Learning how to strum a guitar correctly is one of the most important skills for any guitarist. In this article, you will learn how to use your dominant hand to properly strum a guitar. This will ensure efficiency in your training, reduce your risk of injury, and help you progress faster.
Contents
What Is Strumming?
In music, strumming is a way of playing a stringed instrument such as a guitar, ukulele, or mandolin. A strum or stroke is a sweeping action where a finger, a plectrum/ pick, or the back of fingernails brushes over the strings to generate sound. A strum can be slow, fast, hard, gentle, or any of the infinite shadings in between.
Use A Pick/ Plectrum
We recommend using a pick/ plectrum to strum the guitar. If there is no pick, you can use your thumb and index finger to play.
How to hold a guitar pick
The most basic way to hold a pick is to put it on the outer edge of the index finger so that the tip of the pick points toward your palm and the index doesn’t poke out. Gently put your thumb on the pick and hold it in the most natural way possible. Try different ways and choose the one that you feel most comfortable with.
Pick angle
Most guitar players point their guitar pick down toward the floor while playing, others put the pick parallel to the strings, and a few tend to point the pick-up. The angle you choose doesn’t matter, as long as you take the time to experiment with them and choose the one you like best.
How To Strum A Guitar
- Tips for you:
Relax! If you get stressed, not only will your playing won’t work, but you could end up injuring yourself. If you feel any pressure from your shoulder while playing, stop, relax, and start over.
Basic guitar strumming technique
A habit that many beginning guitarists often do is lock their wrists and play with just their elbows, which can be the cause of tension in the shoulder. When playing the guitar, most of the movement should come from the wrists, but the elbows also move.
Downstrokes
We’ll start with the downstrokes technique, if you don’t know any chords it’s okay. Just mute the strings by lightly putting your left hand (if you are playing with your right hand) on the strings of the neck. Practice strumming or stroking down all 6 strings. Do this many times until you feel comfortable.
Upstrokes
When you are comfortable with downstrokes, it’s the right time to learn how to play upstrokes. Strum or brush across the strings from the bottom up. Guitar beginners often think they need to hit all the strings, but that’s not really true. Just hitting 3 or 5 strings is perfectly fine, and will help you shape your own guitar-playing style.
Combine down and up
Once you have no longer had any trouble implementing the two separate fundamental techniques, you’ll want to combine them. Try alternating the up and down strokes, and again, if you don’t already know a chord, just mute the strings with the other hand.
Adjust the pick
A lot of guitar beginners have trouble holding the pick firmly when they strum, and it often flies out of their hands. See how tight you need to hold the pick: tight enough not to fall out of your hand, but not too tight to limit hand fatigue too quickly. You need to constantly make small adjustments to your pick, as the pick will always move a bit as you continuously strum.
Above is how to properly strum a guitar and a few strumming tips for guitar beginners. Practice hard and your skills will improve.
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