I know this has been covered, but i am having a difficult time moving my hand and not strumming strings. What is the best practice resource for learning to keep hand moving in time when not actually strumming???
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Hi there TenorLee, Look I’m certainly no expert, as I am only nearly 12 months in from a “Justin” subscription. The way I did it (not saying this is the best way) but try moving your hand in sync with your foot. So tap your foot to the beat, then when your foot comes up, that when your hand comes up, and so on when moving down.
Hope that helps!
Lee, there is Justin’s strumming course that consolidates many of the strumming learning spread over the grades into a single course, which may make it easier to focus in on strumming.
That said, I don’t think there is any specific resource or trick to this, it just takes practice. So be patient with yourself and aim for regular practice. Foot-tapping may help and I’d encourage using a metronome. You could start with 4 down strums, get into a groove, and then skip one. If you can spend some time on this every day, then over time you will master it.
Hello Lee, I think the best you can do at the moment is to slow things down as much as needed. Every time you learn a new technique, your brain needs a considerable amount of time to process the information, so that your hand is finally able to do what you want from it.
In the beginning, you will have to concentrate a lot on this new task. But over time and with practice you’ll get better and better at it. Then you can speed it up, and it will soon be quite a natural thing to do 
.
I wrote a topic geared towards strumming and counting to a backing track. It has much relevance to the issue you are facing so check it out here: Counting and keeping time when playing to a backing track
Hi. Have you checked this lesson?
I had some issues with strumming when I first started out, and I did a lot of strumming practice with completely muted strings, so I could focus only on the strumming. I always started with 4 downstrokes, and slowly worked my way from there, one by one. Let me give you an example:
D-D-D-D
1 2 3 4
The thing with this is, you’re already not playing all the upstrokes. If you have trouble with it, just stay here for a while. I did, and regularly do still when I’m learning other things for a song.
D-D-U-D-U-D
1 2 + 3 + 4
Maybe thinking of it more like adding in upstrokes instead of substracting them will help?
D-D-U- -U-D [Old Faithful]
1 2 + (3) + 4
If this is difficult, try this first:
D-D- -D
1 2 (3) 4
I practiced each step on its own with my fretting hand just peacefully muting all strings so I idn’t have to think about chords, and I counted out loud as well, which helped me immensely. And I would start veeeery slowly, like, really slowly, and get faster only when I felt I got it (somewhat). Playing in front of a mirror, or recording myself also helped, to see if my hand was moving like it should.
At that point, I would use a metronome sometimes (it helped when I found one that clearly marked the 1), and sometimes I would strum along to the original without the chords when I got one of the steps fast enough. It really does feel like you’re playing the song like this, at least it did for me, especially when I was walking around at the same time, or swaying with the beat, or pretending I was playing the song for a loved one sitting there.
I think the main thing is making yourself relax, especially your strumming hand and shoulder, however you achieve that for yourself.
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Keeping your hand moving in time is all about building that muscle memory! A great way to practice is by muting all the strings with your fretting hand and focusing solely on the motion of your strumming hand. Use a metronome or play along with a simple track to keep the rhythm steady. You can also try air strumming—pretend you’re strumming without touching the strings to get used to the movement.