If you can nail the strum pattern, a few reggae licks in your repertoire is a great thing to have. Aside from sounding superb on either acoustic or electric guitar, practicing any reggae strumming pattern will improve your rhythm.

The reggae strumming pattern can take a little while to master, but once you get the hang of it, most reggae songs will be within your grasp, as most tracks are reasonably uncomplicated, and use just a handful of chords.

 
Check this video out for a basic breakdown on a simple reggae riff.

A reggae beat is unique in that it uses an “off beat”. The down stroke is strummed in between the usual 4/4 beat.

Counting 1-2-3-4, on a standard 4/4 beat, you would strum down on the 1-2-3-4.
In a reggae strumming pattern you would strum down in between the usual 1-2-3-4.
So if I wrote it like this: 1 and 2 and 3 and 4, you would down stroke on the “and”.

Ok, so now for something a little more involved.
There are lots of ways of getting a great reggae sound, here we’re going to look at using an acoustic guitar. Percussive strumming is the method of using the body of the guitar as a background beat to whatever you are playing. Percussive strumming done well, can sound fantastic, but will require a fair bit of practice.

The trick with percussive strumming is to work the percussion between the down strokes of the reggae strumming pattern.
Concentrate your efforts on getting the strum pattern right first, then slowly add whatever sounds right and fits.

There are no set patterns or rules to this kind of strumming, it’s an individual, freestyle thing. Go with whatever you want.

That’s the great thing about reggae, once you have mastered the “off beat“, nothing is set is stone, and you can go wherever it takes you.

Good luck!