How to improve your strumming and fingerpicking

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Strumming and fingerpicking are crucial elements of playing rhythm guitar. Both are skills that you can make lots of improvement on with simple practices. 

What’s the difference?

Strumming involves hitting multiple strings at the same time to create a rhythmic pattern. You can use your fingers or a pick to strum, and there are multiple patterns you can use to get different sounds, including all downstrokes, all upstrokes, or any combination of up and down. 

 

Example: “Take Me Home, Country Roads” by John Denver 

Fingerstyle involves plucking individual strings with your fingers. Fingerstyle playing often incorporates using the thumb for bass notes and the other fingers for higher notes. This gives you the ability to play complex melodies and harmonies. 

Example: “Norwegian Wood” – The Beatles 

Here are some tips to improve your strumming: 

 

Practice your timing 

You can use a metronome to practice staying in rhythm, or play along with the track to make sure your timing is right. If you’re using a metronome, try starting slower and gradually increase your speed. 

 

Make sure your wrist is loose 

 Your strumming wrist should be relaxed, not stiff. Nerves can make your muscles stiffen up. Try limbering up before practice with some stretches. 

 

Grip your pick correctly 

 Hold the pick between your thumb and index finger. Don’t grab it too tight (it can cause your arm muscles to stiffen) and don’t grab it too loosely, because you may drop it. Try out some different pick sizes to see what works best for you. 

 

Count out loud 

You can practice saying the beats out loud for strumming patterns – like “1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &”. This will help you understand where the beats should fall. 

 

Try different strumming patterns 

If you’re feeling stuck with the basic “up and down” patterns, check out these strumming patterns for everyone from The Beatles to Green Day. 

 

Here are some tips to improve your fingerstyle 

 

Mind your hand positioning 

Your strumming hand should be relaxed and placed so that your fingers naturally fall onto the strings. Your thumb (denoted as p) will handle the bass strings (low E, A, and D), while index (i) plucks the G, middle (m) plucks the B, and ring (a) plucks the high E string. It takes some time to develop this muscle memory, but with regular practice you’ll be on your way! 

 

Let your thumb be independent 

 Your thumb should be moving differently than your fingers. While holding a chord, try letting your fingers pluck out the melody while you play a bassline with your thumb. 

 

Use a metronome 

Just like with strumming, a metronome will make sure that your timing is even, and will build up your rhythm skills. 

 

Stay relaxed 

Hand tension will slow you down – especially if your hand cramps up. Try establishing a stretching routine to limber up your hands before you get to practicing. 

 

Try a course 

Let the experts walk you through! Acoustic Fingerstyle 1 and 2 will teach you all of the fundamental techniques and ideas you need to become a great fingerstyle guitar player. 

 

How to read tablature and chord charts

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When you’re starting out playing guitar, tablature and chord charts can look like another language. They’re fairly easy to learn and understand – and they’ll make playing guitar so much easier for you.

Chord charts 

In a chord chart, the six vertical lines represent the guitar strings, from low E on the left to high E on the right. 

The horizontal lines represent the frets, starting with the second one from the top (the top of the fretboard is called the nut). 

There will be circles on the fretboard that represent where your fingers go. Sometimes, they will include numbers. Each number corresponds to a finger – 1 for pointer, 2 for middle, 3 for ring, and 4 for pinky. 

At the top of the chart, you’ll see Xs and Os. They don’t stand for “kisses and hugs” – they tell you whether or not to play the strings that are “open” – not fretted. X stands for “don’t play” and O stands for “play”. 

A sidebar on barre chords 

If you see a horizontal line over more than one fret, it represents a barre chord, where you put your pointer finger horizontally across the fret and hold down however many strings are indicated. Sometimes, there will be letters on the right hand of the diagram that says “[number]fr”. This indicates that the barre is played on a certain fret – in this case, the fourth fret, and the circles underneath it are played on the sixth and fifth frets. 

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Barre chords can be challenging, so don’t worry if it takes you a while to master this skill!

Tablature 

Tablature makes it easy to play solos, riffs, and other song parts without having to understand sheet music. 

Also known as “tabs”, tablature is easy to find for many songs (including in the Fret Zealot app). 

A tab consists of a graph with six horizontal lines, each representing a guitar string. The bottom line represents the low E string and the top represents the high E string. Numbers on each line indicate that the string is played, and the numbers correspond to each fret. A zero means that the string is played open. 

Tabs are read from left to right, and when multiple numbers are stacked on top of each other, that indicates a chord. 

Tablature makes it possible to learn even the most complicated riff simply by reading it.

Tuning tips for guitar beginners

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Playing in tune is absolutely critical to sounding good on the guitar. However, learning to tune your instrument is a skill that can take some time to develop. 

Here are some tips for guitar beginners to make sure you get perfect pitch every time. 

 

Pick your tuning device 

There are lots of devices to help you tune your instrument. You can use a keyboard or piano to match the notes, or you can use a device like a clip-on tuner or tuning pedal. The Fret Zealot app comes with a digital built-in tuner, making it the perfect on-the-go option to tune your instrument anywhere. 

 

Tune every time you play 

There are lots of reasons guitars go out of tune – older strings, environmental conditions, or just playing hard. Even if you don’t think you need to, give your guitar a tune each time you pick it up. 

 

Tune the sixth string first 

The sixth string (or low E) has the most tension, and can affect the pitch of other strings when it’s changed due to the increased or decreased tension it puts on the neck. 

 

Tune slowly 

You want to tune each string up incrementally. This will ensure that you get the pitch correct while reducing the risk of string breakage. 

 

Tune in a quiet place 

The tuner can pick up other sounds, so make sure you’re tuning in a quiet place. 

 

Listen 

Even if you’re using a tuner, listen to the pitch of the strings as you loosen or tighten them. This will help you develop your ear. 

 

Repeat

After tuning all the strings, go through them again at least once. Oftentimes you’ll find that certain strings (especially the low E) need to be tuned up again. This is caused by the tightening of the other strings ever so slightly bending your guitar neck, which then loosens the lower strings.

Essential guitar chords for beginners

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Just starting out playing guitar?

One of the first things you should master are the essential guitar chords. With just eight chords under your belt, you’ll be able to play many different songs! 

You can use these chord charts to learn – or use the Fret Zealot app to get the chords at your fingertips with colors that coordinate with each finger! 

Blue = pointer

Green = middle

Yellow = Ring finger

Pink = pinky

There are many different variations on how to play each chord – including barre chords. You can focus on these open positions (the easiest ones to play) first. 

To read chord diagrams: 

The far left vertical line represents the low E string, and the far right vertical line represents the high E string. Each vertical line in the middle represents each string from the bottom up. 

An X over a string means not to play that string. The O means leave the string unfretted, but play it. Each dot represents a fret which you should hold down with a finger. Some diagrams include numbers at the bottom of the diagram, which represent which finger should be on which string (1 for index, 2 for middle, etc.) 

Here are some other essential chords:

 

C 

 

D 

E 

G

 

Am

Dm

Em