5 instant fixes to help you with your strumming
Are you trying the sound of your strumming and it just isn’t sounding right?
Are you getting frustrated at how it doesn’t feel natural to you when you are strumming? It doesn’t come across as effortless like other guitar players you see?
Lots of beginner guitar players struggle with their strumming. Whether it’s trying to get their chords to change fast enough, or the strumming technique itself needs improvements.
Today, we are going to focus on a few things that a lot of beginner guitar players experience in their picking hand (for most people, that would be your right hand, if you are right handed.) And how you can improve your technique, so that your strumming improves too.
1. Playing all the strings all the time.
A lot of beginners will play all the strings all the time. Especially when they forget for some chords, you don’t want to play certain strings.
On top of this, you can improve the melodic sound of your playing by strumming different strings on different beats.
For example:
For the first beat of the bar, focus on strumming your bass notes and then for the other beats, strum the higher strings for a more melodic sound.
Doing this well will instantly make your guitar playing sound more professional.
If you would like a video example of this:
2. Not being relaxed enough when strumming.
When you are strumming, you want to keep yourself nice and relaxed. If you are too stiff, you will end up sounding like a mechanical robot.
It also makes it much harder for you to play when you are tense. If you want to come across as effortless, the number 1 thing you need to do is relax.
Just like riding on a bicycle is hard when the wheels are all rusty. So if strumming if you have tension through your shoulders, arms and hand too.
3. Making sure you’ve got a good angle for your pick
When you first start on the guitar, it’s very common to hold the pick parallel to the strings.
What you want is to have the pick slightly angled, so that when you strum through the strings. There is less resistance.
Which brings me onto the next point:
4. Pick is too deep within the strings themselves
It’s hard to know in the beginning, what’s the correct way of holding your pick.
Besides making sure that your pick is at a slight angle when you strum.
The other way to make sure you have the right amount of resistance when strumming is making sure the pick isn’t too far into the strings.
If it is, like the pick angle. It creates extra resistance and can pick your strumming sound stiff.
Make sure your pick is shallow enough that it strums through easily.
5. Moving your forearm
When you strum, keep your wrist loose and move your forearm up and down. Just like a swing. Keep your forearm straight and don’t twist your arm.
I hope these 5 tips help you to improve your strumming and make your playing seem more effortlessly. Remember playing the guitar isn’t something we were evolved to do, so it does take practice to get it to seem effortlessly.
Keep persisting and you will get there.
About author:
Guitar Tuition East London helps provide beginner guitar lessons in London. Including acoustic and electric guitar players to improve their guitar playing. They make lessons fun and interesting with lots of variety. To help students stay motivated about learning the guitar.
