Strum technique & patterns

I've just finished Guitar Fundamentals 1 - thanks so much to Lisa & the Guitar Tricks team, it's hard to fathom how far I've come from a complete guitar (& music generally) beginner less than 6 months ago.

A couple of specific issues I'm having with strum technique - I wonder if anyone can recommend particular videos/tutorials to address these:

1. Trouble with smooth upstroke with pick - I can strum down/up with my fingers fine, but when I try to use the pick I get stuck. I could do with some additional advice or a good tutorial on this skill.

2. Picking with fingers only - I'd like to learn to play with either pick or fingers, but I find it very difficult to pick strings efficiently with only my fingers rather than using the pick. Again, some specific advice or a video to follow would be appreciated.

Finally, I often see references in guitar tabs to 'Strum pattern X' (eg 'Strum pattern 9'). What does this mean and is there a standard set of numbered strum patterns somewhere?

Thanks in advance - this is my first post here although I've appreciated browsing the forum on several occasions when stuck.

Cheers

Nikki

still very much a beginner and this is something we all find frustrating.

It's probably one of the few things which would be better with a face to face teacher.

Try a very thin pick. 0.38 . You can move thicker as you improve

Angle your pick slightly. If you think about an exagerated position lying almost flat across the strings and you realise it couldn't possibly dig in.

Strum lightly, quietly and slowly at first.

All these can change when you find what works.

Play most of the strings on the down stroke but maybe only high 2 or 3 on the up stroke.

Finger strumming is just trial and error. Loads on youtube , some useful, some not so useful

Click on Styles box on the main page and choose acoustics. Lessons will pop up and you might find what you need from Caren, Lisa and Anders

Click on the instructor section, choose an instructor and their individual lessons will show. Try some on fingerpicking. The accuracy is just something that keeps improving over time.

Not heard of numbers for patterns, may come from a book and there would be a list somewhere.

Hope this helps a little. someone more experienced will eventually show up.

All frustrating but just some things we have to work through

Keep at it

Dave

Congrats on finishing GF1!

Originally Posted by: nikki.macor

1. Trouble with smooth upstroke with pick - I can strum down/up with my fingers fine, but when I try to use the pick I get stuck. I could do with some additional advice or a good tutorial on this skill.[/quote][p]

Thanks to ddiddler for the good advice! A lighter pick can help, but it's possible to do with a medium or thick pick. 3 points:

1. Don't dig in too far. You want to lightly graze over the strings. The more you dig the tip of the pick below the plane of the strings the more likely it will get caught.

2. Angle the pick so it's not parallel to the strings. 45 degree angle is pretty optimal, but not totally necessary. Just enough to get that light graze happening.

3. It can also help to tilt the pick away from the direction of the strum. This requires you adjust your wrist for each downstrum versus upstrum, but can be very beneficial to work on. I demonstrate in this lesson.

https://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=13957

Originally Posted by: nikki.macor2. Picking with fingers only - I'd like to learn to play with either pick or fingers, but I find it very difficult to pick strings efficiently with only my fingers rather than using the pick. Again, some specific advice or a video to follow would be appreciated.

Anders has an intro finger picking in the acoustic course.

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=2480

Lisa has an intro to finger picking here.

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=596

[quote=nikki.macor]Finally, I often see references in guitar tabs to 'Strum pattern X' (eg 'Strum pattern 9'). What does this mean and is there a standard set of numbered strum patterns somewhere?

There is no industry standard list. Typically this is indicated somehow with reference to the a specific song. For example it's explicitly drawn or shown in one measure of the sheet music, then referred to throughout the rest of the tune.

There is a "basic strum" that I've seen a lot of acoustic guitar players refer to & use as a basic approach to a lot of tunes. Anders covers it here.

https://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=28972&s_id=2454

Hope that helps!

Thanks so much to both of you! I'll try all of those tips out :-)

Originally Posted by: nikki.macor

Thanks so much to both of you! I'll try all of those tips out :-)

You're welcome! Best of success. :)

I feel that my playing isn't fluid. I know chords and can change them pretty quick, but all the strumming patterns I play are pretty boring. I can do quarter strumming and eighths, and it gets boring with too simple divisions of quarters and eighths on a 4/4 bar, but when I try some more difficult strumming patterns (with muting or rests for example) I get really confused and no matter how much I sit on it, I can't nail it down. It doesn't sound right. I want to start writing songs, but while I can think of neat chord progressions on the acoustic, the strumming patterns are too boring/not fluid enough for me to feel that I've done something right.

Sixteenth strums are also a problem. I tried learning "The Trooper" by Iron Maiden, and I have it fine til the verses with the sixteenth notes/triplets or whatever there is there.

And I tried improvising with some scales I learnt, but the rhythm is problem here as well.

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