Hi everyone, welcome to the lesson on strumming...
Many people find strumming quite difficult, and a lot of beginner/intermediate guitar players find themselves not sounding very groovy. So, this lesson should hopefully help a lot of people out...
Here's the thing to remember:
Strumming is all about rhythm - it’s almost like playing a drum on your guitar.
If you get lost focusing on down strums and up strums, come back and remind yourself of this - when strumming you need to keep the rhythm of the song in mind at all times.
Now, how to actually do it:
You need to keep your arm swinging down and up constantly, like a pendulum. When you swing, you need a loose wrist: it's a bit like flicking water off your fingers.
It sounds easy, but you need to practice this so it becomes second nature, like alternating between your left and right feet when walking. Which brings us to...
EXERCISE #1:
Mute your strings with your left hand (lightly touch them down nearish the nut).
Now try strumming down then up, over and over. Focus on keeping an even rhythm, and on your loose wrist.
My advice is this: don't skip this exercise. It will train your arm and wrist to swing naturally back and forth, which is the entire key to strumming properly. Do it a lot over a few days if you're starting out. You can do it watching TV if you get bored.
Now, you need to start making some more interesting rhythms. This will involve continuing to swing your arm evenly, but occasionally missing the strings. This is known as 'ghosting'. You can ghost down strums and up strums, and this requires practice...
EXERCISE #2:
Mute your strings again.
(a) Now try strumming down, down, down, over and over. Notice that you are automatically ghosting your up strums.
(b) Now try strumming up, up, up, over and over (this will be harder). Notice that you are automatically ghosting your down strums.
Focus on keeping an even rhythm, and on your loose wrist.
You may feel that these exercises are stupidly simple, but we're only getting started, and you need to be comfortable with the basic mechanics before we can go further.
Next part shortly...
James