How To Strum Without A Pick

Why is this lesson 17 MINUETS long you are kidding me right he literally said there wouldn’t be anything longer then 5 minutes

Hello @SportGuitar15 , and welcome to the forum! Justin takes the time necessary to explain things clearly - that’s not always possible in 5 min, so you will encounter a lot of lessons that are longer than that.

I don’t remember Justin saying that lessons wouldn’t be more than 5 min, and since most are in fact longer, I’m pretty sure my memory serves me right. What he did say, is that it’s a good idea to limit technique exercises to max 5 min each and build practice sessions from those different blocks of max 5min. If you look at the ready made practice sessions Justin provides at the end of each module, you will find that these contain indeed a number of technique exercises of 5 min max and, a 10 min song practice for fun.

Have fun!

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Hi Ronnie and welcome to the Community.

Els is quite right in that Justin is referring to recommended practice unit being a maximum of 5 minutes long. That is the time of intense focused practice. I’ve been learning with Justin for over a decade and not once in that time has he commented on the maximum length of a lesson.

You will find many lessons of varying length throughout your guitar journey and lots of additional text information on the website. Study it well and you’ll reap the benefits in time.

Just enjoyed the ride.

:sunglasses:

What works for me is using the middle fingers nail for the down strum and the nail of the thumb for the up strum.

I do like the sound of finger style, however, I prefer to use a pick as my goal is to play electric guitar. At the momento, I have a steel-stringed acoustic. Any tips on changing chords fluidly? I’m having a bit of trouble with it.

This lesson can really get deep. Playing without a pick can also be about preferences. I visited this lesson to just give it a go even though I can already strum with my hands. With all the tips justin give in this lesson, nothing really feels right to me, except doing what feels comfortable to me already and what feels right, I think focusing more on doing what is taught perfectly will take you out of the bigger picture, and it’s about observing yourself as Justin mentioned, I never had access to this lesson before I found my own way of strumming with my hands and Im glad that everything that Justin mentioned at the last part of the video, puts me back in time when I was just starting out, you will eventually find a way that perfectly suits you and I just love how justin will always mention when he teaches that their is no right or wrong in doing this stuffs and that would actually give you an advantage to explore your own unique way of doing this techniques without the hassle of being uncomfortable of following what others tells you to do. Well It’s still a good thing at first to give it a try but if nothing seems to work for you, then focusing more on what actually matters is the way to go, just let your fingers strum without thinking too much and observe as you do it. I discovered that combining my index and thumb to strum actually works better for me where I strum down with my index and strum up with my thumb and the motion comes both from my arm and both fingers. This way I strum more comfortably without being too concern my strumming hand to mess up. Hope this helps others with their journey of strumming without a pick. :slight_smile:

Hello Arroun, welcome to the Community! Consider heading over here and introducing yourself to the wider group. :smiling_face:

Justin will address just this - in Lesson 1 or 2 of Grade 1 if I recall!