If you have to use your arms to hold up the guitar, it’s very difficult to strum properly. Let the weight of the guitar rest on your lap, securing it with your elbow and make sure you can move your strumming hand without moving the guitar. The most important thing is that it’s comfortable for you to play. Try sitting with your feet flat, your legs crossed, or with your feet on a footstool to see what works best for you.
Alternatively, you can strum without a pick, using the thumb of your non-fretting hand. [2] X Research source Johnny Cash never used a pick. That choice depends on whether you can get enough clear sound with your fingers. Practice with a pick and abandon it if you find it too troublesome and like the sound of your fingers on the strings better. It can be somewhat painful on your strumming fingers to not use a pick. Building up calluses is always a good thing, though.
Strums will sound rattle-like if you strike “dead strings” that you’re not fully fretting. It can be quite frustrating to try to learn to strum if you’re not making the chords properly. If your strums sound dry or like a rattle, stop strumming and reform the chord correctly. Remember that you don’t need to hold the strings down too hard, either. Press them down solidly, but don’t apply a ton of pressure.
While there’s really no “right” place, generally, you want to aim your strums about an inch south of the sound hole. Play around with your particular guitar to get a sense of where you like the sound best.
Starting with the low E string, strum all the strings, trying to give them all equal weight. It can be difficult at first to make it sound like a “chord,” letting all the strings ring more or less the same. Beginners tend to hit either E string, the first or last, a little harder.
Many novice guitar players find it difficult to hold onto the pick while learning to strum. Most pick problems are the result of hanging on too close to the base of the pick and letting it flop around. Make sure you’re holding it properly, letting only the tiniest amount of the point stick out of your fingers.
Instead of one stroke for every beat, you’ll have two strokes for every beat. These are eighth notes. It should be the same tempo, so keep tapping your foot at the same rate, but strum twice for every beat.
Take your time learning this and getting the changes down. It might be slow going, but you’ll be better off for the work you put into it now. Moving on to the next step before you’re comfortable changing chords will be frustrating and discouraging to your sound. Get the chord changes worked out and you’ll be playing songs in no time.
To start learning more complicated strumming patterns, you have to learn how to leave out certain up or down strokes, while still maintaining the same up and down pattern in your hand. In other words, you’ll continue moving your wrist, but leave your pick off the strings.
Start listening actively to your favorite songs that feature acoustic guitar prominently to get some sense of the strumming pattern used. Now that you know the basics, you can start learning to vary your strumming patterns, leaving out particular strokes to achieve different effects in the song.
Neil Young has a distinctive, bottom-heavy strumming pattern that he uses along with string dampening, and acoustic guitarist-surfer-popstar Jack Johnson also has a distinctive damp-strumming style that’s easy to learn and sounds fancier than it actually is. Holding the strings down can also stop feedback from a mic on your guitar.
You can play almost any country and folk song using the first position chords G, C, and D. Pick a few to learn and practice them to get the strumming patterns figured out. Identify the chords you have to play in a song you’d like to learn and determine the amount of strings to strum. D Major, for example, only requires strumming five strings, while G Major requires strumming all six.
