Rock · Electric guitar
Rock electric guitar rhythm: power-chord eighths
The rock electric guitar rhythm in 4/4: the strum only goes down (↓). Beat by beat, one mark per eighth note: ↓↓ ↓↓ ↓↓ ↓↓. Play the audio here in your browser, set the tempo anywhere from 50 to 200 BPM and follow the grid, which marks every subdivision.
Sound summary
Rock is played with a chord strum — 4/4, straight (even subdivisions) — for the electric guitar: the chord (A) is strummed all down. To the ear: A↓ A↓ A↓ A↓ A↓ A↓ A↓ A↓.
How to count it
There are 4 beats per bar (4/4), split into eighth-notes (two per beat). Say the beats: 1 e, 2 e, 3 e, 4 e. Keep the beat with your foot and follow the grid: each box is one subdivision.
The rhythm grid
A = chord · ↓ down-stroke
The ↓/↑ direction follows the bowed-string arcada convention (ᴨ down, V up; Ribeiro 2017).
How to play it
Right hand
The chord (A) is strummed down only (↓): keep the arm level, each down-stroke the same force and spacing.
Left hand
Keep the chord well pressed through the whole pattern — the left hand rules pitch, the right rules the bar. Only release the shape at the end of the bar, moving the hand ahead to the next one.
Example in E
With an E held, let the same chord ring under every stroke — close your eyes and follow just the right hand’s rhythm. Then change only the left-hand shape to take it into any song.
Common mistakes
- Running the subdivisions. The faster the pattern, the easier to push ahead — lock the tempo on the metronome before speeding up.
- Letting the tempo drift. Without a firm pulse the strum leaks — count along and hold the same time from the first bar to the last.
Guided practice
- Down-strokes only. Strum the chord on every down-stroke (↓), no up-stroke yet.
- Keep the down-strokes level. Make sure each down-stroke has the same weight and the same gap.
- Close with the metronome. Go slow first and raise the BPM only once the pattern comes out clean.
You already get the logic of the groove. Now put it in time: hear the pattern, follow the count and practice slowly until every stroke lands in its place without rushing. In Chord and Fret, the Metronome and the Rhythm Trainer help with that drill, free.
Train with the metronome →Variations & related patterns
With the strum steady, take it to Rock progressions, putting rhythm and chord changes together. In Chord and Fret’s Progressions by Rhythm, the progressions come with diagrams and audio, free.
Train with progressions →