Midnight Sky - Miley Cyrus

This is the strum pattern I use to play Midnight Sky. See here for chords/lyrics. See Youtube for my ukulele play-along video.

I use 3 strum patterns in different sections of the song:

  1. Rock strum - verse + chorus
  2. Picking I - pre-chorus
  3. Picking II - bridge

1. Rock Strum

This is the strum pattern I use for the verse and chorus. For the chorus, I also add in left-handed muting, which adds a more percussive sound.

The rock strum is categorized by an emphasis on the 3rd beat. This is the variant I play:

  1+2+3+4+1+2+3+4+
  d   D du ud D du
  
2. Picking I

I use a basic finger-picking pattern for the pre-chorus (The midnight sky is the road...). The rhythm is straightforward: pick on each beat, emphasizing the third.

  1 2 3 4
  p p P p
  

The finger-string assignment is:

  1. G - x
  2. C - thumb
  3. E - index
  4. A - middle

The picking pattern is 2-3-(34)-3.

3. Picking II - bridge

I use a more complex finger-picking pattern for the bridge (I don't hide blurry eyes...) + the first bit of the chorus that follows. The rhythm is based off the rock strum rhythm shown above.

  1+2+3+4+1+2+3+4+
  p   P     p P pp
  

The picking pattern is 2-(34) 2-(34)-2-2.