After reading the thread on Strumming by Woodchuck, I started thinking of my own strumming problems.
I have been playing for 7 months and an area that seems to have stalled in my progression is increasing my strumming speed. I have been trying to play songs like Seven Bridges Road by the Eagles and Yer So Bad by Tom Petty, for example, and all goes well at slower speeds, but as I quicken the pace it all falls apart.
Are there any exercices that I can do to help improve my speed and accuracy in strumming or is it just practice practice practice?
Have you tried using a metronome?
They can be very helpful in improving this area. They can also provide an objective measure of that improvement. :)
From little things big things grow - Paul Kelly
Yeah, I'd suggest a metronome too. It's helped me a lot, even though it's darn frustrating at times!
The trick is to start slowly at a speed you can comfortably perform at and then gradually speed things up by increasing the speed 5 or 10 beats at a time - eventually you get there :lol:
Yeah, I have a metronome and use it sometimes....perhaps I should use it more. So I guess it's just practice then?
Loosey Goosey , someone told me that once, and It helps strum with your wrist and keep it loose to get a nice motion, since its a tighter strum it will also increase your speed.
One technique I use is to make a chord strum its four times UDUD (up down up down) then go to a new chord and do the same(usauly use powerchords and jsut slide em down one fret) keep the 1234 rythm going and speed it up 4 strums a chord and it shoudl help a little bit. It helped me out
I'd agree with the metronome theory as it's helped me.
I'd start out at a comfortable speed and increase it by 5 bpm after you get it down. I'd push it a few beats even if you aren't able to keep up. I think you'll find when you do drop the metronome speed down a bit you'll be a little better at the slower speed.
Psa. 42:8
By day the LORD commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.
