5 Strumming mistakes that RUIN your sound! Fix them in 13 minutes
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 14. 05. 2024
- Today we'll go through 5 strumming mistakes that almost every beginner guitarist makes. If you don't fix them your guitar playing will be really rough, sloppy and you won't be able to play fast strumming patterns. And yes, these tips will apply both to acoustic and electric guitar.
Some of these mistakes are really subtle and it's hard to notice them on your own, so you should watch this video even if you're an intermediate player.
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đ Video Chapters
00:00 What you'll learn today
00:43 Why is it important to fix these mistakes
01:48 Mistake #1
03:53 Mistake #2
05:26 Mistake #3
07:41 Mistake #4
09:54 Mistake #5
12:10 Summing up
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V f
I like but I donât know how
What type of PICK DO YOU USE OR SUGGEST?
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I was progressively getting worse and more frustrated as I was developing these habits. I can't tell you how much I appreciate this video. It instantly helped.
I'm glad It did! Thank you!
Keep going you are learning like me. I get it then I am erratic. It was the same with myself l, with learning to drive years ago. My son says it all suddenly drops into place. Practice practice... that what's I'm doing...
Also, people who strum all 6 strings all the time. Should play the bass note and down. Good video.
Thank you, glad youâve liked it
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Thatâs a habit of mine I have to break! I know that a D starts at the D or an A at the A but Iâll hit the A on a D or the low E on an A đ„Č
For D, just fret the F# with your thumb and if you hit it, it won't sound so bad. If you do this, you can also mute the E and the A with your thumb if you wish. The original comment is true though. I'd go further and say that when strumming you should never just aim to hit all 4/5/6 notes of the chord all the time and mix it up a bit, ie different groups of 4/3s or it will just end up sounding 'blocky'. Happy Playing!
True, but thatâs debatable depending on your style and ability. Consider Dave Matthews styleâŠwhere at times heâs muting 3-4 strings with his fret hand while still using a full strumâŠonly making notes on the 2-3 strings he allows to ring.
Dude, you just opened my eyes! I have been struggling with strumming with my (unfortunate) intermittent practice time and this has made a world of difference. Especially mistake #1. I never realized it until now. Thank you for this great lesson.
This was fantastic video. I really agree with the 5 mistakes. I think Iâm lucky enough to have not developed them as habits in my playing. But Iâve heard plenty of others playing with a sound I didnât like, so hearing you break this down has identified WHY I didnât like their sound. What a huge difference correcting these methods can make. Big thanks and please make more like this
Thank you! Yes, we're doing more
As someone with 25+ years of playing, I must say..this is a great video for beginners.
I'm planning on teaching my nephew, he wants to learn, he's 13. So here I am, going through tutorials on CZcams to get better ideas on how to teach, so THANK YOU so much for this video! đ€
Thank you! Hope it will be helpful for you
Good luck with that. 13 years old and a family member... Still, at least it's not your son or daughter, that would be World War III! đ€Łđ€Łđ€Ł
@@eddyhoughton6542
Funny you say that, because. My nephew has learned enough to where he doesn't need me anymore to practice. He does it on his own now.
And..my15yr old was bugging me to teach him,so he's been practicing for about 2 weeks now and it's going greatđ
He wanted to learn "Back in Black" as his first song. So I said ok let's do it, and he's about got it down pretty good to be a beginner! đ€
@@wesleyalan9179 I am so jealous man! Kudos to you for inspiring your family. This is (or should be) a musical household. My kids grew up with music - wind and brass instruments. We all played in bands and there was a huge social side to it as well. Then the lockdown came, and everything went to pot. Both my kids have given up on music full stop. My daughter is left handed, so granted, playing a right-handed guitar for her is horrible. I re-strung one of my best acoustics for her to play "Jimi Hendrix" style but of course, the nut is for right-hand players, and the action's all out. It's just spent the last year hung up as an adornment in the hippie cave that passes for her bedroom. She doesn't know it but I ordered a leftie acoustic for her as a surprise. Basically, the minute I say to my kids, "hey, should we have a bash on the guitars?" I receive a brutal bombardment of recrimination and teenage angst. But all is not lost. My daughter finds reggaeton nauseating and worships at the shrine of Led Zeppelin, so at least there's hope!
@@eddyhoughton6542
I hear ya man, I know where you're comin' from
...my daughter wanted to learn...well,that lasted all but a day. And when I'd mention practicing, I get excuses why she couldn't. That was when she was 15 or 16...she's 19 now. Maybe I'll try again with her. Lol
But, my son I'm teaching never showed interest in music what so ever up until a month or so ago, so that's what's up,lol.
My other son, he's 21 now...he was supposed to learn guitar, but he gave it up within the month of trying it out, he went to drums, got really good at it, then he quit them. Idk..maybe there's still hope for him too!đ
The suggestion about holding the pick lightly really helped me a lot. Thanks! I've been afraid to let go of it, but I definitely play better holding it loosely. Hopefully I'll find that sweet spot of just the right force to hold it lightly without losing it.
Good luck with that
Been playing for many years and never even thought about it. I would listen to songs and try to sound like the original. I knew the right way through watching others play. Thank you for bringing to lite the "five mistakes." Wish I knew them when I first started playing guitar.
This instruction instantly improved my "playing" a great deal. I'm a beginner, and this is the first time I enjoyed it. Thank you very much!
These tips are so good in building the right technique. Been playing acoustic guitar and I didn't even take note of some of these mistakes I made and challenges I had to get past. This is an eye opener.
Glad It helped! Thank you for your comment
was hoping you would like this guitar method
drive.google.com/file/d/1LXVvF8898PjDqeHW0NW3fF_JuVrR_DMk/view?usp=sharing
Let me know what you think
Great tips. I'm 3 years in and Ive just caught myself moving my elbow too much. Now I'm moving the wrist more and it makes a real difference. It's something I'd kinda noticed when watching people play but without your explanation of right and wrong way I hadn't really put it into practice. Thanks.
Thank you too! Glad this video helped you
Very helpful! Thank you for covering such a basic but important topic.
Awesome dude! Thank for the tips, its help a lot... More videos to watch and learn.đđđ
Ive played for 40 years. Still found a couple of these tips useful. Thanks Andrew.đ
This helped me out a lot, I thought I was doing okay, but i was making almost all of these mistakes. Thank you for this, this was much needed for a beginner.
Glad It was helpful!
sameđ
Excellent video! I've been struggling with my strumming and now I see where I'm making my mistakes. Thanks so much!
That was really helpful, especially the last one, you just gained a subscriber brother. Well done!
For years I've been trying to figure out what's wrong with my guitar techniques, why it sounds different than others. And was in vain. Finally, you point that out. Thank you.
Thanks! Glad i helped!
...how do you do knowingly do something wrong for years and not bother correcting it lol
@@emptyingmyballsinyomommymouth Just like many guitar learners. You maybe one of them.
What exactly was wrong with it?
Same to you buddy đ€
Man this is so great. I've been playing guitar since 2 years now and I didn't know what was wrong in my playing. But now I figured out the subtil mistakes that makes my play "too rough"!
Thanks a lot ! Now I have to work on this :)
Im glad this video was helpful! Good luck with practicing!
Love the tips and love the "sounds really not groovy" description of improper stumming technique. Fun engaging and relatable. Very groovy. Thanks.!
These honestly helped so much. The person who was teaching me stopped after a few weeks, so I was stuck on the early stuff and lingered for the past year on struggling with barr chords, and strumming, and ... honestly a lot more. This video, I am extremely greatful for... The pick one especially, it was a point of upset for me when I'd try playing a song I thought was beautiful, like Willow Tree March, and I'd get this rough and loud mess no matter what I tried.
This was so very well put together video , i have been playing for 10 months now and was worried that my guitar wasn't sounding soft , but these techniques really helped me achieve the melody of an acoustic!
Much appreciated â€ïžâš
Glad It was helpful!
@@first_fret
Hey not sure if the previous reply went through,
Can you possibly send your email address privately as I'm not able to text for the time being.
Thanks ! âĄ
I have been playing guitar for 15 or 20 years. It was nice to know all these tips. I am self taught. But it was good to know some things I was already doing correctly. And Some things that I need to improve on. Good video
Thank you, im glad you found this vid useful
Awesome. Thanks for sharing. It's the small things that make the big difference. Great stuff. đ
The history of Epiphone is very fascinating. Justin, you do a great job of explaining the differences between the guitars.
Great lesson! Iâve been playing for about a year and a half and have figured out a lot of this on my own just by listening to how it sounds. I sure wish I had a guitar teacher like you. Iâve tried three different people but no luck.
Thank you for your comment! You made my day
Yeah unfortunately a lot of people who start teaching don't think that focusing on the most basic of basics is a good idea because they assume it will bore the student.
Thank you so much for this lesson. Everything makes so much sense.
My pleasure. Thank you
great video...I have seen a lot of information from books and other online teachers about using the elbow. Your instruction makes sense...thanks for teaching!
one of rarely helpful videos , really. especially about the angle and the way how to strum properly, everybody else talk about the rythm but no one talks about the actual technique. this is some good stuff . thanks !
Dude, you totally nailed it⊠Iâm a pretty confident rhythm guitarist and Iâm guilty of #5 a lot. Itâs almost like you get lazy or hypnotized half way through a song and you find yourself scraping. Thanks for this!
Yeah itâs a part of being bored. Especially if your playing the same songs night in and out
See my comment above... it's not always a bad thing! (Usually, yes... but not always!) :D
@@davidbryant9454 The answer to boredom is new material! Now you youngsters have CZcams and the internet, there's absolutely no excuse for this... There are so many songs with chords and lyrics out there... if I want to learn a new song, I just type "Insert Song-Title Here chords and lyrics" into my search bar and at least 99 times out of a hundred I'll be taken straight to it! If I'd had access to the internet back in the day when I was making a living busking in Europe, I'd probably be a much richer man today! (Or maybe not... maybe I'd just have spent all my money just that much quicker!) ;)
And if new material doesn't work... have you checked your guitar's tuning? Or maybe it's tone? Does something just not sound 'cool'? Maybe the answer is a new guitar! (But I'd use this remedy as a last resort as it can be expensive, unless you're a rich rock-star guitar collector!) :D
Yes. It's not always boredom. It can be very hypnotic, especially when playing a slow paced song. There were a few times i played until my eye lids closed and then eventually until i just fell asleep.
@@saskialombard5328 LOL! Been there... done that... Usually depended on what I'd been smoking, though, tbh... ;)
Thank you as I've recently picked up my guitar after many years break (my work made my hands & arms very sore, then became quite unwell with a chronic illness, & back problems), but now after several spinal operations at least I'm functioning better despite not being well enough to work.
Although I wasn't angling my pick quite enough, I struggled with keeping time as I was making the mistake of pausing my strokes, plus I'm also guilty of dragging rather than strumming as you've shown! Actually found very early on that strumming with my elbow was awfully tiring, especially with my larger flat-top.
One thing that has helped my timing has been playing around on a 2008 Yamaha MM6 I purchased several years ago. It's a keyboard with basic synthesizer controls, but the same processor & voices as their more complex Motif-Series. As a young teenager 50yrs ago I began learning the piano but struggled with my smaller hands on a piano gifted to my parents which wouldn't stay in tune due to what was eventually found to be a cracked frame!
One question though; How flexible a pick/plectrum should I use?
Hey there. Glad to know that you found this video helpful and you're feeling better. Really apprecite your comment
Regarding your question, i like using thick 0,96mm - 1mm picks for bigger sound and louder bass notes. However, thin flexible pick may be really useful if your acoustic guitar is not the main instrument in the mix and you just want to play supporting background strumming.
I appreciate you pointing out the mistakes I'm making. Appreciate even more the corrections.
Lolol I taught myself guitar some years ago but havenât touched it in a while. Now Iâm going to start over considering I did almost all of these and never knew why I couldnât get it right. Thank you.
Excellent!! I've done some teaching over the years. I've never concentrated in getting my beginning students to strum better even though many need to do just that. I just try to make them work with a metronome and then focus more on learning chords and theory. What you present here is really important. I'm going to use your video as I couldn't have presented proper strumming better if I'd tried! Again, good job! đđ
I'm really humbled by your comment, thanks a lot! And good luck with your students
You just better say let's concentrate on this strumming of yours now it's been saying I forgot all about it, CAPICHE
Ken Sheldon #4 vexed many of my students. Keep the hand moving!
Zzzzz metronome
Well said and i am guilty as well.
Essential viewing for anyone with an acoustic guitar. This is brilliant. This should be the very first lesson for anyone who's just bought an acoustic guitar. This is all about building quality and finesse into your playing from day one -- so it becomes second nature. Strongly recommended! đđđž
Thanks a lot for your kind words!
Practicing bad technique equals you getting better at the bad technique. So many things I wish I was more strict on early on but then again it would have taken the joy out of it and I might have dropped it
Great lesson! This is the best lesson you can get as a guitar player! Thanks a lot from Sweden!
This is really high-quality stuff. Learned a lot. You earned a new subscriber. Thanks!
First of all, thank you very much for these really important tips. I'm a beginner and they helped me a lot to improve my strumming tecnique. I've got a question related to the up strumming phase: do we need to "invert" the angle we used in the down phase?
For a beginner, this is great information. Once you progress to an intermediate level, I'd encourage the player to be able to control some of these elements at will. Being able to control pick angle is very useful when playing single lines (as opposed to strumming), and slow strums can be good for landing chords (like rolling a chord on Piano) if used sparingly. Being able to deviate from natural strumming (down/up/down/up, etc.) is also very useful once you get to more advanced rhythms (for different accents, triplets, etc). But none of these things should be practiced until you've got the fundamentals down.
These are some wise words! Thanks for your comment
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If your a beginner, the first thing is, start foot tapping! That will help much more!
I've always held the pick in many different positions depending on what sound I'm trying to create ,, good advice
Thank you so much! This video is absolute gold. I was seriously stuck with my strumming technique and despised the pick, after watching this the difference is like night and day
Tip #5 was especially great. Thanks for making this video đ€đœ
#4 took me FOREVER. I played piano for 30 years before picking up a guitar. There is no equivalent motion, and it made no sense to me. I did have a teacher when I started. He told me my timing was excellent even though I was strumming wrong. He made me learning the technique, and it did wonders for my playing. So much more comfortable, tighter rhythm, and a much more consistent tone. Learn it!
Yea, this one is really important. Glad you overcame it!
I have been playing guitar for the last 25+ years and I have many lessons to learn from this video. Wonderfully simple. Thank you.
Thank you too! Glad you found It helpful
deeply appreciate your videos. my strumming instantly sound different after follow your guidance. đ€
Fantastic!!! One of the best videos ive seen. Thank you
Thank you, You are exactly right. When we make these mistakes we feel negative by hearing our
own performance and usually put the guitar away early.
Thank you! Yea, It may be tough to keep practicing when you hate your own sound
Exactly! I just commented something similar. Your wording is far more concise to what I was trying to say.
This is really good content - concise and organized with good examples. Iâm definitely gonna follow you. Thank you. Btw, You also remind me of my favorite Grandmaster Chess player, Alex Yermolinski. Keep up the great work!
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it
Thank you very much for sharing, it just helped me out to practice in a completely different way! Cheers bro. !
Thank you thank you and thank you! Your video shows some mistakes I have been making. I will rectify them.
This was outstanding! I tried to learn guitar (for a short time) and it always sounded so completely awful I gave up and gave the guitar to a family member. I want it back now! I think I did everything wrong that you pointed out. He he, good thing I can laugh at myself! Anyway, this was incredible and not one single thing that was too technical that I didn't get it! Simple solutions.
Glad you enjoyed the video! Time to get that guitar back
Iv played acoustic for years, but have to admit iv'e learned something here, much thanksđđ
I'm glad you did! Thanks
Amazing tips. Especially number 5. You can really hear a huge difference. Thank you very much.
Thank you so much i appreciate your hardworkâ€ïžđ
Thank you so much for these tips. I've been playing guitar for almost 2 years now but it's so annoying how there are days I'm so good with my strumming and some days I don't know what I'm doing. I am just so inconsistent. Thank you!
Glad i could help!
Thank you so much!!! This is what I've been looking for! I've stopped using a pick and started strumming with my fingers as I found it easier to stay on the correct strings. Now I can go back to the pick using this lesson.
Thank you! was glad to help!
Thank you! great tip! I will keep this in mindâ€
Thanks for the lesson I will be practicing from your video until I get it right!... thank you!..
First vid I've seen where you play while you explain. Like that. Thank you. I will use thisđ
Good luck with that and thank you!
As a beginner I've been struggling with awful strumming sounds. This video is really helpful since noticed i make all the mistakes. Thanks for the info and time on this so helpful video
Glad you enjoyed it!
Playing for long and long. Great vid here. I wish someone had explained #4 to me long ago. It's hard to overcome now.
Thanks for the tips, you've earned a sub
Extremely helpful, thank you.
Hope this video is gonna help me improve my guitar playing... Very clearly explained. Thanks so much to 1st Fret!!!!
Thank you too and good luck with practicing!
So helpful!! đž â„ïž
Great video. I've been playing rhythm guitar, and the string picking should improve after seeing this. THX and blessings. As I play for church and write my own stuff too
Thanks for this video!. Never thought about these mistakes.I will pay close attention to them from now on. I wrote them down toođ
I've played guitar for ten years now, but this video still helped me, namely the tip about pick angle -- I generally finger pick and have always struggled with a pick, for exactly the reason you point out -- I've been trying to keep it perfectly horizontal! thank you, this is so much better!
I'm glad you sound better now! Makes me a happy teacher
I'm surprised this video doesn't have more views, this helped me so much
Thanks dude
Thank you, was glad to help!
I'm gonna be getting a new guitar in a few days so thanks for this. It was pretty helpful. I'll come back to watch again when I get my guitar.
This video is amazing! Thank you very much for all those insights
Amazing video. This helped tons. Any chance you might do a finger picking lesson in the near future? You explain things so well
Thank you! I did a couple of fingerpicking lessons on this channel alrdy, but will definetely do more
This was a very nice eye opening lesson!!! Thank you for it!!! All these intricate techniques are simple at first glance but they really matter a great deal!!! Youre a very good teacher producing such a treasure trove of information in less than 15 minutes. Bravo!!! â€ïžâ€ïž
Thank you for your kind words!
đ well conveyed and very respectful and points at least to ponder for any level player. Thanks
Subscribed. Excellent, well presented, concise lesson. Each and every mistake you bring up has been a technical question of mine for a while now. A few of them I was doing correctly, attributable more to luck than knowledge. Self-teaching and I know no guitarists to ask these basic questions to. I will very much consider your course. Thank you
All of my mistakes in strumming, being corrected in one video...Thanks you.
Glad you liked it!
I spent way too much time fretting the left I fell behind with the Right hand work. My buddy in school taught me to Travis pick before strumming because my first song was " Dust in the Wind " so it's great to see this video. I will save and subscribe. When things start to get a bit cruddy, I always work back through my fundamentals. I like your drum stick attack visual to keep ahead of getting behind. Visual ques work well for me. You are good at that. I use my fingers to strum alot too. I think Mark Knophler talked about that idea. Thanks great lesson. Well explained.
Yeah, the right hand is where your sound is actually coming from! Glad this vid was helpful
Iâve been playing (mostly self taught) for about 5 years and this helped me a lot with some errors I was doing! Thank you very much!
Thanks, been playing a long time, and noticed I need to improve my strumming the last few shows. Yay! đž
This is such a great video and helpfull tips. I've always avoided using a pick because of how horrible and loud the guitar sounded whenever I used one. Now that I know what I was doing wrong (basically everything except the elbow mistakeđ ) I feel more comfortable playing with it. And I could already hear an improvement! so thank you for restoring my faith in picks.
Glad i did! Thank you
Good man,
Helpful lesson - thanks!
Glad It helped!
Number 3 really helped me a lot!! Thanks for the info. It's true! It sounds quite better now.
thanks for sharing the details of the hack. working perfectly fine with me
Very good beginner lesson. Helpful!
I'm glad you found it helpful!
Great tips. Thank you
My pleasure!
Awesome video and thanks for posting!
This is so helpful! Thank you!! xx
Iâm strictly a rock/metal guitarist, but this still helped me a ton. Thank you.
Glad It did! Thank you too
Now I know why my strumming sounded terrible đThanks for your excellent lesson! Much appreciated đđ»đ
Always glad to help!
Excellent advice. Thank you!
I really needed to see this after a while of half-hearted learning. I want to be better at playing guitar and this has opened my eyes (or ears lol) to these mistakes I'd been making. Thanks for this video.
Amazing man..just too good i fixed all my mistakes and now my guitar sounds so good... đ
Awesome to hear that, thanks!
Iâm glad you specified that #5 isnât actually wrong - in some cases itâs actually part of the desired sound!
For all that it works when you do it just sometimes but not every strumm đ
Arpeggio
Thanks a lot brotherâ€ïžyour vidieo is helpful to allđ€Love from Bangladeshâ€â€
Thank you! This helped so much!
Very good lesson. I play classical instead of flat-pick and as a drummer first, I think I learned a lot of this stuff early on. In fact I think all musicians should start on drums. Fundamentals.
Thank you, I've been working through Fender Play (I which I like a lot) for the last three months but I think I was making all the mistakes you have mentioned. After this video my playing feels much more natural and more enjoyable.
Awesome to hear that! Glad this lesson helped!
Good tips, this has been very helpful !
Great lesson your point about matching the strumming to the drummer is a master piece!đđ
That was very helpful, I do all these mistakes not knowing what was wrong with my strumming, I'm self-taught. I'll try to fix them. Great lesson thanks.
Thanks and good luck with that!
I have been playing guitar for over 50 years, and I think this is a great video! May be a little too much info for a beginner, but all great reminders for getting better sound and speed!
Thank you!
Yep đ me too 55 year review
Great video. I'm a guitar teacher and I think you've done a good job with this content.