Teaching people to strum

[Knottyhed]

Strumming's always something I've taken for granted (I honestly can't remember what it was like learning to do it), but I've started teaching somebody and I'm not sure where to start.

 

Can anybody out there suggest some exercises/methods for teaching this?

[Mark Wein]

I've found that the best thing is to make sure that they understand how to read basic rhythms, first.

 

First, I get them to tap their foot with the metronome, count out loud and clap a written rhythm at the same time.

 

I have some basic open chord song exercises that have only quarter, half and whole note rhythms. They strum down for all of these rhythms while tapping their foot with the metronome and counting.

 

Then we repeat step one with eighth note rhythms. Count out loud, tap the foot with metronome and clap a page or two of written rhythms. Make sure that they are tapping their foot ONLY on the quarter note with the metronome. The counting out loud keeps them from making a lot of mistakes. Most students will think that they are still counting quietly and either just start trying to recognize patterns or count each eighth note as a beat or any number of mistakes. Verbally counting out loud so the instructor can hear it is a very important error checking step in this process.

 

I get the students strumming the eighth note rhythms as an alternating strum...down on the down beat and up on the upbeat or "and" of every beat. Once again I have some simple sample songs for them to work on. Be very strict with the alternating strumming arm. If there are rhythms that sustain over a down beat (any rhythm half note or longer or a rhythm that is tied over a bar line) we make sure that the strumming arm floats over the strings and never stops. The feeling of the quarter note pulse has to be continuous somewhere in their body (should be the foot tapping with the quarter note) and the subdivision of that pulse is the strumming arm moving up and down...it is never to stop....

 

For rhythms that should be all down picked eighth notes we have sample songs for that as well... we then talk about when you alternate strum and when you "all down pick"...

 

Sixteenth note and triplet strumming is all handled the same way. I usually start my students with simple open chords and after a lesson or two when they have the chords under their belt a little better we start on the strumming. I think that it is never too early to teach proper strumming, and hard to go back 6 months or a year later and teach it when a student has developed a bunch of bad habits (or when you inherit a student from a teacher that has never bothered to teach students about time and rhythms and just does the "here is the tab, put your fingers here and hit it this many times in a row" thing...)

 

Hopefully this was a help!

[sumpm1]

Like you, I took strumming for granted. And when I watch some of my less serious player friends strum, their strumming seems to have bad technique in my opinion (mostly acoustic.) Once I started to learn to sing and play, the strumming was critical because the strumming is like the "rhythm or beat" of the song, and the vocals have their own rhythm, so you have to simplify the strumming so that it is natural and second nature.

 

Then I went to teach a song to a noob, and had to explain the strumming. Almost every song uses and emphasis on the upstroke somewhere in the song. And many times, the down stroke before the upstroke is muted. The "up stroke" that I'm talking about is when a chord change comes in between beats. So if the strumming is on the quarters, then the upstroke comes on the "and" between the quarters. So you have to make sure that the noob isn't changing his strumming to hit the "and" on a down stroke, and keeps his strumming even, up and down.

[Li Shenron]

Strumming's always something I've taken for granted (I honestly can't remember what it was like learning to do it), but I've started teaching somebody and I'm not sure where to start. Can anybody out there suggest some exercises/methods for teaching this?

 

 

I feel the same, I don't remember I've ever even practiced it, but I'm sure that there was a time when I wasn't able to!

 

A few weeks ago I had to teach my drummist, how play a certain song on the acousting guitar (for a wedding event). We had to figure out some basic accompainment for the singer, no other instrument, and after trying a while with arpeggios and walking bass, we realized that these things were still too hard for her, so we settled for simple strumming. Her target was to learn just that song, and we had to figure out something quickly.

 

One thing that I tried to make her do is practicing on each hand separately before attempting at playing with both. Practicing changing chords with the left hand without paying attention to strumming (i.e. just strum to check that the chords sound, but without requiring exact timing) for 10 minutes, and then practiging strumming correctly in time but staying on the same chord for another 10 minutes, then cycle. I don't know if it was a good idea, but it seemed to make sense to me.

 

I guess the target should be to teach the student to strum in a relaxed and natural way. Maybe pay special attention that he's holding the pick properly and that his wrist doesn't become rigid.

[Knottyhed]

Yeh - that's the approach i've taken in the end. Strumming on the beat/rythmn exercises are all very well, but probably something to do when you've actually got the hang of holding a pick and getting it to brush the strings.

I ended up getting them to mute the strings with the left hand and copy simple rythmns, just to get them used to the mechanics of strumming without worrying about the left hand. Seemed to get them up and running. Had them playing Penny Royal Tea by the end of the lesson

Once his strumming is more confident/relaxed I'll break out the metronome.

[mcmurray]

My teacher (who has been teaching for 33 years) says to 'cock' your wrist out and flick your hand as if you are shaking your wet hand dry (making sure the pick is held correctly). Make all the notes sound at once so there is a definite beat, and if it gets too loud, just turn down the volume. After this basic technique has been mastered then you can work on dynamics.

Start with downstrokes only. The upstroke is just the exact opposite of an down stroke.

That said I'm not a good strummer but have been working on it with those tips in mind and it is helping, a lot.