Fast Barre strumming

I'm having trouble imagining what the problem is, it all depends what you mean by clunky - could you post a recording?

The only things I could suggest until then would be to hit fewer strings on the upstroke to thin the sound out, and that releasing the pressure on your fretting hand to give either a mute or just a more staccato sound works wonders for a strum that's too in-your-face. When I'm strumming, I generally only hit 3/4 strings on the upstroke, and then either the full 4/5/6 (or fewer but on lower strings) on the down stroke, a few single root notes or slow rakes on the first beat, and loads of staccatos or palm mutes thrown in. I'm a sucker for hitting open strings on the last beat of a bar before a chord change too - my Nirvana influence shining through. For example, playing open E, I wouldn't play 022100 for each stroke like this:

--0---0-0---0-0-0--
--0---0-0---0-0-0--
--1---1-1---1-1-1--
--2---2-2---2-2-2--
--2---2-2---2-2-2--
--0---0-0---0-0-0--

..but something more like this:

.
--------0----------
------0-0---x-0-0--
------1-1---x-1-0--
------2-2---x-2-0--
--2---2-------2----
--0---0-------0---

It looks a lot different, but it still comes out sounding like an E and you get used to that style fairly quickly - you don't have to think about it, you're still only thinking 'E'. It's strum-icing on the E-cake :)

Is that any help? My comp's not up to recording at the mo, but I could emulate it fairly closely in Guitarpro and output an MP3 of it if you need to hear it :)

This is probably as good a time as any to learn how to post a recording...I'll look through the forums and see what I can learn. :D Will probably take me a couple of days before I can do it, though, especially if I need to buy any equipment...

I'm not really sure how to describe it better than that except to say that it's not so much a problem of which strings I'm hitting, but rather that the angle of attack on the strings I'm hitting is a little too...sharp? My plectrum is still angled upwards from the downstroke, so as my hand come up for the upstroke it "hooks" on the strings, rather than stroking them, and thus creating a much sharper, harder, more aggressive sound than I'm going for.

Anyway, let me try and figure out a recording, as I am probably not describing it too well. :oops:

Sometimes, when we have a vice-like grip on the pick, the wrist/forearm isn't able to rotate properly. It won't allow the pick angle to change on the upstroke. Try ro relax your grip pressure and see how that works.

Denny

Ahhh, that I have my own unique way of dealing with - but everyone else I've ever mentioned it to just looks at me funny :)

I hate the feel of thin floppy picks, and I don't like the raspberry noise that they make as they flap about over the strings either, so I've alway used the heaviest pick I can, which is a 3mm Dunlop "big stubby" - a bass pick essentially. They have no flex in them whatsoever, but that accentuates the problem you describe. I deal with that by holding it really loosely most of the time, and only really holding it firmly when I'm not strumming. Because it's held loosely, it angles itself over the string as it picks, if you see what I mean. That particular pick has indentations on either side, so you don't drop it or ping it out of your hand as much as you would holding other picks that loosely - the funny looks I mentioned are because people doesn't tend to realise what a difference the indentations make and when they try it they can't go 20 seconds without dropping the pick. Takes a bit of getting used to, and it's not necessarily a good way to do it. But hey, it works for me, it's gotta be worth a go right? :)

That's probably not much help, but you could try changing the angle that you hold the pick with regards to the strings - keep it more perpendicular to the neck so that neither up nor downstroke have any more 'hook' to them than the other, then either do the relaxed grip that I do, or twist it a little on that axis to help the tip of the pick slide over the string, or a little of both. Sorry - hard to describe all the different relations between all the angles. Maybe time for some ASCII :)

Looking down the neck it would look like this:
Pick: |
Neck: ==========

...or this:
Pick: /
Neck: ==========

That's the stop-the-hooking part, then the overcoming-using-a-harder-pick part you do by either relaxing your grip so it bends as required, or angling the pick on another axis like this:

Looking straight-on at the neck would look like this:
String: -------------------
Angle of pick:

...not:
String: -------------------
Angle of pick: -
(although not nearly so extreme - limits of ASCII :) Proabably around 15-30 degrees from the string, not the 60odd that ASCII shows).

Does that make sense? I get the feeling I'm going to be digging out the ol' digital camera tonight :mrgreen:

Argh...post got eaten. :evil:

But, in summary...thanks for the help, guys. I think my problem is that I need to loosen up and ease up the wrist.

Try making a figure 8 with your wrist. The 8 directed toward and away from you. That's the action that your wrist would make to angle on the down and upstroke.

Try this exercise and see if it helps. Slowly rake your pick across the strings, so you are playing each string one at a time in fast succession. Rake a full downstoke, and then rake a full upstoke. Start slow and get an even sound, then gradually increase speed. Let your wrist be very limber and loose, you will get a motion almost like a drummer hitting their drums. Raking the strings will naturally cause you to use the correct angle for the pick.

Check out this video to see what I am talking about. It is for electric, but there is no difference. Notice how this player's strum is actually just a fast rake up and down. At 2:27 in the video he plays this slow rake exactly the way you should start out practicing it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oGqfw3wAx8

And this is how it is for me, strumming is actually just a speeded-up rake.

Hope this helps.

I had the same problem for a while (in fact I still do half the time.)

I finally noticed that when I watched other guitarists, their pick changed angles for the upstroke. This seems to come naturally to most guitarists but it was anything but natural to me. I made a conscious effort to switch the angle back and forth as I did down and upstrokes, and it really helped.

The video Wes linked to above is the best illustration I've seen of this - watch the whole thing, there are some close-ups where you see exactly what angle he's hitting the strings with.

I would spend part of your practice sessions doing 8th-note strums and focusing on getting the right angle. Your wrist should learn the technique. (If it's like mine, it will probably hurt for a while too.)

Thin picks helped me too, but now that I'm working on the pick angle I can use a medium pick just fine.