🔥 Campfire Songbook

← Create and edit a song

Build a strumming pattern

The strumming pattern tells you how to strum, beat by beat: down, up, muted or not at all. No need to know the notation: the builder writes it for you as you click.

  1. Open the builder

    Put the cursor at the start of the song, then click the arrows icon, “Strumming”, in the “Rhythm” group. The “Strumming pattern” window opens.

  2. Choose the time signature and tempo

    “Time”: 4/4 for most songs, 3/4 for a waltz, 6/8 or 12/8 for a lilting feel. “Tempo (bpm)” is optional; when filled in, it goes into the song’s “Tempo (bpm)” field, not into the text. Itsy Bitsy Spider sits nicely at 96.

  3. Measures and subdivisions

    “Measures”: 1 to 4. “Subdivision”: quarter notes ♩, eighth notes ♪, triplets ³ or sixteenth notes ♬. Eighth notes are a good start for a 4/4 pattern.

  4. Fill the cells

    Each click cycles the cell: nothing, ↓ (down), ↑ (up), × (chuck), rest, then nothing again. On an arrow, “Accent” adds an accent (> above) and “Muted stroke” turns it into a muted stroke (× above). With the keyboard: ↓ ↑ X, Space for nothing, R for a rest, Shift + arrow for an accent, Ctrl (or Alt) + arrow for a muted stroke. The preview below the grid and the code update instantly; “Clear” empties every cell.

    The “Strumming pattern” window: 4/4 time, a grid of eighth notes filled with down and up arrows, and the pattern preview in notation.
    One click per cell: nothing, ↓, ↑, × or rest; accents and muted strokes on top. The preview follows.

  5. Insert

    “Insert” adds the pattern line at the cursor, for example {strum: 4/4 | D.DU.UDU}. “Cancel” closes the window without changing anything.

  6. The result on the page

    On the song page, the pattern shows up under the title in rhythm notation, just like in the window’s preview.

    The Itsy Bitsy Spider page: under the title, the strumming pattern in rhythm notation, with its arrows and beams.
    The pattern as musicians see it.
↓ down↑ up × chuck (muted hit) rest >↓ accent×↓ muted stroke · · none
Example: “Itsy Bitsy Spider” at 96 bpm
{tempo: 96}
{strum: 4/4 | D.DU.UDU}

Reading the code: D = down stroke, U = up stroke, X = chuck (muted hit), R = rest, a dot = nothing; before an arrow, > = accent and m = muted stroke (>D, mU). So D.DU.UDU reads ↓ · ↓ ↑ · ↑ ↓ ↑. In the editor, the {tempo: 96} line does not show in the source: it lives in the “Tempo (bpm)” field. On a public song, a suggested pattern waits for a moderator’s approval.