What Does Up & Down Mean in Guitar Lessons?
There is more than one way to play guitar. You can fingerpick; you can flatpick, using a plectrum; or you can strum, either with a pick or with your fingers. No one method is better than any other; what is important is learning how to play your chosen method correctly. This involves moving picks and fingers both up and down.
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Up and Down
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The concept of down and up in playing a guitar, or any plucked instrument, is simple. Down means moving across the strings toward your feet. Up means coming across the strings upwards, toward your chest or face.
Strumming
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Strumming, with either pick or fingers, can be both up and down. The tone is slightly different between the two directions. When coming up, you are hitting the higher-pitched strings first; on the downward strum, you hit the bass strings first. The initial note attack is different, and what lingers the longest is different. Being able to play complex combinations of down and up provides variation in tone and beat when playing rhythm guitar.
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Flatpicking
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Flatpicking is the art of playing one or more strings at a time with the flatpick. Bluegrass, blues, jazz and rock have long traditions of single-note soloing. It is difficult to achieve speed when always picking in one direction, so it pays to be able to play both up and down, in different combinations.
Fingerpicking
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Fingerpicking can include downward motions of the fingers, using the backs of the nails. This technique is called frailing. It originated in banjo music but has been adapted successfully to guitar.
Notation
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In both standard notation and tablature, a down stroke is indicated by a square, open at the bottom. An oversized "V" indicates an up stroke.
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References
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