Guitar Strumming, beginner

[rickroads]

Hi all,

 

Hope I am in the right forum for this question.

 

I am a newbie to guitar player and just beginning to strum a few songs with my acoustic guitar (rhythm guitar with a few licks I have been looking at) . I was talking to my cousin the other night and he said I should be concentrating more on looking where I am placing my fingers on the fret board and ignore looking at my strumming hand. Is this true?

 

Also he mentioned that my strumming should be continuous and consistent with no breaks when changing chords. I think this is true, will this come naturally while I advance in my guitar playing? Is it better to make mistakes on my chord changes and still keep a continuous strumming pattern.

 

Should I be looking at both what left hand and right hand are doing until I become proficient in my guitar playing? Thank you.

 

Rick

[DaleH]

justin guitar http://www.justinguitar.com/

 

Do his free beginner course...you will learn how to learn.

[Idunno]

Time will pass and you will be changing chords fluidly and nearly unconsciously. It comes down to practice. It always does. You can get lots of online lessons but they all say the same thing. It's up to you and your desire to learn that will determine your progress. Before there was an internet and proliferation of teacher-wannabes, there were countless people who taught themselves from start to proficiency in short order.

 

Your playing will become fluid. You know where you're weak so focus on those areas and give it time. You'll need all the time you have left because you'll never stop learning.

[KarlG]

As Idunno sad, it comes down to practice. My band director in high school used to say, "Practice makes perfect only if you practice perfectly." I think that is what DaleH was getting at. Although you need to develop all of the aspects of playing, you can focus your practice to get better at one specific task. Ask yourself where you think you need to improve and then focus on that specific improvement. If for example, if you agree with your cousin, then find a couple of songs with chords that are easy for you, but have difficult strumming patterns and work on them. If you have a hard time changing and hitting chords, you can just work on that. Do it over and over and over.

 

Practice works because of the way our minds function. When we think things or do things, it requires our neurons to fire in a particular way to accomplish these tasks. The activity or thought process sort of burns a path through the neurons in your brain. The first several time you do something, it is like blazing a new trail. Each time we do the task, we are sort of "wearing-in" the trail. If we do the task enough, it is eventually a well worn, easy path to follow.

[Grant Harding]

Your cousin is right, but the missing bit is that you need to do it really slow at first, so you don't miss any chord changes. If you start struggling with the fretting hand you need to slow the whole thing down but stay with a consistent rhythm.

 

Once you have the chord changes up to speed you can start to learn some strumming techniques, but you'll need to slow it down again.

 

The main idea is that you should practice cleanly so you don't learn how to play sloppy. The speed comes quickly once you get over the initial learning hump. Patience jedi.

[panhandler]

Welcome rickroads. Enjoy the journey.

[EdBega]

Better yet try this ...

 

[YOUTUBE]X7LVHiMzyrA[/YOUTUBE]