Strumming the guitar fulfills a primary role for the rhythm guitar. It is the percussive side of the guitar and is typically use in the accompaniment of a singer or instrumentalist. Singer – songwriters use the strum as a technique to generate motion and rhythm in their chord work.
An aggressive strum can make up in the eyes and ears of the public for considerable weaknesses in other aspects of the guitar. Strumming is one of the first techniques learned and tends to propel guitar players in different direction such as lead guitar.
Strumming can be approached instinctively or through formal study. If it is formally studied, it requires the organization and systematic organization of rhythm and musical styles. Every musical style has characteristic strums that help identify specific types of music.
Rhythm Guitar requires a specific set of skills. They are:
- Memorization of chords
- The ability to switch chords smoothly
- The ability to choose and execute a suitable rhythmic strum. It is this 3rd skill that is our focus in “Unlocking the Guitar: Strums ”
Though strumming looks natural to the casual observer, it is anything but natural to the beginning guitarist. Even experienced players have difficulty in identifying and executing certain
strums.
Though this is one of those topics that is typically taken for granted, there is much to learn about rhythmic feels, accents, dynamics, pick direction, feel, percussive accents, idiomatic styles and tempo variation.
First and foremost, the subject of strumming is inseparably linked to rhythm. Though an ability to read rhythm is helpful, it’s not necessary to profit from this material. Each strum is identified with a term that differentiates it from every other strum. This term is typically called a “feel”. Drummers learn these terms early in their studies so learning this language is not only helpful to learning the strums, it’s also helpful with communications among musicians in general and drummers in particular.
Strumming can be executed with a pick or with the fingers. Regardless of your own style of picking, it ultimately involves combinations of down strokes and up strokes. In the finger style, down strokes can played with the thumb or the nail side of your fingers. Up strokes can be played with the thumb or fingers. Any technique is useable as long as you can differentiate between down and up strokes.
A metronome is helpful to these studies but not mandatory. The purpose of a metronome is to help develop a steady sense of rhythm and to help increase your awareness of tempo in a beats per minute format. Terms like medium or fast tempo are approximate. An expression like “quarter note equals 120” is exact. We’ll discuss strumming with and without the aid of a metronome.
All strums can be executed at any tempo.
One strum is different from another based on the stroke direction, the stroke density, the subdivision of the beat and the accent pattern.
If you’re using a metronome, each click represents the so called down beat. The space between clicks is considered the up beat. The parallel to this without the metronome is the tap of your foot representing the down beat and the space between taps, the up beat. Down and up beats can be subdivided in many ways forming the basis of different strums.
Preliminary Exercise
As a way to get started, set the metronome speed on 60 or just tap your foot slowly and evenly. Strike any chord with a down stroke (i.e. towards the floor) corresponding to the click or tap. Though this could be considered a strum, for our purposes, it’s just a way to get familiar with the relationship between tempo (speed of the beat) and the down stroke.
Next, try to coordinate an up stroke (i.e. towards the ceiling) with the space between the clicks or taps. Don’t be surprised that the up stroke is more difficult than the down stroke. There are two reasons for this discrepancy. First, the up stroke is anti gravitational (pulls away from the ground). The second reason is that the space between taps or clicks is more abstract and difficult to locate than the down and is consequently, more prone to error. Go back to your metronome set at 60 or your slow even foot tap.
This time, strike the up beats (space between clicks or taps) with down strokes. It’s also valuable to up stroke the clicks or taps (down beats). Though not as natural, there will be important applications for this seemingly “backward” stroking. Now that we’re familiar with some basic concepts, let’s begin!
Any count that is double underlined is struck. Any count that is not double underlined is a sustain or continuation of sound without re-striking.
> Represents an accent. Hit the chord harder.
An X generally indicates a muted or percussive strum. The muted strum is executed by relaxing the chord hand during the strum. If the chord is a barre, relaxing the pressure is enough to create the percussive, drum like effect. If holding an open chord, the fingers but maintain enough finger pressure to get the muted sound.
Most strums are executed with a relaxed wrist. Pick gauge (heavy, medium, light) is a matter of personal preference. In general, use a lighter pick on faster and lighter strums.
Quarter Note Strum
1 2 3 4
= = = =
Strike on each beat of each chord.
G C D
| / / / / | / / / / |
Sustain Strum
Strike each chord with a down stroke and hold for the appropriate number of beats..
Hold G for a count of 4.
Hold C for a count of 2.
Hold D for a count of 2.
Rock Strum
(4 beat pattern)
Tap your foot 4 times in even rhythm.
(Alternate – use a metronome)
Count: 1 + for the 1st beat (tap)
2 + for the 2nd beat (tap)
3 + for the 3rd beat (tap)
4 + for the 4th beat (tap)
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
= = = = = = = =
Strike every count with a down stroke.
Strike the 2 count and the 4 count harder ( > ) than the rest of the strokes.
This pattern equals 4 beats. Every 2 strums equals 1 beat. Adjust the original pattern if you need a beat pattern other than 4 beats.
Applications: Rock,Hard Rock and Pop
Light Rock Strum
(4 beat pattern)
This strum is identical to the Rock Strum except that the pick alternates between down and up strokes.
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
= = = = = = = =
As indicated by its name, this strum is looser and lighter than the Rock Strum.
Applications: Light Rock, Pop and Country
12/8 Strum
(4 beat triplet pattern)
Use 12 evenly spaced down strokes per 4 beats.
Applications: Blues, Broadway and 50’s Ballads
Shuffle Strum
(4 beat triplet pattern)
This count is identical to the count of 12/8. The difference lies in the stroke pattern. Strike down on the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th, 9th, 10th and 12th count
Power Shuffle Strum
Using all down strokes will strengthen this strum.
Applications: Blues, Jazz and Country
Double Time Strum
(4 beat pattern)
Use 16 evenly spaced alternating down and up strokes. Accents fall on the 5th and on the 13th stroke.