Guitar Strum Video Lesson

After yesterday's post on how to strum guitar here is an excellent strumming lesson video from You Tube. This video nicely illustrates several good ideas you can use to practice strumming.

1. Figure out the rhythm and how you are going to play it in advance. In the video the words "down" and "up" are used to do this. Learn to sing the rhythm pattern to yourself like this, it's a very simple and effective technique.

You can also use it to prepare and practice rhythms while you are away from the guitar, on your way to work for example. Picture the up and down movement of your strumming hand at the same time. You can even move it if you won't alarm those nearby while you do it.

2. Practice the strum using muted strings. This percussive approach helps you get the right feel for the rhythm. It also means you can focus on your strumming hand without worrying about what the other hand is doing.

3. When you have a good feel for the rhythm progress to play the strum pattern over a simple chord. Play the rhythm over and over on one chord, don't try changing chords.

Of course, you can play over different chords to hear what the strum pattern sounds like with them. But don't try to make the chord changes in rhythm until you are ready.

4. Finally, play the strum pattern while changing the chords. Start slowly at first and work up to the real speed gradually. A metronome is a great tool for this.

Enjoy the video.



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