Originally Posted by: ian.wral

When playing an upstroke/strum....is it more appropriate to only play the highest 3 strings on an upstroke/strum...or should you try to play through all the strings and try to mute the low strings? My confusion is easpecially with the D chord. Should I try to mute the low E and A with my thumb...or should I try to only play the highest 3 strings when doing an upstroke/strum?

Or....do I try to play all 4 strings on a D upstroke/strum and somehow not strum the low E and A?

Thank you!!!

Example below:

This is from the GT song lesson 'Show Me the Way' by Peter Frampton.

As a rule of thumb, you're only striking the strings that comprise the actual chord. In the example, you're striking only strings 1 through 4 and not striking (strumming) the A string (5) or the E string (6). This is for both the downstroke or the upstroke.

A few things to keep in mind. Getting good at strumming/rhythm accuracy is a great skill. In a semi-recent chat on Rick Beato's YouTube channel, the guys he chatted joked about being in the studio with known (famous) musicians that were not accurate players. So much so that as producers/engineers, Rick and the other guys joked that they needed to tape certain strings because the so-called great player kept being sloppy and noisy with his strumming.

The point is; get good at accurate strumming and that does mean that when you play a chord, you're trying to only strum the strings that comprise the chord. Up or down.

This also means that you'll have to get good at learning techniques to avoid ringing out strings you don't want. Muting is one of the tools. The other is to learn to be accurate in your strumming. At first, this can be very awkward as you learn it but over time, it becomes more second nature.

Which answers your question of should you only play all 4 strings and not the E and A; you, you should only try to strum the 4 strings (not 3 or all 6).

Keep in mind that I started as a rule of thumb. This is not a punishable law. It's a good practice to be a better guitar player. I've been know to not worry about errant strums of the A string when I strum a D chord. It give it a little fullness. I would not suggest practicing and being as little sloppy like that, but the point is not to take all this as the ultimate law but just a good practice. When you get better as a player, you understand when sloppiness is an asset.

If truth be known, I was a pretty darned good metal player and really accurate with tight chunky rhythms. I rarely ever strummed stuff. But that was from decades gone by. My current musical 'style' has a lot of acoustic and strummed stuff. I can tell you that given the skill I was able to get when I was a 'metal' guy, comparitively my strumming was garbage.

After decades of playing, I felt a little more 'beginnery' at strumming stuff than I would have liked. Practice!