Adding The Upstroke

Now that you can strum the 4 beats of the bar, while accenting the "back beats", let's take it one step further by adding an upstroke to the mix. These upstrokes in between the 4 counts are called "8th notes" because there are two of them per quarter note and that equals 8 of these subdivisions per bar. When we count them out we say "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and". If you were to verbalize the rhythm of our strumming pattern with the added upstroke, it would be "1 2 and 3 4 and" etc.