[MUSIC]
So now we're going to talk about strumming or effectively playing your guitar.
Now what strumming is basically is the term that's given to when we attack more
than one string, often when we're playing a chord.
What we do is we strum a chord.
When we pick a note, usually picking refers to individual notes or
individual lines that you're playing.
Strumming, often when you're strumming, you're playing chords or
at least more than one note at the same time.
And the motion of strumming usually is a very quick attack that moves across all of
the strings in almost an effort to try and play them all at the same time
even though we're starting on one side and moving across at the other side.
So what we're going to do is a little strumming exercise.
I'm going to use the two chords that we learned last week.
We learned an A minor and an E major chord and we're going to use a pick to strum.
And I'm going to demonstrate some finger strumming in a second but for
now we're going to start off with the pick.
And we're going to choke up on the pick so to speak and we're going to hold it as if
we're about to turn the key in the lock of our front door.
And just enough of the pick to attack the strings with a very solid attack.
And we're going to move back and forth between these two chords, the A minor and
the E major from last week.
One of the most important things as you're practicing
strumming is to really cultivate a really strong sense of time.
And to do that, we're going to actually use our metronome and
we're going to set it at roughly 70 beats or so.
That's just about a good practice tempo, long enough to give us time to change
from chord to chord and still giving us enough sustain in between.
Now, for this particular pattern of strumming,
there are many different patterns of strumming, for
this one we're going to use simple downstrokes, one on each beat.
And we're going to alternate between both of the chords.
We're going to go from the A minor to the E major, and
we're going to do four beats on each chord.
So here goes.
One, two, three, four.
[MUSIC]
So that's an example of strumming sort of straight downstrokes with a pick.
Now, you don't have to use a pick.
You can use your fingers for strumming.
Often acoustic guitarists will use their fingers, even when they're strumming.
So we're going to practice the same thing again using our fingers this time.
Now, when I'm strumming with my fingers,
I try to recreate the same very explosive sound, moving across the strings.
So oftentimes I'll use all of the ends of my fingers and [SOUND] try and
create a sound.
My fingers move across almost in a flicking pattern.
Like that.
So it'll be sounding like this.
[SOUND] Once again.
All fingers just.
[SOUND] So we're going to practice the same thing now just using our finger tips.
So here we go, metronome [SOUND] on roughly 70.
[SOUND]
[MUSIC]
The aim is to try and make, even though you're playing more than one string,
to move your fingers across the strings quickly enough to where they
almost sound as if they're being played at the same time.
Even though you're starting on one side and moving across like that.
Very quickly, almost like an explosive attack.
[SOUND] So that was a pretty basic
downstroke strumming pattern.
I'm going to go back to the pick and we're going to do a strumming pattern for
those of you who want to take your strumming to the next level.
We're going to do another strumming pattern with the pick that involves
an upstroke, which is exactly the opposite of a downstroke.
[MUSIC]
Like that, where your hand moves up across the strings.
And we're going to alternate between the same two chords, but for every downstroke
we're going to play an upstroke to get our hand back up in the up position.
So here goes, same pattern.
Set the metronome at around 70.
And it's going to be, one, two, three, four
[MUSIC]
So those are a couple strumming patterns that you can practice using some
of the chords that we learned from last week.