Your own strum: take one stroke off

The steady hand motion is in four downstrokes and in the arrows. Here we change the pattern: one slot fewer, the rest the same.

Eight movements first

Hold C. Count “one and two and three and four and”. Down on the numbers, up on “and”. Through the first bar, touch the strings on all eight movements.

In the next bar, the same path, but on the first “and” pass the pick over the strings. The movement stays. The sound disappears. The pattern is already different.

One change, one listen

Do not click several slots at once. Take one stroke off, listen to four bars, and only then decide on the next. Clicking in bulk gives a pattern you cannot hear.

A word accent may fall where silence now sits. So after every change, go back to singing. Counting guards the time. The melody decides whether the accompaniment makes sense.

The same pattern on G

After a few bars on C, change to G, without a second rhythm. If the left hand does not make it, release the end of C earlier, as in Harpagan (the scout strum): on the last “and”. Open strings may sound briefly. The right hand does not wait.

Strum builder

Open the Strum builder. The address carries no settings. In the tool, choose C major. First segment: C. “+ Chord”, G from the suggested V degree. The same layout in both segments.

If an old draft comes back, take “New song”. A fresh segment starts from four downstrokes, with an empty place after each. Click the empty “ands” until an up arrow appears. Subtract from that full grid.

Saving a name does not mean the strum fits the song. It is only a place to return after a try on the guitar.

Compare with Panie Janie

Panie Janie is in C, on C and G, in 4/4. The card has the half-bar strum: D-DUD-DU. That is not Harpagan, and you do not have to copy it. Listen after your own try: does your pattern still carry the melody and keep “one” in place?

If your layout fights the phrase, restore the last stroke you took off.