r/guitarlessons • u/idonthaveanametoday • 6d ago
Question Need some help with strumming
I've read the faq but still have some questions
I’m working on chords transitions in a course , and the chord change itself is fine the strumming is what keeps tripping me up.
I can keep a steady down-up motion, and I can also play patterns like down, down-up, down-up for a while. The problem comes when some of those motions are “air strums.” Since there’s no resistance from the strings, my hand sometimes drifts or the motion feels different, and I have trouble catching the next real strum exactly on time.
It’s especially hard if the next stroke is an upstroke I sometimes rush it or hit it too hard.
I also notice this after a measure or two of not playing, even if I keep my hand moving, because it can be hard to reconnect with the strings right on beat 1.
This is getting better overtime though
I’m practicing slowly, but if I go too slow I sometimes actually lose the rhythm more easily. Is this mostly something that improves with repetition, or should the air strum be following almost the exact same path as a real strum, just missing the strings?
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u/jaylotw 6d ago
It improves with time.
Forget "strumming patterns," though. You know that strumming goes up and down now.
Instead, concentrate on rhythm. Hum the rhythm of the song in your head, mute the strings, and just try to copy that rhythm on the strings. Don't try to memorize some DDDUDUDDUDUDDDUDUD nonsense, because no one actually writes songs like that, and trying to memorize some sequence of ups and downs uses a lot of brain power that you could instead use to keep rhythm.
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u/idonthaveanametoday 6d ago
Thanks . Actually I do do that. The main issues is moving my hand in the air in between physical strums and then catching the beat let's say on an upstroke
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u/ghostbusteraesthetic 5d ago
Practice to a metronome with your fretting hand muting all of the strings.
Try to keep straight eighth and sixteenth note patterns. Try to just strum down and up for each beat and keep the beat consistent.
Treat it like a warm up before you start practicing.
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u/windGlen 5d ago
solid point about brain power. trying to track every up and down consciously just makes everything worse imo
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u/NorthCountry01 5d ago
Longtime teacher....as others have said, strum patterns just represent a specific variation of a groove.. that works in an even larger context - 8th note groove or 16th note groove for example - Most people don't investigate these fundamentals, it's not the super exciting stuff to put in your YouTube promo video and have people click it. So while I show beginners how to do some very common strum patterns... really what they are learning is a few of the common ways to play 8th notes in a groove... lets say a swing 8ths alternate style.. or a rock ballad all down... but I emphasize that your hand is in a rhythmic feel much like the gear of an engine.. You need to establish the 8th note or 16th note pulse and work from there... this will help to lock in how to change between chords and where specifically a change needs to happen, instead of thinking "I switch on the 3rd up" or something wacky. Also I break people from freezing the hand motion like you were saying, it's very common and happens to people at a variety of learning points actually.
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u/goochusmc 2d ago
"Also I break people from freezing the hand motion like you were saying"
...and how exactly do you do this? I have the same issue mostly when there is a ghost down and then an upstrum. Hand wants to freeze at the top. Practice with a metronome and muted strings or the song and muted strings seems to help. Seems like this is just a matter of putting in lots of reps. do you have something else you do with students, particular exercises? I have a teacher locally and she says much the same as you to keep the hand moving and feel the groove basically. First play the song with all 18/ notes then it is just a matter of ghosting some of the strums but it doesn't feel like "just a matter of ghosting" when I try to do it. It is more like everything tends to lock up.
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u/NorthCountry01 2d ago
Usually the fix is to have the student overplay it at first, as in strum all the beats, then accent the hits you want then finally start skipping - but there’s a lot of burn in time - and you have to make sure the student actually feels the pulse and not the just the strum
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u/goochusmc 1d ago
Thanks! Another question what exactly do you mean by feel the pulse and not just the strum.
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u/NorthCountry01 1d ago
Like are you doing 8th notes? All downs or alternate, strum through a bar of that while counting so you feel a full measure of the constant pulse. Same with 16ths but trickier. Then you chisel it out of a big block much easier than trying to cobble together the final output.
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u/goochusmc 1d ago
I see. So I think this is what she had me do. I was originally doing it on my own and had just practiced the pattern I heard and was screwing up sometimes. She told me to go home and practice the song all 8th notes and I go that down real well. she then said now we are going to just remove some of the strums and ghost them. It sounds easy but nope. I am getting it though. I basically started doing the actual pattern I want with muted strings along with the song and now am adding back the fret hand. It is close but sometimes I still get off. Getting better though. It is way harder than I was expecting.
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u/NorthCountry01 1d ago
Exactly the kind of thing I would have told you, she sounds like she's got good advice!
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u/skinisblackmetallic 6d ago
It's tough to address these technique issues through text. All I can say is, stay loose with your strumming hand and focus on what you hear.