Rhythm and Strumming Tips
Guitar playing involves a lot of rhythm playing – probably over 90% for most guitarists in a band, consequently good rhythm skills are important. For beginner guitarists then this usually means working hard on your strumming skills. I have highlighted in some of my other posts how important this is as well as having regular ‘rhythm practice’. Poor strumming technique can ruin songs and affect your timing in a detrimental way.
Strumming may not be a glamorous as shredding 50 notes a second or holding 2 tone bends as a lead guitarist, but it is the foundation on which your guitar skills are built. Good strumming can drive a song along like nothing else – imagine ‘Wonderwall’ (Oasis) or ‘Faith’ (George Michael) without those driving strummed guitars, not a pleasant thought!
There are two main keys to good strumming, the first is getting the mechanics right, the second is understanding how to subdivide the beat.
Mechanics
- Experiment with different picks until you find one you like
- Find a way to firmly and comfortably hold the pick for strumming
- Strum from your elbow – use the whole forearm, not your wrist – this allows you to cover all six strings easily
- Develop a continually moving arm – Down/up/Down/up/Down/up/Down/up – (in a bar of 4 beats – see below)
- Practice hitting only the required strings for a particular chord – the D chord only requires the 4 lightest strings for instance
- Practice missing out strums (see below)
- Make sure you do not strum too hard or ‘dig in’ too much
Beat Subdivision
For the purposes of beginners we will just break a bar of 4 beats down into 8th notes – so we count the beats like this:-
One – and – Two – and – Three – and – Four – and (Repeat)
If you count this out loud you will be counting straight 8 beats. Your strumming hand should be keeping this rhythm – a down stroke on the numbers and an upstroke on the “and(s)”.
To start off with practice playing only on the numbers 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 these will be all down strokes
Then try playing the numbers and the ands – this will be a downstroke followed by an up stroke x 4 times.
Variation
Getting variations of this very basic strumming pattern comes from two main ideas:-
1. Accents – strum a little louder or more aggressively on a certain beat – usually the ‘one’. However these accents can come anywhere in the bar.
2. Missing beats out
- Strums on the numbers are ‘on the beat’
- Strums on the ‘and’ or off the beat
- By combining strums on and off the beat many different rhythms are possible.
Try these two strumming patterns- (Play the beats in Bold)
One – and – Two – and – Three – and – Four – and (Repeat)
One – and – Two – and – Three – and – Four – and (Repeat)
The key to learning rhythms is to count and play S-L-O-W-L-Y.
If you have any questions just drop me a line. I hope to record a video lesson for this post soon.