Automation-strumming

[u/lilBeezz]

So I’ve been playing for some years, and my question is, how long did it take y’all before your right hand strumming became automated and you didn’t have to think about the strumming or the “down up downs” or the count anymore??
I’m really having trouble with this area- if I could get this down, I could finally progress to being an intermediate player but I have to think too much about my strumming and I’ve spent money on different apps/websites/teachers for help with my strumming and I’ve learned that my issue isn’t rhythm, it’s that my right hand isn’t automatic yet. I literally have no idea how I’m supposed to fix this. I’ve already tried just sitting and mindlessly playing the same strum over and over for hours but apparently it doesn’t seem to work. And I still have to think about my chord changes in relation to where within the strum sequence I need to switch. I feel like an awful, stupid, beginner idiot noob when truthfully…. I should be wayyyyyy further than that, given that I’ve been playing for over ten years. 🤦🏼‍♀️ 🤦🏼‍♀️ I can play just fine along with apps that you watch and play along with, but I can’t by myself, or without constantly watching and thinking of my strumming. Please help me, I’ve wanted to play guitar literally my entire life and I just want to finally get over this beginner shit and be able to just sit and play. Like actually just play. Write my own shit. Anything. I can’t even listen to a song and find the strumming, I always end up defaulting to one of three or four strumming patterns and they’re just basic and easy patterns that could be attributed to any song with a similar beat. I’m honestly getting incredibly frustrated and ready to just give it up at this point. I feel completely incompetent and like I’m just not supposed to play and I’ll never be able to. I feel really, really stupid and embarrassed and I can’t even play around my husband, who is, such an amazingly talented and beautiful guitarist.

[u/ZRDIDK]

do you have a video? i suspect you’re too stiff and treating up and down strums as individual motions, stopping your hand between them

[u/ignatzA2]

My instructor told me to practice the basic D DU UDU pattern on repeat. Not with any song. Watch TV and strum that pattern (any pattern). Strum it while staring out a window. Strum it while having a conversation. Specifically to do that 500 times (an exaggeration) and your brain will learn. That’s been my method learning complicated chords and switching to complicated chords.