in this course:

Treat these ranges as rough. Players disagree on whether a fast bluegrass tune is "200 in 4" or "100 in 2," which is the same speed counted differently. Write the BPM and the meter together on every chart (for example, "104 BPM, 4/4") and that argument goes away.

Bars go by at a predictable rate. At 120 BPM in 4/4, each bar takes 2 seconds, so 30 bars fit in a minute. That number matters when you are cutting a song to fit a 60-second spot or a reel. A 16-bar section at 120 BPM lasts 32 seconds.

To find a song's tempo, tap along with a metronome app or a tap-tempo button. Most free metronome apps have one. Tap for 8 to 10 beats and read the number.

Writing strumming patterns down

Strum patterns are usually passed on by watching someone's hand. That's fine at a jam. On a chart or in a lesson you need to write them down, and a plain text grid does the job. Put the count on the top line and the strokes under it: D for down, U for up, a blank where the hand moves but misses the strings.

Straight eighths (practice pattern)
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
D U D U D U D U

The "folk" pattern (the one you hear everywhere)
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
D   D U   U D U

Boom-chick (country, alternating bass)
1     2     3     4
bass  strum bass  strum
(root)      (5th)

Waltz in 3/4
1     2     3
bass  strum strum

6/8 roll
1 & a 2 & a
D D U D D U

Pickups

Lots of melodies start before beat 1. "Amazing Grace" does: the first note is a short pickup that leads into the first strong beat. On a chart, you note this with the count: "melody starts on the 'and' of 4" or "3-beat pickup." Band members will thank you, because the most common rehearsal train wreck is half the room starting on the pickup and half starting on 1.