How do I improve my strumming technique?

Strumming is a core technique for steel-string guitar players. Creating a good tone whilst maintaining a steady, flowing rhythm is a must-know skill. Strumming through a chord progression with consistent rhythm creates the style referred to as ‘rhythm guitar’. It provides a solid background for singing, or an instrumental solo and is equally as important as having a good drummer. Good rhythm guitar holds the whole song together. In a band setting the rhythm guitar forms an integral unit with the drums and bass; without these three combining well you don’t have much of a band!

Alternate strumming is the standard technique for creating good accents and rhythm phrasing. Play down-strums on the beat and up-strums off the the beat (the 2nd half of the beat). Normally, down-strums are a full strum that feels stronger than the off-beats. Up-strums are played off the beat (‘upbeat’) and usually only strike the lighter strings so that they feel a less accented than the down-strums. This rhythm study example shows crotchet down-strums in the first bar followed by a bar of quavers played by alternating the down and up strums. This keeps the beat clear and gives your rhythm good. Try it slowly and count aloud as you strum.

An example of alternate strumming from Modern Guitar Chord Styles 1

What sort of pick is best for strumming? Use a flat-pick of at least medium-gauge but not too hard. Thin picks don’t create a full tone on steel strings, and hard picks don’t let you feel the tension of the strings through the pick. You need a pick that is firm, but has a bit of flex and is comfortable under the thumb. Once you have consolidated your technique you will find a medium-hard gauge will sound best.

Nylon-string guitar strumming: beginners using a nylon-string instrument for basic modern style should use a medium-soft pick for rhythm strumming. Once established a medium-gauge pick will sound good but hard picks don’t work well on the softer tension of nylon strings; they are too hard for the strings. Classical/Spanish guitarists do use their fingernails for full chord strums but these are different techniques, used in a different music context to modern Pop rhythm style. When it comes to using a pick on nylon-strings, the best strum tone (sound) is made by a nylon pick ; nylon on nylon sounds most natural!

Modern guitar chord styles to the rescue!

Modern Guitar Chord Styles 1 : This is a very helpful book for entry-level players and those who have already learned the common chords but are still having trouble putting a full song together. If this reflects where you are up to, just a few weeks of the technique building work in MGCS1 will have you putting songs together.

Relevant pages in Modern Guitar Chord Styles 1 : To learn more about strumming technique and rhythm notation, look at pages 4, 10 and 20-21. To improve your strumming action and learn the key technique of ‘alternate strumming’ focus on pages 4-5 and 10-11.