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Strumming
Beginner Guitar Strumming
Guitar
Strumming Basics
This
is the first lesson in the beginner guitar strumming series, so we're going to
be starting with the absolute basics, for the strumming beginners out
there. If you feel you're already beyond this stage, you might want to
take a look at the beginner guitar
strumming series contents
back on the introductory page.
Beginner
guitar strumming basics
There are two directions to strumming
- up and down! Let's
start with getting our down
strumming
in time with a simple rhythm. We'll then add in up strokes later. That
is the most effective way to do it when starting out - add layers to
your strumming patterns and build it up.
Down strumming, as the
name suggests, is where you strum down towards the floor. Naturally,
then, down strums tend to provide the punch of the rhythm,
with the bass strings of your guitar receiving most of the energy from
that downward strum.
Watch the video below to see the down strumming action using the open E
major chord, which uses all 6 strings of the guitar (see E major here).
When you strum, from low E string to high E
string, make sure all
the strings in the chord are ringing out evenly. Stroke the
plectrum across them smoothly. Most of the action is in the wrist! Keep
it relaxed.
It's easiest, at this stage, to group your down strums into 4 regular
beats:
...and just keep repeating that pattern in your head when playing.
You'll see why this is useful later.
The important thing at this stage is to make sure you're in time. You can use
a metronome
for this (start slow!) and all the beginner guitar strumming exercises
on this page. When using the metronome, don't down strum on
every click. Instead, down strum every
two clicks. You'll see why later.
When you feel confident with that, you can use the backing track below
which
uses a drum beat in that same 4/4 rhythm. We're still just down
strumming the E major
chord for this backing track.
Hear an example first
(notice how I double the timing in the second half)
Download/play the backing track here
Tip:
Even though the bass is rooted on E, you could try changing chord
between E major
and A major,
as they are both compatible with that E bassline. More on changing
chord later.
Keep
practising. You can also use a drum track
to help keep time. It's so important to get that basic down stroke
rhythm
nailed to begin with. It is the foundation for what's to come.
Beginner guitar strumming - adding upstrokes
We
have our foundations laid with the down strumming pattern above. Now
it's time to get physically comfortable with strumming in an upward
direction. To simplify it, the down strums will be your bass strum,
hitting the bass strings with the most punch, and your up strums will
hit the treble strings with the most definition, giving us a well
balanced sound.
Keeping that 4/4 rhythm above, let's add in the up strokes...
In
your head, think of the up strums as "...and...". Let's take a look at
a video demonstration of the down and up strums in action together.
So,
again, keep your wrist relaxed and flexible so it can glide over those
strings without obstruction. Even though the up strum is mainly
highlighting those treble strings on your guitar, try and get a good
coverage of at least the top 5 strings (from A string to high E). The
bass string(s) should still be ringing out from your down strum.
Again, make sure you initially use a metronome
with all these beginner guitar strumming exercises.
When you're up to speed, try up and down
strumming in time to the backing track below (E major again). Remember
before I advised you to down strum every two clicks? Well, now we
simply add in the up stroke on the click between each down strum.
Hear an example first
Download/play the backing track here
Although
we now have up and down strums to work with, the rhythm above can be
modified to create a more intricate strumming pattern, which is what
we'll do in the next lesson of this series. Before that, let's just
have a brief look at changing chord using the basic 4/4 rhythm we've
been using.
Beginner guitar strumming - chord changes
Back
on the basic guitar chords page, we learned 5 essential open position
chords. We're going to change between E major (from earlier) and D
major using the 4/4 rhythm. For this beginner guitar strumming exercise, I'll provide a fresh
bass-backing
track to follow the chord change.
Here's how we'll map the chord change out...
So we have two "4s" of E major before changing to D major, then the
same pattern before changing back to E major, etc.
Listen to the example here
The difficult thing at first is keeping that up and down strumming
rhythm constant
while your fretting hand negotiates the chord changes. That's why we've
done this all in stages. Don't let the chord changes interrupt your
strumming rhythm. Keep that strumming hand/arm in relentless motion!
Tip:
It's often impossible to change chord within that tiny space of time
between the last "and" and the next "1" of the beat, as you have to
physically lift off the chord you're on to move to another chord.
Unless you're superhuman, there's no way you'll be able to instantly
move your fingers into position like that, especially if the chords are
frets apart.
What many guitarists do, therefore, is use that final "and" (up strum
in this case) before the chord change as the window to lift off
the chord and change position ready for the new chord on "1"...
During the very small space of time on that "and" before the chord
change, just strum the
up stroke as normal. Don't worry that your fingers have
lifted off the chord, because it's such a small fraction of a second
that it will just blend
in
to the rhythm! As long as your fingers are back down on the new chord
ready for the "1" down strum immediately after, it'll sound fine.
So,
use the backing track below to change between E major and D major,
using the up/down strumming pattern we've been looking at.
Download/play the backing track here
Now
we have the basics covered, we can move onto more challenging
exercises. Make sure you're confident with everything covered in this
beginner guitar strumming lesson before you move on...
More Strumming Technique >
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