How to improve your strumming and fingerpicking
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.
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!