How to Strum a Guitar Fast

There are two hands involved in playing the guitar. One plays the notes on the neck of the guitar and the other strums the strings over the body of the guitar. Almost every guitar is set up for players to strum with the right hand. Some guitars are made opposite for left-handed players, although usually left-handed players will use a standard guitar and turn it upside down. Beginning guitar players usually concentrate on fingering the neck of the guitar and forget the importance of strumming. Fast strumming is one of the challenges of playing guitar, and when it's time to do it in a song, many guitar players find they don't have the ability to do so.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Pick

1. Start slow. Use your pick and use all down strokes as you repeatedly strike the thickest string on your guitar in a solid pattern. Keep the rhythm as steady as you can. Once you can do this for a minute or so and it sounds good, reverse and stroke the string with the edge of your pick coming from under it, as well. Practice until you have a good rhythm. It may take you some time to do it without catching your pick on the string. If this happens, try striking the string with a smaller portion of the tip of the pick. Once you can do this, try striking the string with alternating up and down strokes, building up speed slowly until you can move your pick quickly and smoothly up and down against the string.

2. Strum all six strings the way you did the single thick string. Do this slowly and make sure your pick drags across all six of the strings smoothly. Repeat this coming up, starting at the first (thinnest) string of the guitar.

3. Play all six strings with alternating up and down strokes, but don't worry if you don't get every string. Try to get as many as you can. Practice this at a moderate speed. Once you're comfortable at a moderate speed, gradually increase the speed until you are playing faster. You will want to tighten your wrist to gain more control over your strumming motion. This control is what allows you to maintain the rhythmic strum. You'll hold the pick firmly between thumb and forefinger at this point, with just the tip of it making contact with the strings, and you will feel the tension in your wrist. This signals you that you have the proper control for fast strumming.

References

• Guitar Strumming Basics

Resources

• How to Strum Fast (video)