Sixteenth-note strumming
Strumming with four evenly spaced strokes to the beat, so the right hand moves in a continuous sixteenth-note grid.
Once the tempo rises, sixteenth-note strumming becomes a discipline of silence: the hand keeps moving through all four subdivisions per beat, but the pick only contacts the strings on the chosen ones. That is why the same pattern can be written out and read, but still feels wrong when the hand stops between strokes. The style is central to funk and disco guitar, where the unplayed sixteenths are as important as the played ones, and it builds the rhythmic control heard in most session rhythm work.
Example: A funk rhythm part built from a steady stream of sixteenths with only some of them sounding is sixteenth-note strumming.
See also
Related
- PageStrumming pattern
- PageSyncopation
- PageWrist rotation
- PageAccent
- PageAction height
- PageAlternate picking
- PageAaron Dessner
- PageAce Frehley