guitar strumming?

Question

i have been playing guitar for a few months, and i dont exactly understand how to decide on strumming patterns. how do i decide how to strum to a certain song?

Answer 1

Time signature is a BIG deciding factor aka 4/4 or 2/4 will dictate
how you strum a particular song and it's something you'll have to take into consideration however, arpeggio is a style of playing that you will have to embrace in order to improve your playing....
Arpeggio....The playing of the tones of a chord in rapid succesion rather than simultaneously, listen to "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" by Led Zepplin it's a great example of playing an arpeggio progression.

When you play "Open Chords" you'll want to pluck/pick the open string/strings either before or after the note. Lets take a D chord for example which is fretted 3rd string 2nd fret index finger, 2nd string 3rd fret ring finger and 1st string 2nd fret middle finger, you would strum the open D/4th string along with those that you've fretted Listen to the way it's strummed in "I Should Have Known Better" by The Beatles.

Let the song as well as the mood that you are trying to imbue the song with decide the way you strum the song. If you're playing electric guitar "palm muting" is a way that you can accentuate your playing style by placing your strumming hand on the bridge of the guitar placing light tension on the strings where they break over the saddles of each string. Listen to "Symptom Of The Universe" by Black Sabbath the E minor chord at the beginning of the song is being palm muted. You'll have to play around with this until you get the technique down.

There are numerous other methods you can employ to help with your strumming, the ones I mentioned will help you get a solid foundation down with your playing that you can build upon.
Practice Practice Practice.

Answer 2

Strumming was never really a problem for me. What I would do is listen to a wide variety of different styles and just try to imitate them. For instance, right now I'm listening to Robert Johnson. His strumming style is very percussive and he keeps the bass strings as a rhythm. During his song he may totally change up his rhythm which adds much color to the song. Then you have a style like Richie Havens. Check out a video of him playing Motherless Child at Woodstock on Youtube. Non stop really fast and furious strumming. Neil Young is another one to hear a good sound in his strumming. Personally I think it's about getting a feel for the music then just letting it come through your strumming. I don't know how else to explain it besides listening to lots of different styles and pushing yourself to imitate the sound. Your a beginner so give yourself time to develop this part of your playing. Eventually you should start hearing your own style and method coming through. Lots of listening and practice is the only way I think.

Answer 3

a cool way to do it is by muting the strings (putting your fingering hand down on the strings so the strings cant vibrate) and pretend like its a drum, and just strum with no chords. once you get comfortable with that, keep the strum, but just throw some chords in there. dont think about what youre doing, but just go with it.

another thing you could do is just find a few chords that go well together, and just strum. just do it without worrying whether it sounds good, but eventually you'll find something. depending on what kind of mood you're in, you can make them slow, fast, etc.

the biggest thing is- dont think about what youre doing. let everything happen naturally

Answer 4

You can sometimes find strumming patterns online...but if you just try it with different strumming patterns, you will be able to find which one works best for you.

Answer 5

jumbo jumbo can u lumbo?
like my song
And Go here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar