Hello, my name is Austin and I have been playing the guitar for about eight or nine months, I've caught on really quickly spending just about all day on my acoustic or electric from the time I get home from school until I go to sleep.
But one thing that I have never really figured out is if picking (strumming?) upwards is bad, take F.C.P.R.E.M.I.X by The Fall of Troy for example. I can do just fine with the whole song picking upwards for every individual string, but would it be more... "correct", to pick downwards? The only excuse I could ever come up with as to why I pick upwards is because I am left handed, and maybe I do things backwards by habit?
yeah, unless you are really good at picking like that, unless youve practiced alot a downstroke sounds much different than an upstroke, especially with chords, though, alot of tablature and such will tell you if its ^ or v
just practice practice practice :D
It took me awhile to get up picking, basically I just played the major pentatonic scale over and over with just up picking,
and now either way sounds identical.
:D
mostly, it just depends on the song.
e--------------------9--12--16--12--9-----------------------
B---------------10-----------------------10-------------------
G----------11---------------------------------11-------------
D---9h12------------------------------------------12--7~~---
ZOMG
You said you are a lefty. Are you playing a right handed guitar? That can have an influence on how you are playing. The fact that you are comfortable using upstrokes is a good thing. A majority of people usually have some difficulty with that. However, you are going to need to learn how to strum or pick in both directions. This will help you become a well rounded guitarist.
Each chord will have a different sound based on the direction in which you strum. Being able to stum in both directions will be esential to playing music and will open a world of sound to your own music. "Why do I need to use downstrokes?" Good Question. I addition to the above, chords are based on a root note. Take the G chord for example. Starting with the 6th string and strumming downward you have 320003. The basic 3 notes used are G, B and G to make the triad.
The bass note, G identifies the chord and establishes the tone for the chord. The highest note is also a G. But strumming this chord from the 1st string to the last will give it a very distinctive, different sound. This is not to say that it is incorrect to play the chord in that manner but by using the downstroks you are establishing the bass note fisrt and allowing for the rest of the chord to compliment it.
As mentioned, you should practice by using alternate picking as well.
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