Strumming

[Emily89]

:( I'm really stuck dudes!!
I'm fine strumming down but I cant strum up!!! Just have absolutely no idea how to do it, should I be angling my plectrum a different way or something? Any help will be gratefully rewarded with hugs :)

[Dr_simon]

I have a bunch of lessons about "how to strum" in the lessons section though I don't know how useful they will be with out the video.

To sum up strumming up, it is just like strumming down but in reverse. Angle your pick the opposite way from strumming down and just move your hand from your feet towards your head.

You can practice just playing the upstrokes to give a ska / reggie type feel to what you are playing!

It is also a good idea not to hold your pick to rigidly. Let the angle be determined by moving it over the strings and stop it from moving to far to get the sound you want.

[Lordathestrings]

Most beginners tend to 'dig in' with the pick, really chopping hard on the strings. If you think in terms of 'stroking' the strings, it makes the strumming much smoother in either direction. Also, try to hold the pick at a bit of an angle so that the edge meets the string, not the flat face of the pick. A pick hitting a string flat-on can sound like a baseball card flapping on bicycle spokes.

Something else that helps is to mute all of the strings with your fretting hand and just strum away at it. Groove on the sound of the muted strings (something like a muffled snare drum) and get into following the rhythm of songs you like.

Above all, don't drive yourself hard on it. Loosen up - have fun. It's actually easier if you don't try too hard.

[PonyOne]

I try to hold the pick as loosely as possible while still allowing it to be stable in my hand, and angle it according to whether I'm moving it up or down; takes some getting used to but it's not that hard, and once you get used to it it's second nature.

Holding the pick a bit looser lets the pick move a bit more according to the direction of the strum, which gives a softer, more controlled tone instead of just staying straight and giving a harsher pluck.

When I was learning to strum up, I'd play a bar of chords and have them spaced out in quarters, and on the third chord in the bar, I'd try to hit it on the upstroke and then hit the next chord on the downstroke.

[brianehill@charter.net]

Get a Bo Didley record and just chunk away. Dont think of cords or anything, just the rythum of it. Mute the strings like Lordathestrings said. Hold your pick loose and not with a death grip. It's all in the wrist and twisting of the forarm not the elbow.

[Akira]

Above all, don't drive yourself hard on it. Loosen up - have fun. It's actually easier if you don't try too hard.

That there is really true. Just loosen up! :D

[Emily89]

im trying it now, thanks a lot for the advice :)