I used to be pretty upset when I got a chord wrong when strumming on the one. The thing is, I can get chords right most of the time when doing chord perfect, but less often when doing 1 minute changes. I was always stressed out when playing songs, but I feel like strumming patterns helped me at least somewhat get over it. Personally, they make the experience a whole lot enjoyable for me.
It’s really true, as long as your strumming is consistent, chord mistakes are less noticeable as opposed to the other way round. So keep practicing
It really depends on how good your rhythm is. If you’re new to rhythm it can help to count all the ands. That will help you from getting off of the beat. Just put an emphasis on the strumming one, say it louder while muttering the other ands.
E.g. for D D U D D
You would count: “ONE and TWO AND THREE and FOUR and …”.
Once your rhythm and timing is fine it would be normal to just not say what you’re not strumming.
“one … two and three …four”, as you say.
[mod edit - I have changed all strummed counts to upper case in the example above so the only lower case counts are those not strummed]
It has to happen and does so subconsciously.
Note, on upstrums you do not need to think of striking all six strings. Two or three or four is usually fine.
Hi, should tip of pick be barely visible(on reddit it says chocking up on pick) while holding pick and strumming ?, because when I do it that way and strum it sound loud not harsh, but if I hold the pick such I am holding pick at back, with tip of pick and some area visible, it sound soft and is most comfortable for me. I just want to develop a bad habit.
Nishikant @JaxTeller
As a beginner Justin recommends using a 0.36 or 0.48 nylon pick with about 1cm showing for strumming.
By the way welcome to the community
Michael
Is it normal to be missing either your downstrums or upstrums while strumming? Like at time when I strum, the pick doesn’t make contact with the strings and I miss the strum, and also it time it happens the other way around where I hit the strings when I am not supposed to:/
Hi Alan, @alan_almeida
That’s completely normal that it happens in the beginning … we’ve all had that (sometimes I still have it after more than 3 years)…keep practicing.
Welcome here and I wish you a lot of fun and perseverance
Greetings,Rogier
Craig @moose408
I am afraid it is a very common problem for beginners, I certainly suffered from it and still do to a certain extent. One option is to use picks with texture, Dunlop maxi grips are one type but I think the thinnest is 0.6 not ideal for beginners.
Justin has a lesson later on on pick manipulation, How to Use a Pick When Strumming - My Own Experience! - YouTube in grade 2, which may help but you will find as time goes on you get better control of the pick and can hold it lighter.
Unfortunately it is a like a lot of things with a guitar, you just have to work through it.
Hope this helps.
First of all, thank you very much for your help and guidance! It’s been a while since I am practicing strumming. Oftentimes, my pick is rotating in an anti-clockwise direction while practicing up/down strumming patterns. If I try to hold the pick more firmly, it makes my arm feel like a robot and messes up my rhythm.
Any guidance on why this may be happening and how I can fix it will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
That can be a part of the problem. Loosen your grip. It may still rotate a little but will be much easier to rotate back again.
Plus, too much grip = hand tension and hand tension = bad sounding music.
