Guitar strumming help  | |  I've been practicing my guitar playing for a while now, trying to teach myself, but I'm still having problems with my upstrums. It may just be a matter of experimenting and practicing more but I guess it can't hurt to ask around for some help. The thing is, I often hit the strings either too hard, not at all, or just get a messy strum when I play. Could it be that I'm trying to do too much of the movement with my wrist? How much should I rotate my wrist between up- and downstrums?
I try to keep my pick as close to a 90degree angle with the body of the guitar as possible when playing, and only tilt it a little (point it a little upwards on downstrums and down on upstrums). Should I tilt it more?
Any help is much appreciated. I know that experience will make me better but I'm trying my best not to develop any bad habits so I really am hoping for some advice:)
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| | | | | | 1.  marciascott (11745) | 5 months ago |  They have free online lessons. go it. here's on yellowgutairbooks.com I have a guitar I have took so many lessons I just haven't had the time.
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| Serenity73 (35) | 5 months ago | I have actually been looking at a lot of the sites that offer free lessons. The problem is, though, that most of them don't really go into that much detail about strumming. And I think that it's just some random little thing that I'm doing wrong so I posted here to get individual help with my specific problem. Thanks for the link, though:) | |
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| marciascott (11745) | 5 months ago | Sorry I don't know how I posted three times, why don't you go to Library and read up on it. | |
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| Serenity73 (35) | 5 months ago | It seems like it's just one the things that I've been missing out on by not taking actual lessons with a teacher. I have been looking in books and on internet sites but haven't been able to find something that explains my problem well enough. | |
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| | | 2. marciascott (11745) | 5 months ago | I justed posted here I ddon't know what happened, I have a Gutair too. I want to take some more lessons. they have free online lessons. Google it. | |
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| | | 3. marciascott (11745) | 5 months ago | I justed posted here I ddon't know what happened, I have a Gutair too. I want to take some more lessons. they have free online lessons. Google it. | |
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| | 4. xfahctor (5559)  | 5 months ago |  It could well be you are relying too much on your wrist. For single notes,rely more on your thumb and for finger, for chords, use those fingers with a little assistence from your wrist. Using your entire wrist is fine for chords that span all 6 (or 7) strings in most cases, such as bar chords, but for more nuanced playing your fingers are where the real control is found. A good excersize is to form a chord, and using only your pick fingers, practice plucking each not, in the chord individualy with an up stroke, muting each note your outer palm as you go on to the next note. It takes a little work at first, but it gets more fluid as you go. then, do the same this time with a down stroke (much easier) then finish the excersize by using both up and down strokes, in alternating fashion.
Remember, playing guitar is an art, each player will develop a very individual method and subtley different aproach to it, one's own style can take years to develop.
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| Serenity73 (35) | 5 months ago | Thanks a lot. I'll start doing that exercise right away.
I also noticed that by placing the pick so I have more of my index finger under it my upstrums became more fluent because I could support the pick better. However, when I do it like that the pick tends to slowly turn in my fingers and eventually point towards the neck of the guitar so I stopped doing it. It just felt like I had a little more control that way, but I couldn't play for very long before I'd almost dropped the pick. | |
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| marciascott (11745) | 5 months ago | Good information I read your tips too. have a good day! | |
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| | 5.  joezon50 (253) | 5 months ago | Hi serenity,actually i dont know how to play my
own guitar.But i do know how to play with it,
with some tune and i think with meaning too.
Only a few songs i know how to play,but to tell
you this i've been satified with what tune
i have lean i can even relax while playing.
thnx my friend. | |
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| | | 6. earplugz (36) | 5 months ago |  Hey, Ive been playing guitar for how many years now. My advice is you need just to practice things and listen well to the tunes you are playing. Just experiment, and find the best way you could play your guitar. It's just a matter of practice.
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| Serenity73 (35) | 5 months ago | Yes, I'm slowly realizing that as I go along. It was just pretty frustrating when I started, but I'm getting better at it every day. My strumming definitely sounds a lot better now and that's mostly due to just playing through the bad sound until it improved. But that's precisely the thing that I didn't like - to keep playing when it sounded like I was beating a cat with a stick. I guess it's just necessary to work through that phase. | |
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| | | 7. MacRunfast (15) | 4 months ago | I think tilting it is a better idea. Not exactly sure I understand how you are doing it but you tend to be sliding the pick over the strings rather than plucking them when strumming and a tilted pick will work better than a straight one. If you look up sweep picking they tend to usually explain a way of holding the pick at an angle and say that its the same as when playing chords. So I guess they are saying hold it titled:P | |
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| Serenity73 (35) | 4 months ago | Well, I do tilt it a bit when I play. What I meant was that I try to hold it somewhat straight, but loose enough that it tilts a little by itself when hitting the strings. | |
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