Are you struggling to reach a solid intermediate level of strumming? I know it can feel like a huge leap to make that transition from a beginner to an intermediate player, so I want to share the number one skill I see people neglect when stuck in this state of limbo.
I’d say at least half of the students I teach in private lessons get tripped up with one particular aspect of playing called the Constant Strumming Technique. The CST is when you keep your strumming moving to the beat like a pendulum, even when you don’t dig the pick into the strings.
This is a critical skill to get down right away so you can make that leap to an intermediate strummer. It can be the difference between feeling stuck and frustrated to confident and empowered.
This isn’t a technique you have to employ for the rest of your guitar life, but it is something that you should lean into heavily until you are playing some more advanced strumming patterns.
In this video, I’ll show you how to get started with the CST and give you some key musical examples and strumming patterns to work on in your practice time.
I’d recommend taking a video of yourself practicing these things to ensure that your strumming hand isn’t pausing at any point. Sometimes, we think we are keeping our strumming “Constant” when we really aren’t.
Give it a shot, and let me know how it goes for you,
Nate
Nate: thanks for the refresher. I started strumming with a metronome but stopped using it as time passed by. I'm good with quarter notes, but I tend to speed up when I go to eighth notes. For the last two days I practiced using the strumming pattern on stand by me and found that I speed up on the chord transitions. I slowed down to 60 bpm and discovered that I rushed the transitions and would then be early on the first beat. You video really helped. Also I going back to recording myself. It was helpful when I first started.
Thanks Nate,
Very helpful.
David