Interesting. Your method is opposite of what (little) I’ve seen which is angling the pick down (nut-side lower), but when I tried your method, it appears my wrist is in a more natural position, rather than tilted down. I’m gonna give it a try… thanks!
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Nut side angled down is also what Justin teaches in his course. But I guess as with a lot of things, it’s not a case of (absolutely) right or wrong - the main thing is you need to angle the pick to make it slide smoothly over the strings.
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I rewatched Justin’s Strumming SOS video about how to hold the pick and you’re right, he does teach NSD (nut-side down). Maybe it’s just a comfort/personal preference thing?
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It is just a preference/comfort thing, but the vast majority of players angle the pick down towards the nut.
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I often tried, but I do not angle my pick, because I do not get it to sound better, in the contrary the sound is more scratchy. I have no idea what I am doing wrong.
I made a video, but am not sure that I capture the problem accurately enough. I made alternately two strokes straight and two angled. Maybe someone has an idea what I am doing wrong?
(The pick is a Tortex Dunlop 50mm)
Hi @kaiben,
Thanks for the video! that helps a lot.
I notice that you are moving across the string diagonally. This is part of what is causing the “scratchy” zipper noise. Try to move more perpendicular and it will help a lot.
the other thing I see is that once you gain confidence to strum more quickly, it will also help. This will come with practice.
Your pick angle is a bit straight. this is not generating the scratch, but is probably holding you back from strumming confidently. You will want to angle the pick a little more so it can move across the strings without catching as hard. this will help you to hold the pick in place and it won’t spin quite so easily in your fingers.
Take a look at the some of the comments from this thread, both above and below my linked comment. Richard has a nice diagram. Getting the angles figured out is what will get you moving along and strumming with confidence.
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Hi @sequences,
thank you for your hint. Yes, I am moving diagonally over the strings and maybe it’s a bit less scratchy when moving perpendicular, but the arm movement feels strange.
A while ago I started to hold the guitar more diagonally, with the headstock up, because so I can better fret the chords with less problems in my wrist. Especially when fretting the F chord. If I hold the guitar this way and do my strumming movements from the elbow, I naturally am strumming diagonally. Is this a bad habit? I was quite glad that I found a way to reduce my wrist problems…
Hi @kaiben
What you describe sounds like you are in a “classical position”. it does relieve the strain on the wrist but I agree it feels a little odd for strumming angle.
Experiment with how your strumming arm is positioned across the guitar and how you are holding your shoulder. You may find a comfortable position with a little adjustment.
I would say no. The natural rotation of your elbow joint down through your arm, wrist, hand and fingers creates a curved arc through which your pick will strike the strings. That necessarily means that first contact on a Down strum will hit the thickest string slightly further away from the bridge / closer to the neck than the last contact, which will strike the thinnest string marginally closer to the bridge as the strum emerges and exits.
The scraping issue in your video is a speed related issue. You are not picking with any pace, more of a stumble across the strings. That is not how you actually strum in real life contexts of playing strumming patterns and songs. At tempo you should not hear any such scraping.
Thank you Richard, I will investigate if the scraping vanishes on faster strumming.