Sixteenth notes

Four strokes per beat

In eighth notes, you count “1 and 2 and”, two strokes per beat. In sixteenth notes, each beat is split into four:

1 e and a 2 e and a 3 e and a 4 e and a

(say it “one-ee-and-uh”.) The strumming motion works the same way: your hand goes down on the number and on the “and”, up on the “e” and the “a”. It never stops.

Step 1: the fast motion

Pick a slow tempo: at 60, sixteenth notes go as fast as eighth notes at 120. Strum all sixteen strokes, accenting each number slightly.

Three tips:

• Small movements. Your wrist barely moves: a big motion can’t go twice as fast.
• Strum fewer strings. On the upstrokes, two or three high strings are enough.
• A thin pick, or one held without tension: it should glide across the strings.

Step 2: counting without playing everything

The pop pattern in sixteenths takes the pop pattern you know and squeezes it into one beat out of two… twice as fast. Your hand keeps making sixteen down-and-up strokes; it just passes over the strings on some of them.

Count out loud, every “e” and “a” included. If you lose your place, go back to the fast motion for a bar, then pick the pattern up again.

Step 3: changing chords on the move

Change chords on the last “a” of the bar, just as you used to change on the last “and”: an upstroke on the open strings while your fretting hand moves.

Raise the tempo in steps of 5, up to 80. Beyond that, most songs in sixteenths sit around 90 to 100: that’s for later.

You’ve got it when…

• You count “1 e and a” out loud while strumming
• You keep the sixteenth-note motion steady at 70 for a minute
• You play the pop pattern in sixteenths on G, D, Em, C without losing the beat