Reggae · Electric guitar
Reggae electric guitar rhythm: single chop on 2 and 4
The reggae electric guitar rhythm in 4/4: the strum only goes down (↓). Beat by beat, one mark per beat, with · where there is no stroke: · ↓ · ↓. 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
The Reggae pattern is a chord strum for the electric guitar, in 4/4 straight (even subdivisions): the groove drives the chord (A) with down-strokes. It sounds like this: — A↓ — A↓.
How to count it
The meter is 4/4: 4 beats per bar, counted in one strum per beat. Say the beats: 1 2 3 4. Tap your foot on the strong beat and read the grid above: each cell is one beat.
The rhythm grid
A = chord · ↓ down-stroke · — = no stroke
The ↓/↑ direction follows the bowed-string arcada convention (ᴨ down, V up; Ribeiro 2017).
How to play it
Right hand
Strum the chord (A) all down (↓). The trick is regularity — same force, same gap between one stroke and the next. Don’t stop the arm on the rests — it keeps moving in the air, it just doesn’t touch the strings.
Left hand
The fretting hand holds the chord firmly through the whole pattern — it owns the harmony while the right hand owns the rhythm. Change chords at the last instant of the bar, the hand already moving toward the next shape.
Example in Am
With an Am 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
- Stopping the arm on the rests. The hand never stops — it keeps swinging in the air and only touches the strings on the next hit. That’s what holds the time.
Guided practice
- Start all down. Strum the chord down (↓) on every stroke, one direction only.
- Even the strokes out. Focus on keeping every down-stroke the same force and spacing.
- Take it up on the metronome. Start slow, keep the pattern clean, and add a few BPM at a time.
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.
Open the trainer →Variations & related patterns
With the strum steady, take it to Reggae progressions, putting rhythm and chord changes together. In Chord and Fret’s Progressions by Rhythm, the progressions come with diagrams and audio, free.
See the genre’s progressions →