#16
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That's sounds more like a timing issue than a strumming issue, no?
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Jim 2023 Iris ND-200 maple/adi 2017 Circle Strings 00 bastogne walnut/sinker redwood 2015 Circle Strings Parlor shedua/western red cedar 2009 Bamburg JSB Signature Baritone macassar ebony/carpathian spruce 2004 Taylor XXX-RS indian rosewood/sitka spruce 1988 Martin D-16 mahogany/sitka spruce along with some electrics, zouks, dulcimers, and banjos. YouTube |
#17
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Untill I would play an old rock song with vocals... Quote:
With the steady alternate bass note and all the walk up/downs timing on my strumming is a non-issue. Interesting, I just noticed the original OP has not answered back on these suggestions? |
#18
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I've found that, like spelling, I always thought I was good at this until I heard (saw) the actual mistakes. When I started recording myself playing and singing, I found I was on a diet of humble pie. We all go through it.
Everyone learns a little differently. So it might be useful to think about the way you seem to learn most easily, to view that as a strength and to use it. I'm involved in a musical project where I'm very much a rhythm player - it's a fiddle orchestra doing mostly contra dance melodies. It is really helping me hone rhythm chops I had never thought much about before. So suddenly there's this steep learning curve I'd never noticed. I've found it helpful to think of my guitar as a percussion instrument as well as providing a chordal component. Sure, percussion is all about rhythm, but it is more than that. By thinking about the percussive role of the guitar, even without imitating a drum - the sharper edges of my role as a rhythm guitarist can become clearer. Where there was confusion I can find focus. The other thing I'd suggest is, as has been suggested in this thread in different ways: less can be more. Sometimes a strum of all six strings is too much - it uses motion, energy, effort and adds little for that extra increment. Sometimes the music needs only a descending bass run instead of a full strum, or an interplay between the three bass strings, or just a movable chord form of the center four strings without the low and the high. Thinking sparsely like this also gets us away from the dreaded janga-janga of guitar rhythm purgatory. It adds variety. Just sayin. . .
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Taylor 815C '59 Gibson LG2 Washburn J4 jazz box, ebony tailpiece Gold Tone open back banjo Anon. mountain dulcimer Creaky old Framus 5/1 50 About 1/2 of Guitar One completed; currently intimidating me on account of the neck geometry. Stacks of mahogany, spruce, maritime rosewood, western red cedar Expensive sawdust |
#19
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The best way to learn strumming is play old time country songs that emphasize alternate strumming. Once you learn alternate strumming the rest falls into place. Many younger teachers don't teach it anymore because they don't think it's cool enough. But you have to learn alternate strumming. It also gives you practical experience with throwing single hammer ons and pull offs. I like the suggestion of learning some Blue Grass techniques using alternate strumming, hammers pull offs and runs. Learn that and it will make you a good strummer and music is 80% strumming.
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#20
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For most of the folks I've worked with who had issues with the upstroke they were gripping the pick way too tightly. When you stroke the strings it is like painting with a paint brush where back and forth is analogous to up and down. The pick should slightly angle away from the direction of the strum on both the down stroke and up stroke. People struggling in particular with the mechanics of the upstroke usually have the pick angled away on the down stroke, but they don't adjust for the up-stroke. Failing to adjust is like petting and dog or cat backwards -- it just doesn't feel right. Some folks pick up on this naturally and I never have to say anything to them about it. Many other folks need to have this brought to their attention before getting comfortable with their upstroke strum.
There is good advice here on how to get good at strumming in time. Since you asked about the mechanics, I limited my advice to that. I hope it helps. Good luck!
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#21
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It's instinctive to angle the pick upwards on the downstroke so it brushes across the strings and doesn't catch. Beginners often make that an exaggerated angle, so to turn it the other way for an upstroke results in an exaggerated rotation of the wrist. That's unnatural and wrong. It may be that the best technique is a very slight adjustment of angle, but the best tip for beginners (IMO) is to keep the pick at the same angle, to avoid getting into the swivelling wrist syndrome. And use a thin pick, to allow it to bend as it crosses the strings. (Or hold it loosely and let it flap.) But don't rotate the wrist (at least not as it crosses the strings - a little relaxed rotation at the end of the stroke is OK). A lot of beginners (I'd say at least half my students) have trouble with the upstroke, but the problem is not pick angle - it's that they delay the movement and strum up on the beat, and then get their downs and ups mixed up. The issue is to develop a natural regular downstroke on the beat, moving the arm like a pendulum, and allow the upstrokes to take care of themselves - as occasional brushes on the way back up. Attempting to accent upstrokes, or think about where they should be placed, confuses a lot of beginners and upsets their pattern.
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"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." - Leonard Cohen. |
#22
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Bluegrass does teach you steady rhythm, but maybe a little static. Try listening to some good Irish traditional players backing groups for some ideas on free, but still steady rhythm.
This tune from Solas has John Doyle playing a varied, interesting, but dead on rhythm guitar. Could stand as a tutorial on the subject. |