Strums:
The Strummer Ukulele Band meets every Friday and practices various strumming patterns.
Many strumming patterns match with specific types of songs; Country, Church, Island,
Blues, Soul, Rock and Roll to name a few. As I always remind the UKERS, the goal is to
make the Uke sing along with the song. You do this by strumming to the beat and stressing
the key words of the song. The second goal is to make the song as interesting as possible by
changing the strumming pattern as you play along, using a different pattern on the turn-around,
or different pattern on the chorus as opposed to the verse, etc.
Hawaiian music is the exception, you can listen to some of their music on line and the strum
doesn't change for the entire song, but you can close your eyes and see the hula dancer swaying
away. That is their goal and it works.
There are almost as many strumming patterns as there are songs but below are four basic patterns
which should allow you to play most if not all of the songs in our song book.

Basic Strums:

• To view a video of Jerry's demo of the Country/Church strumming pattern click HERE.
  
• To view a video of Jerry's demo of the Island strumming pattern click HERE.
  
• To view a video of Jerry's demo of the Ballad/Blues strumming pattern click HERE.
  
• To view a video of Jerry's emo of a strumming pattern for a 3/4 beat song click HERE.