Hi
Can anyone offer advice on my strumming?
I am working my way through level 2 and making progress with chord changes etc but my problem is when strumming I’m missing the strings on the up strokes or down strokes not every time but more than I would like and it puts me off my rhythm.
I practice with the strumming machine on Justin’s website and try different patterns but it’s the missing of the strings that is really bugging me can anyone offer any advice on technique etc.
All advice greatly accepted Ken
Have you tried this ?
Hi
Thanks for your reply,
No I haven’t, I thought the strumming SOS was a pay to view product and being a pensioner with limited finances I hadn’t looked at it.
Thanks for guiding me to it I will certainly look at this and as with everything I have seen on Justin Guitar I am sure I will find the answer to why my strumming is not going right .
Cheers Ken
Hi Ken,
Of course the strumming SOS is super helpfull ,I read that so often, when in doubt, just do it. and keep playing along with songs and more songs and keep that strumminghand on going if you hear a mistake…keep on that rhythm and there will be a greater chance that by playing more songs it will work out…I can still remember how annoying it was to me myself (and still sometimes and then I have to practice that song just some more)… if you can’t figure it out, it can also be very helpfull to record yourself and this way people can see much more directly if and where the problem is. maybe there is a lesson in that… in any case success
Greetings
Thanks Roger
I am going to try the SOS lessons.
Yeah it is so annoying when it doesn’t sound right but then I suppose if you don’t make mistakes you can’t improve. I know I will look back in time a think why was i worrying.
Cheers Ken
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Hi Kenny. You can’t go wrong with the Strumming SOS course - it’s worth the small cost. I did it and it helped me a lot, but the only cure to your problem is, of course, practice-practice-practice.
What works for me with this sort of problem, is to simplify as much as possible. A few ideas:
- Practice strumming without doing any chord changes. Or even without even holding a chord, just laying your fingers over the strings to mute them.
- Don’t worry about strumming patterns. Just practice 8th note down-up-down-up strumming.
- Go as slow as you need to to get it right.
- Listen carefully: are you hitting the strings on each strum? Is the volume consistent? Sometimes it helps to play quite softly in this phase.
- Continue to keep it simple until you get the technique down and then slowly add complexity.
Can you strum 1 bar of up-down 8th notes on muted strings and hit the strings correctly on every strum? Does it sound good and do you feel comfortable? Now, can you do it for 8 bars? 32 bars? Once you can do this, then finger a chord, instead of muting the strings. Does it still sound good? Ok, maybe you can speed up a little. Can you get consistent good-sounding 8th note strums at a moderate speed while holding 1 chord down? Cool, now introduce 1 chord change: so maybe 1 bar of A and one bar of E, back and forth. When you can handle that, try changing the strumming pattern, or adding more chords, etc. You get the picture. Try to resist the temptation to increase the complexity too quickly, make sure you’ve got it down at each step.
This is the sort of practice that helps me with issues such as inconsistent strumming.
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As I posted elsewhere I have been struggling with strumming, keeping rhythm and tempo as well, and always have done.
I revisited Justin’s lessons in Grade 1 and paid particular attention to how to practice and also slowed each strum pattern down and once I had got it gradually increased tempo. I found using the strum machine very good to work along with.
With respect to hitting the wrong strings, in my experience this gradually comes with practice. I try to damp the bass E (6the string) not needed with my thumb, if I can. Open D and F (top 4 strings) can be tricky, but it will come with practice.
Hi Ken,
Do you have Justin’s app? I realize it’s a paid-for product also but it has Learn & Practice tabs in addition to the Tuner & Songs tabs. In the Practice tab are exercises for Chords, Strumming, Scales & Technique… all helpful & fun!!! Then there’s the “Guitar Karaoke” play along feature… it’s been super helpful for me! In another thread I saw that the app is being offered at 30% FOREVER if you’re a brand-new subscriber… just a bit of food for thought.
Other than that, if you have a few “Campfire” songs that you can play reasonably well, use those chord progressions with different strumming patterns than you usually play them with… might sound a bit strange at first but if you’ve already got the chord changes down, it’s easier to focus on the strumming hand techniques.
Good luck!!! 
Tod
Note: Edited to correct minor errors & clarity
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Another possibility to consider is whether the arc of your strumming hand is parallel to the strings and the soundboard. Because if it isn’t, it will be harder to get a good strum that hits all the strings.
If you are tilting the guitar back so you can look at the strings, you might run into this problem.
And as someone suggested, posting a video of your struggles can be extremely helpful. Often, what we think is the problem is not the real problem… but then it becomes extremely obvious once we actually see you play…
I had similar problems when I first started and my biggest problem was I was too tense and stiff . I had to learn to relax. So when I learned to relax it all fell into place.