Sounds terrific Luke!
@LukeAbbott I’m new here and just read through this thread and watched your sneak peak video. The new strum patterns are sounding amazing and authentic. I’m really looking forward to getting to work with those! I’ll be introducing all of my friends and students to this software.
I have a couple suggestions:
For bluegrass, one thing that seems missing is the “uptown” rhythm style commonly associated with progressive bluegrass (omit 3rds, replace with fifths) and the percussive “thunk” that sets up the downbeat strums.
It would also be great if there were standard rhythms for boogie/rockabilly/blues music at some point. You’ve done a great job focusing on folk/bluegrass music rhythm, but maybe at some point when that’s finished, you could give us some blues and shuffle type rhythms. There are even the occasional bluegrass tunes that employ some of that and it would be good for older country stuff too…
Thanks so much for your awesome app and all the hard work you’ve invested into it. As a full stack web developer who sometimes works with Angular, Node, etc. I have a deep appreciation for the work that goes into what you’re building here. Cheers!
Hey @DaveMueller - welcome, and thanks! A couple responses:
For bluegrass, one thing that seems missing is the “uptown” rhythm style commonly associated with progressive bluegrass (omit 3rds, replace with fifths) and the percussive “thunk” that sets up the downbeat strums.
Could you please provide a recorded example or two of what you’re talking about? I may have this covered but I’m not sure.
It would also be great if there were standard rhythms for boogie/rockabilly/blues music at some point.
Yes! At the moment I’ve got two of these planned: a swinging strummy rhythm that alternates with a major sixth (e.g. Hank Williams in Long Gone Lonesome Blues) and a bass-heavy muffled blues shuffle (e.g. this random YouTube demo minus the fancy treble-string licks). I’ll repeat the title of this thread here: am I missing any? (I’m sure the answer is yes, so if any specific patterns/examples come to mind that you’d want to see, let me know!)
Hello Luke,
We’re You able to work the slower hymn patterns into the list?
I could greatly use the rhythms for SLOWER songs for HYMNS. I’ve started using StrumMachine to back up
Hymns and Southern Gospel for my SAXOPHONE instrumentals.
SO EXCITED ABOUT ALL OF THESE NEW PATTERNS! YOU’RE AWESOME!!!
Jim Jones
@JimJones Yes, I think there will be a couple of good options for slower songs and hymns, including strums with lots of down-and-up strokes (to fill the space) and arpeggiated chords (picked one string at a time).
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Thank you for your prompt reply!
I’M SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS REVISION AND CAN’T HARDLY WAIT……Regards, Jim
Thank you Luke for your continuing work on these Strum Patterns.
The strums for slower songs and waltzes will be greatly appreciated.
Cheers. 
Hey Luke, would he be possible to have a different strumming style for the ending? Like the last measure of Part A and B. This is pretty common in real life, basically just some simple yet pronounced strums to indicate finality.
@RobertBiggs Yeah, that’s definitely something I want to explore in the future. I’m hoping that there’s some things I can (optionally) do automatically, versus having to explicitly tell it what to do on the last measure. Of course, exactly what that is will have to vary with each strumming style as well.
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@LukeAbbott Here is video clip showing the strum pattern. I guess I think of it as commonplace because I was taught it a long time ago by a friend of mine and great rhythm player named Jeff Griffy who used to play with David Davis. He is strongly influenced by Tony Rice and I figured that’s who he got it from, but maybe not, or maybe it’s not so common? 
Anyway, it’s one of my favorite strums and a great way to add power and punch, especially when backing a banjo: Downbeat Accent Strum Example - YouTube
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@LukeAbbott Here’s Michael Cleveland doing it at the end of his er… ripping Rice-style guitar break… that guy! Cleveland Plays Rice - YouTube
Thanks! I’ve already got “strumming on beat 1” implemented, although I haven’t fine-tuned where it should go. You can hear it on the first beat of the clip I posted on the 14th but there will be an option to hear it more often. I think it’s often thought of as a Jimmy Martin thing first and foremost, but of course Tony and countless other players have used it as well.
The muting on beat 4 is also on my radar, although I’ve never heard it used on every measure – it makes me think of Dan Tyminski, who uses it sometimes just before a beat he wants to emphasize (like the first beat of a break or the chorus). I was thinking it should be part of a group of “emphasis” techniques that Strum Machine uses to emphasize certain measures (instead of randomly or all the time). Of course, knowing what measures to emphasize is a problem, but one I can put off until later.
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Would you please annotate the strum patterns. Like in Michael Schott’s post (eg D dududu) which you replied to in Nov. I appreciate the complexity of what ‘down’ refers to but us newbies need all the help we can get. Even just the 1st bar or separately with a sample. Many thanks, S
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I’m working on how the new patterns will be presented in the UI. Here’s my latest thinking.
At the top of the form there will be a dropdown menu to change the overall type of strum, based on the time signature. For example, in standard time I think I’ve landed on these strumming types:
- Simple Boom Chuck
- Bluegrass, Country, and More (boom chuck with upstrokes)
- Celtic and Beyond (i.e. reels)
- Jazz, Swing, Etc. (dampened closed chords)
- Blues
- Half-Time Feel (modern)
- Arpeggiated Patterns (slower songs and fingerpicking)
- Pop (if there’s demand)
Each overall strumming type will present a few relevant options to tweak the style. For example, the “Bluegrass, Country, and More” style (working title) will let you change the Power (lighter or heavier), Density (sparser or busier), and use of syncopation.
Below these options will be both a visual and audio preview of the strumming pattern. Changing the options will update the preview so that you can instantly see what effect each setting has. Here’s a basic bluegrass-style strumming pattern, for example, with medium power and medium density:
Turn down the power and you’ll get something like this:
Crank up both power and density and you’ll get this:
What do you all think of these charts? Helpful? Overwhelming? I’m not much of a visual designer but I’m sure I can improve the look of these over time. My guess is that they’ll be helpful to some folks and not others, but everyone will be able to use the live audio preview. Constructive feedback is most welcome!
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I like those charts. Makes it clear even without hearing how the strum will be executed.
Luke, when the dot moves in the middle example does it mean the bass note has changed? On the whole this looks easily understood.
@JohnStevens Yeah, that’s showing that there’s kind of a cross-picking thing going on in the mids and treble strings.
Glad you both like the strumming-pattern charts. Still iterating on the UI. Here’s today’s latest rough layout:
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Looking good. I think I’m gonna fall in love with this.
Agreed it’s going to be huge. The strumming patterns will be great to go with my lead playing. I’m also eager for the new instruments so I can play rhythm with a bigger band. Now, if there was just some way Luke could get his guitar to drop out when I’m singing so I can be be the main rhythm guitarist.
Yeah, I like what your thinking on that. If I were playing rhythm behind a banjo break or kick, I would choose that strum in certain places that emphasize the timing and accent pattern of the banjo part, as opposed to just doing it over and over like I did in the video. Although there are times when it works well repeated over several measures depending on what the banjo is playing. I think being able to intentionally place the strum on any specific measure would be great!
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