The Campfire Downstrum (With Accents)

Four downstrokes, and why that is not a cop-out

D-D-D-D is the pattern most beginners invent and then apologise for. It is not a beginner's crutch — it is the pattern that survives wind, a room of forty people and a ukulele that will not stay in tune. Every professional campfire player uses it.

What makes it musical is the accent. Without accents, four even downstrokes sound like a metronome. With accents, it sounds like a drummer.

Where the accents go

Choose one of three common accent shapes and keep it for the whole song:

• Accent on 1 and 3 — the default. Steady, works with almost everything in 4/4.
• Accent on 2 and 4 — the backbeat. Makes a song sound like it has a snare drum. Use it for Camptown Races.
• Accent on 1 only — heavy, march-like. Use it for anything with a slow tempo and a lot of words.

Accenting means striking harder and slightly closer to the soundhole. Softer strokes land near the neck. You do not need to change your hand position drastically — 3 cm of travel is enough to change the tone.

Playing loud without playing badly

The mistake at volume is tightening the hand. Keep the wrist loose and instead move the whole forearm further through the strings, from the elbow. Louder, not stiffer.

• Loose wrist, wide arm: loud and warm.
• Tight wrist, narrow arm: quiet and thin.
• The biggest volume difference comes from how far past the strings your hand travels, not from how hard you hit them.

Combining it with the island strum

Most players use the downstrum for verses and the island strum for the chorus, which creates a lift without any change in tempo. Try it on Oh! Susanna: plain downstrokes on the verse, D-DU-UDU on the chorus.