BerryBuffington93

How you can Strum A Guitar With no Pick

guitar chord charts - How to strum a guitar without a pick is really a question beginners and advancing guitarists often ask, specially because they become excited by the discovery of new guitar styles. Meaning of strumming versus plucking

"The left-hand is the smart one, while the right executes"

This famous phrase was the response given by Paco de Lucia on the Spanish television show several decades back. It did indeed cause him lots of suffering when it comes to physical injuries. Those injuries were inflicted by a group of extreme right wing fanatics because they decided that Paco's response had political connotations.

The question posed by the interviewer was: "As a guitarist, which of these two hands carries the largest challenge?"

As in Paco's answer, it is indeed correct that the best hand executes the notes prepared (or fretted) by the left-hand, as well as open strings. (Please note that the example covers right handed guitar players, obviously the alternative is true for a lefty guitarists).

If we want to learn how to strum an instrument without a pick, there are many different techniques through which this can be done, but they all belong to either from the following main groups:

Plucking and
Strumming

Plucking happens when each string is picked individually. You can do this in succession, as in executing arpeggios, or concurrently, as in "claw hammer" style.

Strumming is when the strings of the instrument are played in fast succession, one by one, in a sweeping motion, which can be descending, ascending, or perhaps a mixture of.

Using the possible exception of some "rasgueado",( I'll come back to this later) strumming is definitely done over several strings consecutively. Plucking can be achieved either with the aid of claws and thumb picks, as with banjo styles, or with bare fingers or natural nails, as in classical and flamenco guitar styles.

Strumming can be done using a plectrum, aka pick, or with bare fingers or natural nails. We will focus on this short article regarding how to strum an instrument without a pick.

Finger strumming styles

The fundamental bare hand strumming styles can be divided into three main groups:

Thumb strumming Index or index and thumb strumming "Rasgueado" or ripping style

Plus all mixtures of any of the three listed above.

Thumb strumming

This is perhaps the most basic of the bare hand styles. Thumb strumming is performed by resting either the small finger or both little and ring fingers from the right-hand on our bodies, underside of the strings and running the tip of the thumb across the strings.

The motion can be descending only ( most typical), ascending and descending (less common) and ascending only ( rare). As we grow their nails around the right-hand, the descending stroke will be made by the nail striking the strings, which provides a more percussive tone and sharp attack.

The ascending motion is always made by the nail punching the string. This method doesn't involve any wrist movement, hence the small finger resting on your body of the guitar. Some typical uses have been in playing jazz ballads, specially one chord per bar type songs. The notorious jazz player Wes Montgomery used thumb strumming as his main right hand technique. If we want to learn efficiently how to strum a guitar without a pick, it will likely be very beneficial that we observe such players and learn from them.

Index or index plus thumb strumming

This is perhaps probably the most popular way of strumming a steel string electric guitar, but not necessarily exclusive to. The basic motion is, as its names indicates, completed with the index finger alone, or both index and thumb pressed together.

acoustic guitar - When having fun with the index finger alone, the ascending stroke will attack the strings with the back tip from the finger, or nail, depending on whether we've grown it.

The downward motion always requires the finger nail hitting the strings. When utilizing finger and thumb together, the ascending stroke will always attack the strings with the thumb's nail.

Again, nail attack is sharper and brighter. The most crucial thing about this technique is the wrist movement. The correct ways of executing the strokes are: Before beginning the down stroke, the back of the hand is facing slightly upwards. To complete the down stroke, the arm must descend gently because the cuff is rotated inwards and also the index finger attacks the strings starting at the The upstroke is done exactly reversing the down stroke, beginning to rotate the cuff first, then raisin the forearm while the finger begins attacking the strings We can choose to grow the finger nails depending on what sound and tone we are trying to accomplish

"Rasgueado" or ripping style

Probably the most difficult from the strumming techniques is the "rasgueado". The reason behind the reason being it involves more muscles of the right hand than the other kinds, although it doesn't need a rotation of the wrist for the down stroke.

The basic technique starts by looking into making a fist using the thumb extended from the hand. The palm of the hand supports the tip from the fingers, which are primed to spring out. Then, because the arm lowers the hand to the strings, we spring each finger with force in rapid succession, starting with the index. Some players will release the index first, while the most common way is to release the little finger first and index last.

This results in a ripping effect since four fingers are hitting several strings, creating a very percussive, drumming and dry sound.

The upstroke, if required, is performed usually with the upper part of the thumb, the nail, requiring then for that wrist to be rotated. Styles done with only the down stroke would be tango plus some flamenco "palos". Styles done with both are mostly flamenco styles or "palos", rumba, and other South American styles for example milonga. Almost all players have a very solid foundation on how to strum a guitar without a pick.

Combinations of the above mentioned

guitar chord charts - Most flamenco guitarists, such as Paco de Lucia allow us very advanced right-hand approaches to accessory for the ones explained above

This concludes the description of the basic styles based on how to strum a guitar without a pick.