Not quite sure if the terminology is correct, but for me it’s more of a “fluid looseness” in the forearm rather than a deliberate adjustment of the wrist that keeps up strums smooth. Having the pick “sit right” also takes a lot of the need for deliberate thought out of my strumming as well so my attention can stay on rhythm.
Maybe your grip on the pick is too tight, wrong angle or the pick is too heavy at this stage?
Hello @Browneagle426 and welcome to JustinGuitar and the Community.
I have presented a few live club sessions on rhythm and in them discussed the importance of a relaxed arm, wrist, hand, fingers. Try watching my most recent rhythm and strumming club session here.
Hi, I’m trying to strum old faithful to Ed Sheeran’s Sing on the app. The song has 4 Am chords than 4 Em chords and that repeats for most of the song. I can’t seem to wrap my head around how to strum old faithful to this. There are 5 strums in old faithful, right? D, D, U, U, D. Is old faithful supposed to be for songs with 4 chords in a bar only? Or is it supposed to be played like this?
Em - D
Em - D
Em - U
Em - U
Am - D
Thanks in advance for any help.
Hi @elseworldkc, welcome to the forum! This song has 4 bars of Am followed by 4 bars of Em. Each bar has 4 beats. When strumming, you go down on the beat, and up in the space between the beats, so for each bar, your arm goes 4 times down and up.
If you only strum on beat 1 of the bar, you will end up strumming 4 x Am, 4 Em, etc.
When you add a more complicated strumming pattern, like old faithful, you will still be moving your arm down and up 4 times in each bar, but you will strum the strings more than once, indeed 5 times for old faithful. It would look like this (each line is 1 bar; D and U are the ups and downs where you actually strum the strings, _ is when you move your arm but don’t strum the strings):
Am
D _ D U _ U D _
Am
D _ D U _ U D _
Am
D _ D U _ U D _
Am
D _ D U _ U D _
Em
D _ D U _ U D _
Em
D _ D U _ U D _
Em
D _ D U _ U D _
Em
D _ D U _ U D _
etc
It’s not for songs with 4 chords in a bar.
Each bar is one chord and is strummed like this:
On the & after 4 you release the chord to change to the next chord.
Thank you @LadyOfTheCastle and @EdmundD! Very helpful. This leads me to a more basic question though. If I wasn’t using old faithful, and just keeping this song simple, am I supposed to be strumming 4 times per bar, like so?
Am
D_D_D_D_
Am
D_D_D_D_
Am
D_D_D_D_
Am
D_D_D_D_
Em
D_D_D_D_
Em
D_D_D_D_
Em
D_D_D_D__
Em
D_D_D_D_
etc
I think I just realized I’ve been playing this song (and others on the app) all wrong? I’ve been only strumming once on beat 1 and moving my arm silently for the + 2+ 3+ 4+. I’m feeling rather silly at the moment but grateful nonetheless!
Don’t feel silly, there’s no reason to.
When starting to learn a new song, start with just 1 strum per bar, like you have been doing. Once that goes well, try strumming on 1 and 3, so D _ _ _ D _ _ _ . Once that goes well, try strumming on all 4 beats, so D_D_D_D_. After that, you can try a more complicated strumming pattern. So yes, it’s perfectly fine to try D_D_D_D_ for this song.
Makes perfect sense now! Thank you so much!
