So you've been rockin all day, now its late in the evening and its time for something a little more subdued. It's time for a ballad. So you dig through your stacks of books and sheet music and find the perfect song for the occasion. You open the book, you start to play using on of the basic accompaniment strum patterns that you learn at cyberfret.com. Hmm, that's not right. You look at the top of the music for any more clues about how to play this song and all you see is Ballad (most basic songbooks only have the chords, and not a clue as to how to play them). In frustration you start to play Take It Easy by the Eagles one more time because it uses THE universal strum pattern.

Fear not a basic ballad strum is easier that you think. Here is the most basic ballad strum that you can start with.

I know, you didn't need a guitar lesson to learn that, but strumming on the beat is a good place to start, and it will sound good.

The previous strum is for 4/4 time (4 beats in a measure and the quarter note gets the beat) If you don't know what the heck I am talking about, be sure to look over Understanding Rhythms.

4/4 time is also commonly written as a C, which stands for common time.

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If a song was in 2/2 (Cut Time) You would still just strum on the beat, but this time the beat would be a half note.

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Beyond the beat, adding more to your ballad guitar strum.