To understand a little about alternate bass note strumming you have to have some basic scale knowledge and also understand how chords are constructed. Since we have not gone through either of these yet some of this may be confusing.
All examples will be based around the major scale.
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1 A one octave Major Scale is made up of eight notes. We number each one of these notes like so (see 1st diagram below). These numbers represent the order they are played in.
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2 A Major Chord is made of of the 1st, 3rd & 5th notes of that Major Scale.
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3 When we strum a chord we usually strum from the bass note down. The bass note is the 1st note of the scale or the 1 of 8. For example when strumming an E major chord we strum six strings, from the lowest sounding E note down.
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4 For an A major chord you strum 5 strings because the lowest sounding note in that chord should be an A.
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5 The following diagrams show the lowest note of each chord.
