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Smooth strumming?
First time poster here….
I’m very dissatisfied with the lack of smoothness with my strumming. Too often the pick seems to catch the strings too much and sounds uneven or too loud. If I reduce the amount of pick showing, I then might find my knuckles scraping the strings.
Any tricks or suggestions?
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9 Replies
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I have no magic trick. Muscle memory is a key for me. But I do let myself “bounce” or swing sometime in rhythm for a change up and then go back to the metronome to find I’m better.
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I would experiment with different pick material and pick thickness. I think thinner picks, that are easier to use tend to grab the strings more than a thicker pick. Also, like you mentioned, try to have as little of the pick exposed. 1/4″ to 1/8″ of the tip exposed. Your knuckles may still hit the strings a bit until your technique improves. I also don’t like real pointy picks, and prefer a smoother, more rounded tip.
I struggled a lot with strumming. A Blue Chip pick was a game changer for me. They are pricey though at $35 a piece.
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Thanks!
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Hi! I’ve struggled with this in the past as well. Things I tried that helped.
1: experiment with pick sizes and shapes. I took me going through a couple dozen different shapes and thicknesses before I found what works for me. I like a 1.3 or 1.4 think pick as I play acoustic guitar exclusively. I also found that the bigger picks work better for me, but I don’t care for the biggest triangle shaped picks. My current fav is the Dunlop Primetone.
2. Work on strumming up or down with each fraction of the beat, that is if the song consists of 1/8th notes then strum up and down 4 times. if there is a 1/4 note you skip a strum but keep the hand motion going. Adjust for songs that use all up or down strokes. It took me a while to get this down, but it has helped me.
3. Finally, the best fix for this is just to play often and practice your pick skills. I like to play CSN and Y songs or old Bread songs (showing my age I know :D) as the use acoustic guitars and you can strum along to the song to practice chord changes and strumming.
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I will throw in a trick that I learned from Pete Huttlinger. Play as loudly as you are able, followed by playing as softly as you are able. Go back and forth. Helped me to understand how the strings and my pick interacted.
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That’s good advice. I’m working on stumming softer these days. I’ll try this. I seem to have no issues stumming loudly.
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Over the years I collected app. 30 different pics. Once in a while I play the same chord progression / song once with each pick as good as I can. It´s a really good training to adapt my playing. And very motivating to see all those picks moving from the left side of my desk to the right side after I used them.
Next day I return to my standard pick – and what a surprise – I can play much more fluently.
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Great idea. Thanks!
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I’m adding this discussion to my favorites.
Strumming is definitely an acquired skill, doesn’t come naturally. About a year into my journey I’m definitely more comfortable strumming than in the beginning and have learned that when I perceive I don’t sound good, I need to back off and not dig into the strings as much.
There’s a fine line though, during the Old Man benchmark recently I wasn’t getting the hammer-on to make any sound at all and this had been happening for the past 10 months. I discovered that my strum wasn’t even touching the high E string so the hammer was [OF COURSE!] doing nothing!
It takes a while for a player to have an awareness of which strings are being hit and controlling the intensity accordingly. But this is just one reason why all guitarists have a unique sound. The strum is one of many signatures or finger-prints if you like.
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