Strumming

Okay, so right now you have lots of chords to play with. What about strumming then? I'll focus on strumming for now :)

Although it is possible to strum with your thumb, but the best tone for straight-on rhythm playing is produced by using a pick, or plectrum.

The coin doesn't count...

These small pieces of plastic are held between your thumb and forefinger (don't use your second finger because you might want to pluck a string with it at the same time as holding the pick). Picks come in various shapes and thicknesses. For acoustic strumming a thin one is easiest to begin with and might give the best tone for jangly but not-too aggressive rhythm playing. Thick picks put up more resistance against the strings and take a little more effort, while also inducing a little more volume.

The essence if good strumming can be summarized as follows:

• evenness of tone
• avoiding bass strings that are not meant to be hit
• the ability to strum up and down with equal facility
• controlling the volume
• keeping steady time

It also means knowing when and how to leave out strums.

As you can see there are arrows on top of the notes. Follow them. "Up" arrow means strum upwards and "Down" arrow means strum downwards.

The picture above is to help us to get started in strumming. To practice, do these following:

1. Hold down any chord. Maybe you can start from holding down an E Major chord. Or C Major. Anything that is comfortable for you.
2. Tap your foot, count to yourself, or get a metronome (if you have one, use it. If you don't you can check out the right side of this blog, or any other online metronome).
3. Set the metronome going at a medium tempo (around 80 to 90 bpm).

This exercise is in 4/4, which means four beats to each bar. Strum downwards every other beat, then on each beat, then twice on each beat (8ths or quavers), then four times on each beat (16ths or semi-quavers). Depending on how fast or slow you're going you may find that strumming twice or four times to a beat is too difficult just going downwards. The answer is to strum down and up.

The picture above shows different styles if strumming pattern. Of course there are A LOT of different patterns. But you can start from this.

This exercise gives nine strumming patterns. The first is a strum in straight 8ths. Notice how with each example some strums are taken away; the chord is allowed to ring. The rule is: the faster the tempo the longer a gap you can leave. With IV there is the introduction of a "tie". This is the line joining the 5th quaver to the 4th. A tie means you strike the first of the joined pair but not the second. Instead, the first lasts for the length of time of both notes. In any song you could use any one or a mixture of strumming patterns. Your choice will depend on mood, tempo and "groove".

Some extra tip:

To learn how to let loose of your hand while strumming, you can do this...

After washing your hand, hold an "imaginary" pick. Dry your hand. Not using any towel or blow dryer. Like how we "fling" our hand.

We tried this method beforehand, and it works!

Some of these materials are from the book Guitar.