Subject: Start Strumming Today
You are getting this e-mail because you subscribed to it on www.learn-to-play-rock-guitar.com. If you don't want to receive these e-mails any longer, go to the bottom of this message and click on "unsubscribe." Hey there Friend, When I meet with new students, strumming guitar is often one of the main goals listed that people want to learn. I've seen this with my private and group students, and I've seen it requested quite a bit in my surveys to web visitors. What I want to do today is take a little mystery out of the act of strumming guitar. When I'm done, hopefully it won't seem as complicated as we sometimes make it.When you think about basic strumming, there really isn't much to it. There's a downward strum, and an upward strum. You can do these motions at any speed you want (or whatever speed the song calls for). The only thing left is choosing whether or not to scrape the strings on the down and/or the up strokes. Too simplistic? Well it really is that simple. The challenge comes with the last part of the equation - deciding when - and when NOT - to scrape the strings with your pick (plectrum) or fingers. This is where all the magic happens in a strum pattern - magic that can make or break a song. When it comes to capturing that magic, you need to take a step back and first get some grounding in the fundamentals of strumming. You use very simple (boring?) patterns to make your timing solid, that is, strumming on the beat and maintaining a consistent rhythm. What's that - you think you don't have a good sense of rhythm? Nope, I'm not buying it. You have a heartbeat, and on average, that beat stays pretty consistent. We are surrounded by natural rhythms - you just have to become better tuned-in to them. The Basics OK, let's talk a little about the basics of strumming. Strumming motion comes primarily from your elbow joint, not your wrist. When you strum your guitar, you will want your hand, wrist and forearm to work as a unit. For the most part, there will be very little movement in your wrist - the act of strumming down and up should be controlled in your elbow joint. Where the wrist comes into play is with the small, adjusting movements for the individual strums - not wildly flailing up and down like a fish out of water! Your fingers will also move a bit to adjust for pick angles and articulation in the strums, but these are more advanced ideas that can be added as you get more comfortable with basic strumming. Now let me be clear - nothing is absolute when you play guitar. There are no natural laws saying that you ALWAYS do something one way. Every player will have variations on techniques and styles, and this definitely applies to strumming. Just remember I'm laying out the general approach to strumming - feel free to spice it up however you want AFTER you get the basics down. OK, back to it... For now, let's just focus on keeping the forearm, wrist and hand fairly rigid. Think of it like straight piece of wood with a hinge on one end that allows the up and down movement (the elbow) and a pick on the other end (your hand). If you can imagine your arm like that and work the basic strums from your elbow, you'll be in a good place to start. An Exercise To start creating a solid right hand (or left for you Southpaws) for strumming, begin with four downward strums per measure (or bar). Set your metronome (if you don't have one there are free metronomes online, or apps for your smartphone) to 60 BPM. Pick your favorite chord and fret that bad boy. Hold your pick firmly and give the strings a strum on each beat, moving your entire forearm from your elbow, not your wrist. Your primary goal is to strum the strings on each quarter note beat - not before or after, but right on the beat. Why do I have you start so slowly? Because its actually more difficult to remain consistent with your timing when the tempo is slow than it is when the speed is faster. By starting slowly, you can quickly improve your timing and control over your strumming hand. This locks you in with the beat and really tightens up your playing overall. Practice the quarter note strums for a couple minutes. Now, keeping the same tempo (60 BPM with a meter of 4, which means quarter notes), change your metronome setting to have eighth note clicks (you change this by increasing the subdivision setting to '2'). You will do a series of eight,even strums in a down / up pattern. By 'even' I mean each down / up strum should be evenly spaced so that your hand is back in position for the next down strum. Start your metronome and practice smooth and consistent down / up strums, keeping in time with the metronome. Focus on ensuring your strums are "dead on" the metronome clicks. Do this for a couple minutes. The Magic Here's where you add in a little magic. Now that your arm is acclimated to the consistent strumming pattern, pick one down or up strum from the measure and omit it. For example, select the second up strum from the pattern and leave it out of the next measure. In other words, when you get to this up strum, simple DON'T strum the strings as your arm comes up. Play a few measures of this pattern and listen to it as you play. Leaving out one strum changes the movement of the music. Now, instead of non-stop strums, there's a break in the rhythm that changes the feel of forward motion. This is a very basic demonstration of how strum patterns are created for a song, but you now have a basic building block to work with in improving your strumming skills. Again, simply do a basic down / up strum pattern to eighth notes and then remove some of the strums to come up with different sounding patterns. Experiment with dropping different strums. Soon you'll start being able to hear the individual strums in songs - you'll be able to analyze the strum patterns and start working them into your playing. Yes, there is more to strumming than this quick example, but to begin building your ability you don't need complicated. You need slow and simple. Give this exercise a try and I think you'll soon hear yourself strumming along to your favorite songs. Peace~ Dave Dave "Eddie" Vance is a rock guitar enthusiast and gear nut. He has been playing guitar for over 30 years and enjoys tormenting the neighbors every chance he gets. When he's not slaving for the man, you can find him rocking out with his B.C. Rich Bich guitar, a cold beer and some sweet tunes. He also runs Learn-To-Play-Rock-Guitar.com, but you knew that already! Follow Learn To Play Rock Guitar:I welcome your feedback! Did you like today's message? What other topics would you like to see covered in my e-mails? Please let me know at: dave@learn-to-play-rock-guitar.com As always, please feel free to forward this email to a friend! I review products before recommending them. If you buy a product based on my recommendation, I will receive a commission. However, my emails also contain links that don’t require any investment on your part and are jam-packed with "juicy, guitar learnin' tastiness". We don't rent or share your name with anybody. Feel free to forward this issue to any friends you think would enjoy its contents. They will thank you. So will I.
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