I’m having a really hard time with strumming accuracy. And I do realize that’s normal, especially as early on as I am. However, I’m kind of lost as to how to help myself with it. I can successfully strum a whole note…. Usually. But once I move to half or less, I’m a disaster. I’ve been “practicing” with an E chord since it’s a simple shape and hits all strings. I find if I move past whole notes I’ll either miss the low E string or the G B E on the other end. I’ve watched the strumming mechanics video countless times and I just can’t seem to connect the pick to all the strings. It’s driving me crazy. Do I just keep doing whole notes of the various chords until I can successfully bump it to 1/2, 1/4 or dare I even say 1/8? Obviously stopping at each until I can competently do it.
Are there any practices ideas for mechanics alone? If I look anything up, it’s all about strumming patterns and string picking. I’m not ready for patterns! I just wanna hit the strings! At this point I’ve started to avoid strumming, because I don’t want to continuously practice the wrong thing and hammer home the wrong muscle memory.
This might be my breaking point for 1 on 1 lessons. I’m trying to avoid that as I’m awkward/ anxious and try to avoid real time interactions with people as much as possible.
The first thing you should do, is to slow it down. Like REALLY down, so you have time to concentrate on what you are doing and to consciously strum all strings you need to strum, just down strums. Then slowly speed up, maybe 5 bpm at a time. I would also recommend to start with just strumming all the strings, without fretting any chord, just strum the strings (mute them by putting your fretting hand over them or the sound will probably annoy you). This way you have only one thing to think about and focus on. Do this for a couple of minutes each practice session. You will get there.
Once you can decently strum all six strings without fretting, there are two ways to go:
Add a chord. E is indeed a good one as it involves strumming all strings. Slow down again if needed and work your way up again.
Work on strumming only strings 1 to 5. Slow down if needed, then speed up again. All well? Start fretting the A chord.
What kind of tempo are you working with when you are talking about whole notes and half notes and whatnot?
I will reiterate slowing down. If you need to work at 20bpm before you get it, then work at 20bpm until you are consistently getting it, then slowly increase the tempo.
Keep your hand as close as possible to the strings. You will be more accurate if the hand has minimal movement. Keep your forearm in contact with the body of the guitar also to minimize movement. The strumming action comes from a flick of the wrist not from moving the whole arm.
A practice exercise with any chord is to pick the base note first then strum the entire chord. Just helps you to single out the first string you need to hit. Also is a strumming pattern used in a lot of songs.
My strumming sounded awful to start with as well but slow it down and follow Justin’s advice and it will work. Loads of good advice above. Don’t give up.
There are lots of ways to strum, from only using the wrist to only using the arm. None of them are really wrong, but Justin teaches only moving the arm at the beginning.
Just not to confuse beginners too much.
Jeremiah, in addition to the suggestion to slow things down as you develop the skills, I would suggest check your posture, how you hold the guitar, and position your strumming arm.
It can also be useful to make some video recordings with your phone to share and get some feedback which may pick up things to work on that you are not aware of.