I'm having problems with strumming. I'll see a song and have no problems switching chords and everything but I just can't figure out how to strum. Even when I listen to the song a bunch of times to try and figure it out, i find it doesn't help all that much. Does anybody have any tips on how to improve strumming. For example, I was looking at jumper by third eye blind recently and I just couldn't figure it out - i couldn't even get it close.
It took me a while to get them down too. Eventually came to me.
Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin
Here is to you as good as you are
And here is to me as bad as I am
As good as you are and as bad as I am
I'm as good as you are as bad as I am
there are a few thread in this forum regarding the same topic. If you serach them you could find several excellent advices that could help you. In a nut my advice is to learn a few basic patterns for different kind of beat resolutions and then try to use one of them to play the song you'd like. if your goal is to play note for note like the original recording you must check a music sheet, but if you want to play your version of the song (of course close enough to the original to let it be recognizable by casual listeners), what really matters is to use a pattern that has the same beat resolution of the song you would like to play. I mean a song like "Horse with no name" is based on eight notes (no more than two notes per beat) so every pattern including eight notes, even the simple du/du/du/du, will work absolutely fine until you play it at the right speed with the proper chord changes. If you take i.e. "Hotel california" it is based on 16th notes so to play it properly, you have to use a pattern including sixteen notes (up to four notes per beat): you could choose any sixteen pattern you'd like and it still will work.
Of course it is not an easy process and it could take some time: first you have to learn very well a few patterns so well (maybe playing along a tutorial cd) that you could instantly recognize just by listening to the song if the song pattern's is similar to the ones you know. Once you've learned to play the song with a basic pattern you could, if you wish, try some other patterns more and more similar to the original one
Also don't forget that many time sit is not the pattern in itself that it is difficult but the effects that they use in the original recording (i.e. palm muting could change a lot the perception you have of the pattern)
Matteo
when you dont have a guitar in hand try singing the verses.
then with your strumming hand practice by strumming the air or the side of your leg as if you were holding a guitar.
think about the words. chord changes usually occur there. they signal an emphasis which is a hint as to up strum down strum hard strum soft strum.
Im talking about getting the feel of the sing.
it simply is applying rythm.
dont get hung up on clonign a strum.
make the song yours!
Try getting the rhythm in your mind.Listen to some country song , that may help as they are primarily strummed on guitar.
Good Luck.
Reardon
I did a lesson on here - Beginners Guide to Strumming. Search the site for it, you're purpose made for it!
let me know how you get on please
Matt
Problems with strumming at least for me is two fold...technic and patterns. With patterns I can do them if its not a song, but when I apply them songs I often get confused where the pattern ends and begins again with the chord changes. The technique problem bothers me because I want to find a technique that will let me change from strumming to picking or muting. Often I find strumming with just a little of the pick showing and keeping my whole hand parallel to the strings makes that easier.....BUT I strum better with more pick showing and my hand arched upward more.....any thoughts about this would be appreciated if understood
when I play I vary where and how I hold my pick and hand posture.
showing alot of pick and arching the hand as you wrote in the last part makes sense. having more pick showing is good for diving in between the strings for flat picking.
showing little pick is cool becasue the thumb often brushes the string; if done right you get a pinch harmonic.
sometimes I have a tight grip on the pick sometimes it is a light touch; that helps when featherig the strings for a 'dainty' part of a song.
really try to vary your techniques. one will be better over another for a particular song or feeling or style.
one technique is too limiting.
think organically.
what may appear asa pattern in the song may not be true.
we are all built differntly. you'll never want to be a clone picker. it would be impossible.
strumming is no ddifferent thatn shaking your hand.
shake on the beat. shake off the beat. same with strumming.
I have noticed that some players are on the beat players and others are off the beat.
Keith Richardsis an off the beat or 'late' player. its cool. I am a late or off beat player.
relax. and dont restrict yourself to a pattern. and let your hand and pick change. it makes a difference.
Dogbite, thanks thats the kind of thinking that makes sense to me. I should practice all different ways. Some songs I like patterns other I don't and my should be able to adjust
