The guitar is a very interesting instrument to play and it comes with a high level of versatility so that you can express your creativity through it. There are many techniques you will have to learn as a beginner to the subject and one of these is strumming. This is an essential skill you need to learn in the beginning.
You can carry out a Google search for the best guitar teacher Melbourne to get an idea of the options available to you when learning guitar. And having a good teacher in the beginning ensures that you obtain a strong foundation and understand the basic techniques. One of the basics you will learn is the right way to hold a pick. This is the first introduction to strumming. You need to hold the pick securely with your fingers but you need to make sure that you are not holding it too tight. The pick has to be held between the thumb and your index finger and the tip of the pick can extend a little bit beyond your fingers. You need to try different angles when holding the pick along with different pressures so that you have a good idea of what will allow for smooth strumming.
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There are some other basics that you will need to learn before you start learning strum patterns. And this is understanding time, rhythm and feel. Time is the beat that is the foundation to music and the character of the song is its feel. You may not be able to develop a sense for time and feel right away but with continuous practice, you will slowly start to get the hang of it. And this can greatly improve your strumming. When you first learn to strum, you can use simple strokes going up and down. When doing a downstroke, you need to move the pick in the downwards direction across the strings. The pick has to move from the thickest string to the thinnest string. And when it comes to an upstroke, you will need to reverse this movement starting from the thinnest and going to the thickest. These basic movements will give you an idea of the movement of the pick and practising this will make you more comfortable with moving the pick.
And then there are basic strum patterns that can help improve your rhythmic skills.
Your guitar teacher will take you through these basic patterns so that you can learn what it is like to create different dynamics. A basic pattern you will learn in this stage is “down, down, up, up, down”. You can try this with simple chord progressions. You need to be consistent when you are strumming and this means sticking to even and steady strokes. The spacing has to be the same between each strum. If you find this a little difficult, you can use a metronome to stay on the beat. And this will help improve your timing easily. You can then experiment by carrying the strength of your strokes so that you can create soft and loud sounds.