Have you tried strumming the guitar with your fingers and wondering if you're
doing it right? Watch this video and I'll show you several tried and true
techniques for strumming with your fingers and I'll throw in a bonus at the
end.
Hey there I'm Tomas Michaud from Real Guitar Success. If you're new here, please
subscribe to my YouTube channel. That way, I can get you more lessons to help you
play guitar with confidence, connect with others and have fun. There are several
reasons that you might want to strum with your fingers instead of using a pick.
Now one of the reasons that you might find yourself in a place without a pick
that's happened to me several times maybe I'm at a party or on vacation and
I pick up someone's guitar and I don't have a pick but I still want to play. But
the best reason to strum with your fingers it's because you can get a
different sound. It's actually my go-to method of strumming the guitar because I
can get such a variety of sounds with my fingers in my right hand. In this video
I'm gonna show you four different techniques for strumming with your
fingers and your thumb. Now neither are right or wrong and in fact not even
better or worse they're just different and they produce different sounds. So you
might find one of these really speaks to you but it'd be best of course to have
several different ones in your arsenal to get different varieties of sounds.
They'll work on both on acoustic or a nylon string guitar, acoustic steel
string that's what I mean. And I'll show you on a nylon string mostly today but
I'll pull up my steel string just to give you a sample of that too. So make
sure and hang out to the end because I'm going to show you some more advanced
techniques including how to get a Spanish sound so let's go ahead and get
started. For the first technique we'll call it the thumb technique because I'm
only using my thumb. Sounds like this ...
what I'm doing is strumming down with my thumb on the fleshy side and then coming
up and hitting mostly with the fleshy side. I'm not actually using my nail on
down , up, down, up
The soft sound and kind of even. All those strings sound fairly even. I
particularly like this one when I'm playing acoustic guitar and I want to
sing along. My singing is not terribly strong but that makes the guitar a
little quieter so I can overshadow with my voice.
You're a strong singer, that might not be an issue. For technique number two, we're
gonna use our fingers, sounds like this ...
What I'm doing is strumming down with -- actually I'm only hitting on my first
finger even though all my fingers are moving
I'm only actually hitting with my first. If you hit your second it doesn't matter.
Its the nail that gives that little brighter sound on the way down and on
the up I'm hitting with the inside the flesh of my finger so to get the feeling of it
just go up and down like that, brush with the inside down with a nail
Now my arms not moving up and down and if it does it's just very slightly. Really all
the motions coming from my hand, opening and closing and it's fairly relaxed just
as if I'm just opening gently my hand back and forth. I can do that really quickly
I find this a fairly easy song.
It works great on the steel string guitar. Now technique number three, this
is actually the one I used most often. It's the most versatile for me, it's
thumb and fingers.
It's louder than either of the thumb or the finger and just brushing up and down
with the fingers. I'm actually using the nails both on the way down and on the way up.
On the way down I'm opening my hand like with the other one but at the same time
I am moving my elbow, small. Don't do big giant movements it's a waste of energy
and it takes too long to get back. Nice, small, concise movements and at the same
time twisting my hand like this so the two together create this kind of
brushing motion and that's what I'm doing. I'm grazing the strings, Im not
digging into them.
Now on the way up, it's my thumb and I'm flicking my wrist up like this and
hitting mostly with -- actually the flesh and the nail together, about equals.
I'm not digging in with my nail like that. That would give a harsher sound so
it's down, flick, flick, flick. Part of the feeling could be compared to flicking water off your
hand. My hands relaxed and then flicking up the opposite way with my thumb.
It's like movement from my elbow up and down.
And finally, technique number four. We're gonna call it the thumb and finger
technique version two. Listen ...
so I'm using my fingers like we did in the all finger technique. I'm opening my
hand and brushing the strings with my nail on the way down and then up with
the flesh but I started off the strum with a thumb the flesh part of my thumb
hitting either a single bass note or the bass strings in general. It doesn't have to
be a single bass note. So I usually do the downbeat - one
two, three, four - one, two, three , four - one, two, three ...
It gives you the kind of a galloping sound almost like almost like horses
taran taran tatan. That's my interpretation. Whatever it sounds like to
you is fine. It's a distinctly different sound than
any of the other strums. Let me show you just a quick example of using each of
the techniques with a chord pattern. I'm gonna be using a G to a G with a C.
I'm leaving the third finger on the G note making a C chord with the rest of
my fingers and then going to a D and then to an A minor so here's what the first
one sounds like
technique number two
technique number three
and technique number four
Okay as promised, here's your bonus techniques. Now the first one I call a
mute strum. It sounds like this --- this is a very common strum and a popular one. So what I'm doing is that basic technique of
going down with my fingernails, I call it technique number three and then up with
my thumb. But I'm adding a mute that mute is muting the strings with my right
palm at the same time I open my hand so it sounds like this together
down, up, mute and then up after mute. Down, up, mute - down, up, mute. Notice I'm opening my hand at the same time I palm them and I'm
making a kind of a clicking sound. So this next bonus technique we're gonna
add some bass notes to our strum. We're using basically the thumb finger version
of the strum but adding bass notes using the thumb so something like this ...
so it's a little tricky. You gotta get your thumb in there to make the base
note and then the fingers are strumming the chords.
I'm using the nail on the outside and the flesh on the inside with my fingers.
Now for a little Spanish sound. This one uses the three fingers like this ... I'm
doing one finger at a time starting with my third finger and I'm flicking them
out against the strings and they're separated enough. That's a
little too slow but that's what it would sound like slow together just
enough separation to hear what they call a rasgueado. Now part of the trick
here is to get your fingers tucked up into your palm and then flick them
out. I'm kind of like brushing out on each of the fingers one at a time a
drop of water.
And now for the final technique, this is the rumba flamenco strum. Another very
common Spanish sounding strum using the hands made probably most popular by the
Gypsy Kings in at least in the US and in Spain. It's a common strum. Here's
what I'm doing. I'm going down with my fingers, I put my thumb again down with
the fingers and then as I come up with my thumb again I'm flattening out the
hand and muting the strings so this is the first half - down, up, down. I'm flicking my thumb
up and I'm muting the strings - down, up, down. If I were counting, it would be 1 and 2 and three as a pause and then I'm
coming up with my fingers and four. So the last half is pause and down, up, pause and four. All
together it sounds like this - one and two and pause and four and that pause is also three. One and two and three and four ...
This strum is so popular that I made a whole video lesson on it to help show
you very detailed how to play it. So if you're interested in this, I'll put a
description down below so you can get to that lesson, so that's it for this lesson.
I hope you had fun with this. Hey give them a try and then let me know your
experience in the comments below. Just let me know if you find it hard,
easy. If you seem like you're getting any better at it or if it's something
you're just not interested in it and didn't work out for you. I'd love to know oh and
don't forget subscribe to my YouTube channel and like my video, if you liked
it. Thanks!