Hello from New York!
Thanks to Justin, I have been getting the hang of strumming the correct strings on the A and D chord. I realized recently that I can mute the low E string for the A chord with my thumb. Should I make this muting technique a habit or practice my strumming accuracy?
Thanks a bunch!
Hi Remus welcome to the community.
Its not actually a bad habit and you will come to rely on it in time. But not just yet ! When you are starting out it is important to develop hand and finger strength and picking accuracy. This is why Justin teaches you to place you thumb at the back of the neck. This builds your hand strength but also forces you to hit the right strings and after a while that become such a natural action you wonât think about it.
Great youâve discovered this but keep it in your back pocket for now. It will get pulled out soon enough !
Cheers
Toby
Will do. Thanks for replying!
So Im not the only one not doing a good job of hitting only the correct strings when strumming.
I have a fear that if I donât master strumming the correct strings now, I will establish a bad habit that will be hard to correct later. This also goes for sloppy chord positioning. I am a little unsure about moving on to the next lesson, and adding new chords and strumming patterns when I am not very good at strumming the right strings and my positioning isnât always perfect when playing along with the practice songs.
Hey! I donât know how long you have been practicing for, but strumming the correct strings will become easier as you progress. As long as you know the chords well enough (not perfectly), can change between chords at least 30 times, and play one song with the chords you should move on.
The later modules will still have you practice some of what you learned previously, so no need to have strumming perfect now.
Have fun!
Gotcha! Thanks for the reminder. This is just the end of my 2nd week! Itâs tough out here for us perfectionists!
Two weeks is no time at all. Diligently practice ensuring you hit the correct strings and see how youâre doing in 2 months.
Love how in previous lesson on Bars & Strumming I left with the sole question of âok but I keep hitting the extra string, is that ok?â and next vid autoplayed on exactly this topic. Great ordering.
You didnât explain how to strum only the correct strings at allâŚ
Hello @UnknownGhost5 and welcome to JustinGuitar and the community.
Justin explains that this is / will be an important skill which will be the centre of focus and dedicated learning further down the line. The main aspect to trying to hit the correct strings is not swinging your arm in too big an arc and watching what your strumming arm is doing.
I hope that helps.
Cheers 
| Richard | JustinGuitar Approved Teacher, Official Guide & Moderator
Whats difficult is trying to the correct strings without the extending of your neck, ill rather avoid having to see an osteopath even though my neck is abnormal. But it is truly hard not being able to see the strings your strumming so does one learn to feel what the string feels like?
Thatâs part of it. I found it helpful to distinguish the wound strings - E, A, D, G on acoustic - by touch.
Also, feeling the frets against your fingers, as Justin explains in one of his videos.
I also found it useful to mentally picture the chords before playing them.
that seems extremely difficult for any beginner I would think, but Ill consider that.
I have found it useful to simply try plucking individual open strings as an exercise so that my strumming hand can learn where a strum for an A or D for example should start from compared to my default all strings strum position.
Something like picking the 6th string 3 times, dropping down to 5th 3 times etc. Then coming back up in reverse. Having done that a few times I then go 6-4-2 and back up, switch to 5 3 1 and back up. All down picking and making sure itâs coming from forearm action rather than just the wrist.
Oh, and like everything guitar itâs just time and patience. Itâs not until you stick with something for a while and then look back that you can see how far youâve come with it.
Like sweep picking but not really?
Not sweep picking, each pick stands alone.