Learning to play Guitar

allanb49

I've been thinking of learning to play guitar for a while now but always been afraid. But one main thing that has put me off is strumming.

Now i know i have to ask a really stupid question and i would like people to not have a go at me for it.

Say you want to play three strings how do you go about not hitting the other 3 or do you go through all 6 and it just picks up the 3 you have held down?

Say a fast song or power chords like Green day or a fast song like metallicas

How does the strumming work?

Thanks guys

seamus

There are a large number of techniques for only hitting certain strings. Sometimes you just hit those strings you need. Other times you can "deaden" some strings using your fingers so that you can strike all 6 strings, but only those that you need to, make any noise. A lot of the time the chord is made up of all six strings, so you strum all six.

It all comes with practice. When you're first learning, you generally get used to a relaxed, fluid, up-and-down motion in your strum, then you learn how to vary that, then you can move onto different types of strumming that produce different sounds.

I wouldn't get hung up on it from day one. Learn to play fairly standard acoustic songs and the rest will come naturally with time.

NDC

Hi.
Here's a few pointers for you, hope they help....

First of all, don't EVER worry about another guitar player laughing at you! You'll find that most guitar players are only too eager to give advice, as they can remember what it's like to be a beginner.
Also, to be honest, you NEVER stop learning, you never get to the stage where you know everything. Any decent musician is aware of this. I'm a grade 7 Classical Guitarist and I also play Rock/Heavy Metal. Even thought I do know a certain amount at this stage, there are days when I feel like I know nothing. So don't worry at all about not knowing something. Anyone who sneers at you is suffering from what we call "the arrogance of the mediocre".

As far as your specific question goes, what you need to do is simply play the strings you need to play. Ignore the others. Start off at as slow a pace as you can. I mean dead slow! If you can play something, either a chord or a song or a solo or whatever completely comfortably at a dead slow speed, you're sorted. You're almost there, all you have to do then is increase the speed. I know that sounds easier said than done, and ok, there is a lot of work still needs to be put in; it's really important though to learn to play whatever it is SLOWLY. If you don't do it this way, when you speed up, it'll sound sloppy and lazy, and not in a cool way; in a crappy way.
So learn the chords and then SLOWLY strum them. You see, what you're doing is training your hands to instinctively go to where you want them to go. Eventually, with practice, you'll find yourself fretting any chord you learn and strumming away automatically. You won't have to consiously tell your hands what to do, it'll just happen. I suppose it's kinda like using a knife and fork. You learned how to use them when you were very young; you don't need to think about using them anymore, you just do it.

Remember, the golden rule is to learn slowly and carefully. You wouldn't be interested in learing guitar if you didn't already know that music is something very very special. It's worth doing properly.

Best of luck! If there are any more questions, post away and we'll help you out!!!!

-=al=-

I find playing guitar involves muting strings and avoiding making unwanted noises rather than playing actual notes and making sounds!


takes a while to get a nice easy flowing rhythmic natural stum going on, its all in the wrist and comes with practice and patience