The pendulum

What it’s for

The pendulum is the golden rule played in full: your hand goes down on every beat and up on every “and,” and this time it hits the strings both ways. Eight strums per bar, steady as a clock.

On its own, it gives you a full, driving accompaniment, used a lot in pop rock and folk for the high-energy parts. Above all, it’s the workout that makes every other pattern possible: they’re all just a pendulum with some strums skipped.

How to practice it, step by step

1. Muted strings first. Fretting hand flat across the strings. Strum down-up nonstop, counting “1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &.” The motion comes from your wrist, like shaking water off your fingers.
2. On one chord. E minor, for a full minute. Downstrokes take all the strings; upstrokes only the top three or four.
3. With a chord change. One bar of E minor, one bar of C. Let go of the chord on the last upstroke, the “4 &”: it can ring on open strings, no one will notice.
4. Up to tempo. Start at 60, then go up 5 at a time. By 90, your wrist should be just as relaxed as at the start.

Common mistakes

• Your hand stops on the chord change. This is the most common mistake. Your strumming hand keeps going, whatever your fretting hand is doing.
• Upstrokes too loud. They should just brush the high strings. If they’re as loud as the downstrokes, the rhythm goes flat.
• No accents. Lean a little harder on the beats, especially 1 and 3: that’s what makes the pattern breathe.
• Your whole arm is moving. It’s tiring and it slows you down. Keep your elbow almost still and let your wrist do the work.
• The pick spins between your fingers. Hold it shorter, with just the tip showing, without squeezing.

You’ve got it when…

• you can keep the pendulum going for a minute at 80 without your wrist tensing up;
• your upstrokes are clearly softer than your downstrokes;
• you switch from E minor to C without your strumming hand slowing down.

Next, the pop strum has you skip strums without stopping your hand.