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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. 
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