Swing strumming: the long-short blues strum

A swung strum through A7, D7 and E7, the chords of a blues: a long stroke on the beat and a short one after it, with the backbeat accented on 2 and 4. Swing is felt rather than counted, the 'and' falling late, two thirds of the way through the beat, and it's what makes blues, jazz and old-time songs lope instead of march. The drums swing with you, so you can hear where each upstroke belongs.

Swing strum: 4 bars of 4/4, swung in E standard, written at 100 bpm.

The strum: an arrow down or up for each strum, a cross for a muted one, a dot for a single note, and a faint arrow where the hand keeps moving without touching the strings.

Practise it at 60 bpm

Opens in the player looped and counted in, with drums playing along, and speeds up 5 % every 2 loops to 100 bpm. No account or microphone needed.

Goal tempo: 100 bpm
Starts at: 60 bpm
Length: 4 bars, looped
Tuning: E standard
Time: 4/4, swung
Level: Intermediate
Plays with: Drums

How to play it

Long-short, long-short: the up comes late, just before the next beat. Lean on 2 and 4.

The pattern is a held down, a down-up, a held down, a down-up: '1, 2 and, 3, 4 and'. In swing the 'and' doesn't fall halfway through the beat but two thirds of the way, so each down-up comes out long-short. The player swings its eighths, so follow its count rather than counting straight.

Lean on the downs on 2 and 4, with the side stick. The seventh chords are all open shapes: A7 is A with the G string left open, D7 turns the D chord's triangle upside down, and E7 is E with the 3rd finger lifted.

The last bar is E7, the chord that pulls back to A: in a blues it's the turnaround.

Mistakes to watch for

Playing the eighths straight, so the strum marches instead of swinging.
Swinging so hard that the 'and' turns into a 16th just before the beat. Two thirds of the way, not nearly all the way.
Accenting every beat. Only 2 and 4 lean, with the drums.

A speed plan

The player starts at 60 % of the goal and plays each tempo twice before stepping up:

That's 16 loops and about 3 minutes before you're playing at 100 bpm. If it stops being clean on the way, stop the ramp there and loop that tempo until it is. With a microphone or an audio interface you can record while you play instead: Demiurg checks every loop and steps up only after two clean ones in a row, and back down after a poor one. Strums are checked for when they land, not for which strings rang.

Questions

How fast should I play Swing strum?

The goal is 100 bpm in eighth notes, which is 3.3 strums a second. Start wherever every strum is clean: the player begins at 60 bpm. Signed in, you can set a goal of your own, slower or faster, on the Exercises page.

What does a swing or shuffle feel mean?

The beat is split unevenly: its first half takes two thirds of it and its second half one third, so pairs of eighths sound long-short. Blues, jazz, rockabilly and a lot of country are played that way.

Can I use this strum for a 12-bar blues?

Yes. A7, D7 and E7 are the three chords of a blues in A, and the same strum fits all twelve bars. Play them in the 12-bar order and you're playing a blues.

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