Hey how you doing? Justin here
in this lesson lesson we're going to talk about
strumming mechanics for beginners so
exactly like how your arm should sit the
angle it should sit where the motion
comes from is that your wrist is at your
arm all of that sort of stuff I think
having an understanding of that can
really help a beginner on their journey
so it's a slightly different for
acoustic guitar and electric guitar I'm
going to take you through both okay so
starting off with acoustic guitar first
thing you want to realize is that your
arms gonna sit on the guitar on the top
of the guitar so it's nice and relaxed
you shouldn't be kind of floating away
from the instrument that'll cause you a
lot of tension in the shoulder and you
really want to be as relaxed as possible
so your arm sits on the acoustic guitar
in a nice relaxed way so find a little
spot where it's kind of totally relaxed
sitting on the instrument now it's
important to realize that part of it,
this placement, is to hold your guitar
sturdy okay you don't want to be holding
the guitar up with your fretting hand at all
okay so it should sit the same when
you're doing your chords as when they've
taken their hand off all together so
it's the shape of the guitar there the
way it sits on your leg and the pressure
from that arm that'll hold the guitar
nice and firmly in place okay so it's
important thing to realize first of all
now the actual motion when you're
strumming as a beginner should be your
forearm now there are techniques later on
where you use your wrist where it
becomes a lot more like flicking water
off your hands particularly if you're
strumming real quick but my
recommendation for beginners is that you
get into this idea of it being a forearm
movement so what we're looking for here
really is from the elbow all of the way
down right to the thumb is a straight
line okay the pick is going to come out
the side of the thumb so the motion there
with the hand the hand stays more
or less parallel to the guitar all the
time okay so just you get used to that
without strumming the guitar first of
all just try and get used to that
feeling it wants to be as relaxed as
possible of course you're going to
require some muscles moving to be able
to create the tension to make your arm
move but it wants to be as relaxed as it
can it doesn't want to feel all tight
and tense the strumming will sound
horrible and tighten tense and your
pick will keep getting stuck in the strings
if you like that you want it to be just
really as relaxed as you can possibly get it okay really
feel like almost the down strums are almost like your hands just dropping down
then you use a little bit of muscle
to bring it back and then it's dropping
wants to feel really that relaxed it's a
really important part of this beginner
journey is getting your strumming
mechanics feeling good okay
now another part of that is how hard you
hold the pick and how you hold the pick
so if you follow in my and you know my
guidance here the pick should come out
the side of your thumb okay now it wants
to be at a little bit of an angle to the
strings as well if the pick is square
onto the strings it kind of jerks
through a little bit it'll keep getting caught
the worst is if it's angled like
this and then you go for a Down strum
it's just going to pull into the strings
okay so wants to be kind of parallel
first of all and then slightly pointing
down slightly away from you I think
that's going to be a really important
little movement just that little bit
just it's that often just bending the
knuckle of your thumb just a little bit
can make a huge difference and then
you'll see now that the pick hits the
strings at an angle and therefore it's
not gonna get caught okay that's it's
such a little subtle difference just the
movement of that thumb from there to
there means that instead of the pick
being flat on that little bit of angle
means the pick will glide over the
strings rather than potentially getting
caught in the strings you'll find it can
just glide through it doesn't want to be
too much it's not like 90 degrees it's
like maybe 20 or 30 degrees to the
strings now once you've got that a
really good exercise to do just a little
bit on your own it's not like you have
to practice it every day but just making
the motion down and up over the strings
like that making sure that it's not
coming from your wrist there's not too
much twisty stuff going on here there's
coming from the forearm and trying to
keep it relaxed now what you're going to
find is if you hold the pick to tight, it gets all jerky again so you really you
want the pick to be so loose like
unbelievably loose especially for
beginners they worry about dropping the
pick all the time that's dead normal and
you probably will drop it sometimes
that's okay
but you wanna feel the pick as loosely
in your fingers as you can it's one of
the reasons why I suggest for beginners
that you start with a very very thin
pick the thinnest you can find because
if you hold your pick too tight you it's
gonna get jammed and caught in the
strings and always feel really jerky
wear real thin pick is much more
forgiving and won't do that long term
you want to hold the pick lightly so
that I can use a thicker pick and it
still glides over just as well okay but
just so you're understanding the
reasoning here so the really early
stages use this thinner pick as you can
for strumming because it's forgiving and
as you get a bit better you want to use
a thicker and thicker pick so that you
can you can control the volume and you
control how you play much better with a
thick peak but it requires a lighter
grip and that's often hard for beginners
as it is you're going to find the pick
moving around in your fingers and you're
gonna have to stop all the time and go
like reset it because it'll be pointing
in the wrong direction it's all normal
nothing to worry about we're going to
talk a little bit more about that
further on down the line as well but
just for now I want you to concentrate
on the stray arm motion from the wrist
and angling the pick just a little bit
on the contact with the strings and
being aware of not gripping the pick too
tight like I said would we'll discuss a
little bit more detail about how that
works later on but just for now not too
tight and use a thin pick ok I'm using
my kind of the thicker pick I do
actually have me reach over and grab
that now a super-thin pick so this is a
it's like essentially like a piece of
paper it's completely bendy and with
this one I can hold it as hard as I like
and it still doesn't get caught up in
the strings okay because it's just bent
just bend flat you know so that's the
reason I think this you know the super
thin pick is really great for beginners
I'm struggling I'm like four or five six
weeks into my beginners left-handed
lessons and I'm find if I use this
orange pick it's just feels really
awkward even though I exactly know what
I should be doing right I really deeply
know that I shouldn't be holding the
pick too hard I still struggle with it
okay but the sooner you can be aware of
that the better and the sooner you're
going to get start getting it right
so let me talk you through a little bit
about the difference now with electric
guitar because it's that the idea is the
same the concepts are the same the
movements are the same but you don't
have this rest for your arm so it's one
of the reasons why I really find it
uncomfortable to play with a long shirt
on or something you know a jumper
because you wanted to have a little bit
of grip here in the forearm on the
guitar itself okay so your arm sits on
here and it kind of moves on the guitar
okay that's why you often get a little
bit of wear on a like relic guitars or
old vintage guitars you get a lot of
wear on this part of the the guitar neck
because your arm kind of sits on it and
it's the the grippyness of the skin kind
of holds it in place because you still
want the shoulder to be nice and relaxed
you don't want to be doing like this
strumming like this away from the
instrument with nothing with your elbow
floating free because it'll get really
painful you'll get far too much tension
in your shoulder will probably end up
really badly injuring yourself so it
just sits loosely on the guitar like
this so there's a little bit of grip and
then it's exactly the same motion so
it's still parallel to the strings
you're still thinking about that slight
angle there with the pick okay there's
that all of those things are the same
still thinking nice and relaxed all the time
you just wan- you can see that the
motion instead of it being like sitting
on it is is just in like sitting on the
top like we get for an acoustic guitar
it's just sitting on there there's a
touch more attention I can just because
I'm trying to be really aware of it
there's a little bit more tension there
in my shoulder holding my arm in place
but not much it's just not quite as
relaxed as on an acoustic guitar but
definitely that's part of the reason you
should try just try putting a jumper on
and see how the your hands
unable to kind of sit in the right place
I have seen guys that kind of rest there
for I'm a little bit more on there so it
does feel a little bit more rested that
doesn't really work for me
we are all different and that's kind of
an important thing to realize as well is
that every one of us has a slightly
different Anatomy and a slightly
different comfort different levels of
flexibility and all that sort of stuff
and that does all play together it might
not seem like a really big deal and it's
probably it's not but there there are
subtle things that you might find easier
one way than somebody else and that's
okay
music is an art form at all we're all
individuals it's all the expression and
all of that sort of stuff and so I try
and give you what I think is the best
general guideance
for most of the people most of the time
but everyone's gonna be slightly
different you might find that sitting up
on the acoustic guitars bit too
difficult even or you might have a real
small body acoustic guitar in which case
that doesn't work you end up with you
know you strum and right up the neck too
far if the if your guitar body is too
small you might find that your quite
little or if you're a you know young
learner your arms little enough that you
can rest on the acoustic guitar-on the
electric guitar or if you've got a
bigger body electric guitar like a 335
you can probably rest it on the top so
there are loads of different variables
on here part of it is I want you to
explore it on your own and if you're
aware of the idea of this forearm
movement for the strumming and the angle
of the pick and the parallel with the
guitar those mechanics you should be
able to adapt the correct mechanics to
whatever your situation is.