How to Find Your Strumming Speed

by Jenny Peters | Nov 22, 2017 | Beginners

When you’re playing the ukulele, your strumming creates the beat of the music. Strumming isn’t that easy to learn and many beginners struggle with it. Maybe you are wondering how to find your strumming speed too!

One of our customers asked the question below:

About to give up. I have your books (three) and still don’t understand how you determine how fast you strum on a song when you want to sing along. It looks to me like if you change your strum speed you would change chords faster. If you do that you would have to sing faster. I know that’s not right. So how do you decide strum speed?

Jenny’s Answer

You have asked a great question, one for which there is both a simpler answer as well as a more complex answer. I’ll give the simpler explanation first and then move on to the more complicated one. (The complex terminology is more accurate, so that is why it is used by professional musicians.) I’ve also created a video to help demonstrate what I mean.

Putting It Simply

The speed at which you strum depends on how many strums you do per beat.

The easiest strumming pattern is one down strum per beat. Use this pattern when you are first learning a song. Practicing this way helps you know when to change chords. It also helps you get your left hand coordinated with the words and melody without being distracted by your right hand. Keep it Simple: Two lines of text on a wall.

When you can play and sing the song with one down strum per beat you are ready to add a fancier strumming pattern to your song. By ‘fancier’ I mean a pattern with more than one strum per beat.

The more complicated answer

There are different types of musical beats and rhythms.

The beat of any song is the underlying pulse. Pulse is what you might clap or march to if you were trying to keep time.

Moving at a different speed than the basic pulse is something called harmonic rhythm. Harmonic rhythm is how often the chords change in relation to the rhythmic pulse. Most songs will have many pulses per chord.

According to Wikipedia, ‘harmonic rhythm, also known as harmonic tempo is the rate at which the chords change (or progress) in a musical composition in relation to the rate of notes.’

When strumming you can have one strum per pulse, two strums per pulse, four strums per pulse or any other combination that you choose. These different combinations of strums per beat are our strumming patterns.

So, you can speed up your strumming a lot without changing the harmonic rhythm of the song. In other words, you can have lots of fast strumming going on without affecting the speed at which the chords change.

As long as you change chords at the correct time in relation to the melody, your strumming can be as fast or slow as you would like.

This concept is relatively complex; I did not learn the terminology I used in my answer until I was taking college music theory.

Here’s an example: Hush Little Baby

Learn this song first with four down strums per measure. Do one down strumming speed: metronome strum for each beat of the song. Once you are comfortable playing and singing with all down strums, you can change to a faster strum. One option would be to double-time your strumming using a down up pattern for each beat. When performing the song with two strums per beat you would have 8 strums per measure. In spite of the faster strumming speed, you would be changing chords and singing words at the same speed you did when doing all down strums.

I put the sheet music to “Hush Little Baby” here, so you could refer to it.

Ukulele tablature for "Hush Little Baby" in F major, showing how to find your strumming speed.

You can download the sheet music using the link below.

Download Hush-Little-Baby-in-F-Melody

There are four beats in each measure because of the two numbers 4/4 at the beginning of the song. So you can learn the song first strumming four F chords, eight C7 chords and then 4 F chords for each line of music. When you are good at that, do a down-up strum that is twice as fast. When doing the down-up strum you will strum 8 F chords, 16 C7 chords and then 8 F Chords.

The following video illustrates my point.

For more video tutorials, please subscribe to our YouTube channel by clicking on the link below.

Finally

I hope this post helps to reduce some of the frustrations you have been having with strumming speed. Please visit Struggling with Strumming? How to Develop a Sense of Beat on Ukulele to learn more about strumming.

I’d love to hear your comments and questions below.

Happy Strumming!

Jenny

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Teach a Rest Position

Create a standard position players use whenever they are listening:

Place the ukulele flat against the body.
Rest the strumming hand gently on the strings.
Keep both hands still.
Look toward the leader.

Call it “rest position” and demonstrate it at the group’s first meeting. Use the same phrase consistently: “Ukuleles in rest position, please.”

This physically mutes the strings and gives everyone a clear visual signal that playing has stopped.

Use One Attention Signal

Choose a signal that can be seen or heard across the room. Possibilities include:

Raising one hand
Playing a short, distinctive chord
Saying, “Rest position”

Explain the signal before rehearsal begins: “When you see my hand raised, finish the chord you are playing, mute your strings, and look up.”

Avoid competing with the group by repeatedly talking over the instruments. Give the signal, pause, and wait until everyone is ready.

Set a Clear “No Noodling” Expectation

Many players noodle because they are excited, nervous, practicing a difficult chord, or unaware that it is distracting. Address the behavior without embarrassing anyone.

Try saying:

“Between songs, please mute your strings so everyone can hear the instructions. We’ll always give you a moment to check chords before we begin.”

Then build short, intentional practice windows into the session:

“Take 20 seconds to find the opening chord.”
“Quietly check the change from C to G7.”
“Let’s try that strum together once.”

Players are more likely to stop playing at random when they know when practice is welcome.

Amplify the Leader, Not the Entire Room

In larger groups, a small microphone, portable speaker, or amplified ukulele can save the leader’s voice and make directions easier to follow. Amplification should provide clarity—not to overpower the players.

Test the equipment before the session, position the speaker where everyone can hear it, and keep spoken instructions short. A microphone cannot replace an attention routine, but it makes a good routine much more effective.

Create Predictable Transitions

Noodling often fills uncertainty. Tell players exactly what is happening next:

1. “Finish the final chord.”
2. “Rest position.”
3. “Turn to page 14.”
4. “Find a C chord.”
5. “Watch for my count-in.”

Use a visible or audible count-in before every song. Once players learn that nothing begins until the leader counts them in, spontaneous starts become less common.

6. Operate iPads for music.

Many ukulele groups read off iPads, and everyone buys the same app. forScore is one of the common ones, but don’t get anything until the group leader tells you which one they use. From there, the leader or the singer/songwriter shares the music by AirDrop, so everyone is reading off the same page. Corrections land with the whole group at once, and nobody is working from an outdated copy.

A Simple Group Agreement

At the beginning of a session, say:

“To help everyone hear and learn, we use rest position whenever someone is speaking. When I raise my hand, please mute your strings and look up. You’ll have time to check chords before each song, and we’ll always start together on the count-in.”

The goal is not silence for its own sake. It is to create a group in which instructions are brief, rehearsals move smoothly, and everyone gets more time to make music together.

Here’s a list of etiquette expectations from ukulele group members to make the group learning more effective and fruitful for everyone.

Download PDF

How to Find Your Strumming Speed