The joy of strumming

thomasross20

I can tend to focus on fingerstyle and it doesn't half kill your fingers/nails - but recently I've really been enjoying belting  out some simple old chords and trying some "flatpicking" and it's such a joy. Simplest is sometimes best - what are your favourite songs to strum/flatpick out? 

thomasross20

When I first heard it, I thought Billy Strings ' "Dust in a Baggie" was difficult - I'm sure the picking bits are but I checked out the chords and it's a simple G, C, D. Put some twang in your voice and crack out your jumbo and it'll be a great night lol.

Tannin

Sadly, I've waved goodbye to strumming. I don't use a pick at all these days. The closest I come (and I do this a lot) is a downward strum with the back of my nails. But with fingerpicking, the direction of a stroke is pretty much fixed, you can't really down/up/down, for example. 

But I'm gradually learning to get a bit of that sparkly double flick strum. It's very tricky with nails! (Much harder than with a pick.) I need to be both completely relaxed and really precise. It's not something you can practice by starting slow and gradually increasing speed, it only works at all if you go full tilt. Little by little, it will happen by itself and become something I can do at will (same as with a plectrum). I've been fingerpicking full-time for about three years, one more year ought to do it I reckon.

(So how do flamenco players learn it?)

thomasross20

I do the nail strumming, too... but it destroys my nails (even with the Barielle I'm using). 
Nylon strings would be better for that. 
Strumming has reignited my interest in my L-05. 
I actually have always preferred legato to picking but that is much harder to do on electric. Bluegrass-style picking is very cool.

I remember getting a flamenco book once - I pulled a few tricks from it. Not the timings, though - crazy timings. 
I love giving my strings a strum!

GoFish

I started with strumming on a nylon acoustic so it's always felt the most natural movement to me on any guitar - it does sting sometimes though!

I'm actually trying to incorporate plectrum playing back into my reportoire as there's stuff that just can't be done right otherwise - it feels unnatural for me to use a pick to do surf music, and that can't be good.

Everley Brothers have some mean strumming to get in to.

Soupman

There's one song I play fingerpicking but with the chorus strummed. 
I'd like to be able to palm a plectrum whilst fingerpicking & bring it into play for the chorus as I've seen in several YouTube clips.
My index finger doesn't seem to want to participate!
Guess I'll have to work on it.
 Anyone got any tips?

ScreamingDave

Soupman said:

There's one song I play fingerpicking but with the chorus strummed. 
I'd like to be able to palm a plectrum whilst fingerpicking & bring it into play for the chorus as I've seen in several YouTube clips.
My index finger doesn't seem to want to participate!
Guess I'll have to work on it.
 Anyone got any tips?

Are you singing at the same time?  If not quickly stick it between your lips

munckee

I’m definitely in the strummer camp, not particularly complicated stuff but a big open chord strummed on a good acoustic is pretty hard to beat. 

Some of my favourite strummy songs are the usual Dylan, particularly like a rolling stone.  Down by the river by Neil young, pretty much anything by rem or Springsteen and where is my mind by the pixies is usually the first thing I play on any acoustic. 

stufisher

Seagull by Bad Company ... simple, effective, great to just play and enjoy. Always loved it, always will ... and I do still play it regularly  

tomjax

I'm mainly a fingerpicker but love belting out some rhythm pieces too. A few faves are Space Oddity by Bowie, anything by Neil Young from the Harvest album, Only Living Boy in New York by Simon and Garfunkel, Free Falling by Tom Petty, Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty. I tend to drag my 12 string out for these, all adds to the fun.

Kilgore

I don't use a pick and mostly finger pick. For strumming I either do a boom chicka  style with the back of the nails or a simple thumb for downstrokes and index finger brush ups.

DavidR

Always found strumming a bit tediosokins but I think that’s ‘cos I don’t sing and also because I’ve never picked up much/any strumming technique. Never even used a plectrum much actually. 

Some people strum with quite a bit of technique and it’s clever and can sound good too. 

Having self-taught in more or less complete isolation from imported Blues and Ragtime tabs in the 1970’s I can only fingerpick on an acoustic with metal and plastic fingerpicks. 

But I do that quite well!

One trick pony?

:-)

Tannin

Kilgore said:

I don't use a pick and mostly finger pick. For strumming I either do a boom chicka  style with the back of the nails or a simple thumb for downstrokes and index finger brush ups.

How do you get a decent tone out of your thumb? Whenever I try that I get a dead sound on the (thumb) downstrokes.

GoFish

Tannin said:

Kilgore said:

I don't use a pick and mostly finger pick. For strumming I either do a boom chicka  style with the back of the nails or a simple thumb for downstrokes and index finger brush ups.

How do you get a decent tone out of your thumb? Whenever I try that I get a dead sound on the (thumb) downstrokes.

That will match the tone of the index finger for upstrokes, shirley?

Or reverse it and have nails on the fingers going down, and the nail from the thumb on the return journey, for that brighter strum. What am I missing?

@DavidR ;  - One Pick Pony more like   Thank you, you've been a wonderful audience...

Tannin

Not at all, @GoFish. On the down-thumb, up-finger side, index finger had a much brighter tone than the thumb (which is not surprising really - it's much smaller and bony and naturally falls roughly perpendicular to the strings where the thumb is large and fleshy and naturally wants to be almost parallel. Also, by moving my wrist out away from the guitar a an inch or so I can rotate the fingers to get some nail in to further brighten the tone,. Can't do that with a thumb.

YMMV but I get the brightest tone from the index finger, followed by the ring finger, then middle, thumb a long way last. (Your fingers may or may not have the same-shape tips as mine.) 

Fingernails going down, no worries at all. I do that a lot. Thumbnail up ... nope. Feels awkward and sounds crappy. Hard to time it right also. Maybe I need to sit down and practice it every day until I get a decent sound from it? 

GoFish

Thanks for the explanation - I think you're probably correct. Certainly when playing bass there's an ocean of difference between each one, so it stands to reason that there would be for acoustic too - I find it quite hard to discern such tone matters wihle strumming / playing a steel string.

The practice thing could work, bit annoying until it does though! I had a similar experiece with thumb picks - almost impossible to work with, until it wasn't.

 On reflection I use the inner edge of my thumb, getting a bit of skin there too to match the sound of the fingernails. My callus is right where the nail and the pad meet, on the left "corner" of the thumb.

Tannin

^ Interesting. I have quite a large callus but it's on the side of my thumb, maybe 8 or 9mm back from the tip and 5mm below the nail. (A picture would help. Tomorrow when there is light, if I remember.) 

I like your "almost impossible until it isn't advice.

Kilgore

Tannin said:

Kilgore said:

I don't use a pick and mostly finger pick. For strumming I either do a boom chicka  style with the back of the nails or a simple thumb for downstrokes and index finger brush ups.

How do you get a decent tone out of your thumb? Whenever I try that I get a dead sound on the (thumb) downstrokes.

I angle the thumb a bit so it's not parallel and the strings get a bit of nail. 

bertie

stufisher said:

Seagull by Bad Company ... simple, effective, great to just play and enjoy. Always loved it, always will ... and I do still play it regularly  

 

great call and so pleased somebody else actually knows (or admits to) it  

I usually fanny about with picking/hybrid........or same as @Kilgore with the "back of the nail" jobbie.........  each time I do play it, I may need to capo it differently  cos my massively limited vox cant cope with the key,  that day    some days OK in normal key.....some days  I need to capo, some I need to capo right up and drop an octave  

other than that - for me probably,  Take It Easy........................

ESBlonde

I’m a strummer, see my recent post about buying a nylon strung Ibanez (boy gone mad) to help develop my finger picking. I tend to be mostly full strums on the steel strung, although I skip in some lead lines or key phrases from a piece if applicable. Live in the band an acoustic strumming is a nice thing and when solo/busking style you can fill out the bottom, rhythm and some melody all as applicable. 

P.S.
There is a local singing guitarist that I quite admire whose technique is strong rhythmic strumming whatever and he avoids fancy bits or time changes etc. the result is a rather satisfying full backing sound to his voice. Whilst that is good for Joe Public I do find myself doing far more fills and motifs.

Soupman

+1 for Paul Rogers' Seagull.
I like to play it using a Fred Kelly Speedpick and middle finger/nail.