I’ll admit to getting a tad frustrated, I’ve posted a song on here about the subject. I love fingerstyle and chord melody but….strumming….it’s like my fingers are raking over gravel. Add chord changes to the mix and timing the change whilst continuing to strum..well I miss the strings every time. Fingers collapse like a house of cards. In a nutshell there is no continuity. Throw into the mix the triple strum and at the moment not a chance. Does anyone have or had these same problem areas to developing their strumming technique. On the road to this most necessary ability have you also stumbled your way to perfecting this skill.
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A friend of mine who plays acoustic guitar and whose strumming out strums mine when he plays ukulele said it is all about feeling the song. Funnily enough I have started just strumming basic Blues chords not worrying too much about misplaced chords, slipping fingers etc. Thing is I can ‘feel’ the Blues even though it is a bit raggy in places. Yet when I turn to strum patterns and such on sheet music…up down, down up….I am all at sea again. Matt’s walk/ running technique sets me on the right track but show me a chord melody piece….Matt’s arrangement of Yesterday…just love it!…the song is so well known the melody is there in my head and the strumming parts funnily enough have not phased me too much. I am going to start practicing Caravan, the melody line just hooks me in. So sink or swim I am just going to go for it.
As to loads of ukuleles strumming along…I too am not a fan and I mean no disrespect here. What attracted me to the Ukulele was the pure soul of the instrument, the tone packs a punch in so many ways it just sings emotion when simply played on it’s own….no embellishments required. Again respect to all Ukulele players, both strummers and pickers.
I would take things back to basics a bit. Proper often get hung up in strum patterns and tricky things like triplet strums. But a simple downstrum on every beat can be really sweet as well. Work on getting that sounding really nice and in time and don’t pressure yourself to do too much too soon. It’ll come - I promise!
Yes, I too find strumming difficult, and I too am much more drawn to fingerstyle/chord melody. I must admit I don't even like the sound of a load of ukeleles all strumming along to Beatles or whatever very much, but I would like to be able to play along with others and that seems the most popular style, so.... I do sympathise.
It's one reason why I thought I had better start again from basics and so was attracted to Matt's detailed and kindly approach.
I'm still trying to just persevere with the simplest down, down, down, down for the moment, no singing, and first four chord changes.
Don’t panic. This is really common. Most people presume strumming is the easiest thing to get on a uke but I think it can be really tricky. Be patient with yourself and go back to basics.
This video goes into a lot of detail. The main points for me is getting that 45 degree angle and keeping your strum as light as possible. Remember that on your up strum you needn’t strum all four strings:
https://youtu.be/PA_1ZG2lpUk