Strummin question????

[radiokid]

How i the world do people like T petty J Lennon etc. manage that perfect limp noodle wrist action that they do. I have tried on many ocassions to play something like "All my lovin" and cannot keep that pattern for very long without losing it. Its almost like a hula wrist action. Anyone know how they perfect that move. No jokes ok!! Do I sit in a front of a mirror? Does the elbow stay fixed and the wrist moves or is it combination of both or what???


Help

Al

[Fngrstyl]

that is pretty basic playing, but it all takes practice, practice, practice!! It will come, I promise!

[Kevin Michael]

Relax your arm.
Use the arm less, wrist and fingers more.
Less motion is more efficient.

[Ninjato]

Find an easy pattern to practice strumming. Do it to a metronome then vary it once you are comfortable.

I posted this once for someone but here it is again:

So here we go...how to get better at timing: (These are probably going to be the most boring, yet most neglected part of playing guitar. Everybody wants to jump in and strum like the pros. Trust me on this, do this and over the course of 1 month (every day practice), you will have built in a metronome in your head.)

I will assume you have a metronome. Set it to 80bpm (or slower NOT FASTER) w/ every beat being 1/4, so you get 4 beats per measure in a technical sense. I am going to assume a lot of what you play is in 4/4 time.

so let's start: pick a chord..any chord and start the metronome. Get the feel for the beat and just strum w/ downstrokes to the beat. One strum per beat.

D D D D / D D D D / D D D D / D D D D do this until you just can't stand it anymore.

Next excercise: Let's add an upstroke strum to the picture as 1/8 beats, so for every beat of the metronome you have a downstroke and up stroke. Note the UPSTROKE is denoted w/ a small "u" since most of the time upstrokes aren't played as loud.

Du Du Du Du / Du Du Du Du / Du Du Du Du / Du Du Du Du do this until you feel very comfortable.

Notice that without speeding up the metronome you have doubled your strummin speed to keep within the beat. Make sure you come in w/ the downstroke on the beat.

Next excercise: Let's add 3 strums to the picture.

DuD DuD DuD DuD / DuD DuD DuD DuD / DuD DuD DuD DuD/ DuD DuD DuD DuD

This is getting on the fast side but still manageable. You are still at 80bpm but now you have to squeeze in 3 strums. DO NOT DEVIATE FROM THE PATTERN. There is a tendency at this speed to chunk out 3 strums recklessly to try to keep up. If it is so, slow the metronome down a bit.

You know what's coming :

DuDu DuDu DuDu DuDu / DuDu DuDu DuDu DuDu / DuDu DuDu DuDu DuDu / DuDu DuDu DuDu DuDu

This will feel really fast even at 80bpm (I know, I do this kind of practice for my scales) but actually easier than the previous 3 strums per beat. Something about even numbers is easy.

After you are cool w/ all of this start omitting some of the strums for variety.

Again w/ only downstrokes:

D _ D _ / D _ D _ / D _ D _ / D _ D _
Every other beat strum

Play around w/ it and work up to:

D D Du D / D D Du D / D D Du D / D D Du D or

Du D Du D / Du D Du D / Du D Du D / Du D Du D or

Du Du DD Du / Du Du DD Du / Du Du DD Du / Du Du DD Du or

DD Du DD Du / DD Du DD Du / DD Du DD Du / DD Du DD Du or

D D D Du / D D D Du / D D D Du / D D D Du and a hard one

DuD DD DuD DD / DuD DD DuD DD / DuD DD DuD DD / DuD DD DuD DD

At this point, add and omit any pattern and practicve to a metronome.

Once you get used to this start changing chords after every 4 beats and make sure you change fast enough to come in ON THE BEAT of the next measure.


This has got to be the MOST BORING crap a person has to do to develop timing. I hate it, but I understand the value of it. I have to do it anyways since my grade depends on it for school (talk about motivation ).

[radiokid]

THis great feedback and very much to the point. This is something I missed early on. Although I can do some pretty complex up/down strokes and am comfortable with most popular music accent points, its this machine gun/perfectly timed intervals that elude me. I will try the exercise and report back later.

THanks to all

Al

[Ninjato]

machine gun intervals:

you can practice this by just running a chromatic scale also. This will work both the timing and dexteritiy for the left hand, while keeping the picking precise.

chromatic scale: start on the 5th fret w/ the index finger and walk up 1/2 steps starting on the 6th string 1234, 5th 1234, 4th 1234, 3rd 1234, 2nd 1234, 1st 1234.

The pick action (d=down, u=up) should be dudu dudu dudu dudu dudu dudu

Do this to a metronome w each pick at 1/4 note value (4 beats per measure)...so each string is "plucked" 4 times. I find 80bpm is plenty fast for this.

increase picking to 1/8 note intervals:
fret: 11223344 11223344 11223344 11223344 11223344 11223344
dudududu dudududu dudududu dudududu dudududu dudududu

triplets (this is hard)
fret: 111222333444 111222333444 111222333444 111222333444 111222333444 111222333444
dudududududu dudududududu dudududududu dudududududu dudududududu dudududududu dudududududu

1/16 note intervals
1111222233334444 1111222233334444 1111222233334444 1111222233334444 1111222233334444 1111222233334444
dudududududududu dudududududududu dudududududududu dudududududududu dudududududududu dudududududududu

all this at 80 bpm on the metronome.


Hope you understood all that. Once you are comfortable doing this at the 5th fret, move it back towards the 1sr fret where the frets get wider.

[DeadHead]

Get a recording of the song you like by T Petty J Lennon, etc. . .

Identify the key .. .

Strum along until you can nail it right along with them.

Honestly, you can learn a lot from playing along with the recording.

Regards,
DeadHead

[~j~]

I find the hardest thing is switching between articulation patters quickly because I am always stuck thinking about my left hand position

[Ninjato]

a good/bad habit you can practice.

Tap your foot. When your foot comes down, you should be strumming down.

Start w/ just downstrokes to 4 counts (80bpm)

then w/ up and downstrokes to 4 counts, down when your foot comes down and up when your foot comes up.

I say bad because doing triplets and running 16th intervals is very hard for your foot to be tapping at this speed and keep any kind of sanity about you.