Abstract: If you have not yet learned how to play in combat, this article will help you! After reading this article, you will learn to read and play guitar strumming. Recommended for beginner guitarists and for those who don't know how to read a strum.
Guitar strumming is the simplest and most common way to play the guitar. Combat is used in huge quantities, and there is a great variety.
Guitar strumming - symbols
The battle is usually denoted by three rows of symbols:
- First row and symbol: I– is a designation for the actions of the index finger of the right hand. The ^ sign means an upward strike, v - naturally downward, and the X sign means that we should hit the strings down and muffle the sound of the strings with the edge of the palm.
- Second row and symbol: P– designation of actions for the thumb of the right hand. If you see a ^ sign next to the letter P, then you need to pluck one bass string (bass strings are 6.5 and sometimes 4). That is, you touch a string and stop on the next string (thinner). Symbol | means that you need to do an action such as sliding your thumb down the strings, hitting several bass strings.
- Third row and symbol: L– Describes the game with the left hand. Symbol designations: v – at the moment of striking with the right hand, the strings should be tightly clamped. x – the strings are released (that is, the fingers simply lie on the strings), when the strings are struck, a muffled sound is obtained. ^ - press the strings well, make a blow and then slowly release ( note: this sign applies only to the strings that you strike (play) with the index finger of your right hand).
In each row, there is a - symbol, which is responsible for the duration of the strike.
Examples of battle designation:
I-^--v---v-x-v-^-v---
P-^-----------^-----
L-v--v---v-x-^-v-^---
Got it? If yes, great! If not, then read it again, then we will try to play in combat!
Learning to strum the guitar
And so, we take the guitar (In the last lesson, we talked about that). We hold down any and try the battle that we described above.
The first meaning of the letters I - ^, P - ^, L – v. Therefore, we need to firmly press the strings, pluck the bass and hit it up. Further, the value of I becomes v, P is empty, L is v. That is, we pinch the strings well and strike downwards with our index finger. Further I – x, P – empty, L – x. Therefore, we need to hit the strings (on which our fingers simply rest) and the plug with the palm of our hand.
This is how the battle is read and played. There is nothing complicated about this, the main thing is to train your fingers!
It's hard to enjoy playing guitar when it's all just basics, scales and exercises. With learning proper strumming on the guitar, you'll be playing songs in no time, adding a little joy to your practice. By learning some basic patterns and becoming familiar with the guitar, you'll be able to play any song you want. See Step 1 for more instructions.
Steps
Part 1
Getting to know the guitarHold your guitar correctly. Keep the guitar balanced on your hip, close to your body. To learn how to strum the guitar properly, you must keep the elbow of your striking hand toward the string at the base of the guitar so that you can use your wrist to strum. Let the neck of the guitar rest on the crook of your string pressing hand in a "V" shape created by your thumb and index finger.
- If you have to use your hands to hold the guitar, it's very difficult to strike properly. Let the weight of the guitar rest on your lap, anchor it with your elbow, and make sure you can move your striking hand without moving the guitar.
Hold the pick correctly. With your palm facing your body, bend all your fingers toward your palm. Place the pick on the first knuckle of your index finger so that it points directly toward your chest. Grasp the pick securely with your thumb, leaving only a few inches protruding from your fingers. Play around a bit to get a good, comfortable grip on the pick.
- Additionally, you can play the fight without a pick by using your thumb. Johnny Cash never used a pick. This choice depends on whether you can get a clear enough sound with your fingers. Practice using a pick and discard it if you find it too troublesome and find the sound of your fingers on the strings better.
- Not using a pick can be somewhat painful for your striking fingers. Growing calluses is always a good thing though.
Understand the height of the strings (in English this is called the action of the guitar). The distance of the strings to the fingerboard determines the force required to confidently press the string to the nut. Practice playing chords correctly and getting a clear sound on all strings at once.
- The action will be rattly if you hit "dead strings" that you haven't fully pressed down. It can be quite difficult to learn strumming if you don't play the chords correctly. If your strumming sounds dry or rattly, stop and play the chord correctly.
Part 2
The right fightStrike the strings between the sound hole and the bridge. Practice hitting the strings in different places to get a feel for the sound you create. A strike directly above the sound hole will create a low and hollow sound, while a strike closer to the saddle will give you a crisper, tighter sound.
Practice hitting all the strings equally. Try strumming a G major chord for a while in simple first position, striking down. Play quarter notes, one stroke per quarter note, trying your best to hit all the strings. Stay in tempo, counting four beats per measure.
- Starting with the low E string, strike all strings, trying to get them to sound at the same volume. It can be difficult at first to get it to sound like a "chord" so that all the strings sound more or less the same. For beginners, the first and sixth strings usually sound louder.
Try an up kick. When you feel comfortable doing it in rhythm, try strumming the guitar from light string to thick string. This is called moving up. This can be a little more difficult, but you want to get all the strings to sound the same, making the chord "sound" like one big sound rather than strumming the strings individually and slowly.
Use your wrist. A good fight is in the wrist. You will be able to easily identify a beginner by the swing of his arm from the elbow. Learn to keep your elbow close to the instrument while playing with your wrist.
- Many beginning guitarists find it difficult to hold the pick while learning to strum. Common problems include holding the pick too close to the base and allowing the pick to droop. Make sure you hold it properly, allowing it to protrude just slightly from your fingers.
Part 3
Learning basic rhythmic patternsLearn the alternating up and down rhythm. The most basic rhythmic pattern of combat is to alternate downward and upward strikes: (v^v^v^v^) Down up, down up, down up, down up. Keep the tempo, but try to play a down-and-up beat in each measure, dividing the quarter notes into eighth notes.
- Instead of one stroke per quarter, you will play two strokes per quarter. These are eighth notes. The tempo should be consistent, so stomp your foot at the same speed, but hit the strings twice every quarter note.
Change the chords. Once you are comfortable with your down-up rhythm on one chord, change it. Switch from a G major chord to a C major chord every measure, then every two quarters, practicing changing chords over time.
- Take your time as you study it and try to grasp it. It may be a slow move, but it will be easier for you to play if you take the time to do it now. If you move on to the next step before you feel comfortable changing chords, you will end up frustrated and unhappy with your sound. Practice the chord changes and the songs will be easy to play.
Don't hit the fourth note down on the beat. There are almost no songs with a down-up rhythmic pattern, and it would be boring to play the same pattern over and over again. Skip one beat down (x don't play) and see how the rhythm changes: (v^v^v^x^).
- Before learning more complex fighting rhythms, you must learn how to time the up or down strokes while maintaining the same up and down pattern in your hand. In other words, you will continue to move your wrist, but move the pick away from the strings.
Practice playing pop rock. A familiar beat that you will hear in a lot of live performances and practices is this: (v x v^x^v^)
- Start actively listening to your favorite songs that feature acoustic guitar to get some idea of the rhythmic patterns used. Now that you know the basics, you can start learning to vary your fighting patterns, skipping specific hits to achieve different effects in a song.
Practice muting the strings with your striking hand. Another way to add some variation to your strumming pattern is to loosen the strings with the palm of your striking hand, maintaining the rhythm but getting a more percussive effect when you strike the chosen strings with the pick.
- Neil Young has a distinctive, low-sounding heavy strumming style that he uses along with muted strings, and acoustic pop star Jack Johnson also has a distinctive muted strumming style that is easy to learn and sounds more unusual than it actually is.
Put the chord and tempo first. The beginning guitarist softens the beat by focusing too much on the pattern and too little on tempo, chord clarity, and song flow. When you play, try to focus on the chords and then the rhythm. You'll sound like a pro in no time.
Good day, dear guitarists and guitarists! In this article I will tell you and clearly demonstrate how to play the six on a guitar with a mute. In the previous article, I looked at what combat is and what types of combat there are.
However, the battle of 6 is far from the only battle on the guitar. On the site I also analyze Tsoev’s fight, which is even simpler (!), but it’s worth studying it later.
What movements does a six fight consist of?
So, what movements does it consist of? fight six?
Looks something like this
This is it fight six. After we have completed the 6th movement, we begin to perform the 1st again - and so on.
Video tutorial on how to play fight six on guitar
For those who better perceive information by sight, I have specially released my own guide about what a battle is, why it is needed - and I carefully tell and show how to play a six-stroke on a guitar (with muting).
A lot of boring stuff, but I advise you to watch it!
Fight six on guitar without muting
I decided to add some interesting information for you on this battle.
There is another type of battle 6, but it is less beautiful, but easier than the first (but I strongly point out to you that it is mandatory to be able to play the first battle!). This method of play replaces the "stub" movement with another. Instead of a plug, we draw from top to bottom (3, 2, 1 string) with our index finger. And there is no need to do any “ok”, and there is no need to plug the strings.
Useful information about fight six
The beat of 6 is used in many songs. Any, absolutely any guitarist knows this fight, because everyone starts with it. The only problem that may arise during training (most likely will arise) is the “stub” movement. This cannot be solved by any “special” techniques; everything is solved by practice. When I was studying, I always told myself: “I’ll do it 1000 times and then it will work.” And I repeated these tedious exercises over and over again - and in the end, I managed to do it perfectly.
I wish you to have the same patience and diligence - and you will succeed! This fight can be learned in a day, spending about 5 hours on it. Absolutely anyone can learn it in 2-3 days.
The six guitar fight is almost the simplest and most popular type of fight, especially in Russian rock songs. With it you can perform most of the compositions. In general, strumming is the most popular way to accompany singing. It is not much more complicated than the four, but it sounds more driving and is played faster due to pauses. The six strike is a great option for both beginners and advanced guitarists.
The game of this battle is very simple, here is the scheme: down - down-up - up-down-up. Long lines between movements indicate pauses. To better understand how to perform this smoothly, play the following sequence: down-up-down-up-down-up-down-up. Practice it with any chords until it works well. Now remove the second and fifth elements from the diagram. That is, you play down, and where it should sound up, you simply move your hand without touching the strings, and then continue to play down and up, and again move your hand empty.
There is another easy way to learn how to play this guitar strum. You can break the entire sequence into two parts and practice them separately, and then connect them. It looks like this:
- down-up-down-up.
- down-up-down-up.
Selected elements are played with sound, and not selected elements are played without sound. Practice the guitar strumming piece by piece and then try to put it together. To make your practice more interesting, try playing different chords. For example, sequences: C, Am, F, G or Em, C, G, D. Many songs are built on them so that playing them will help you not only practice the technique, but also learn the accompaniment of a song in absentia.
It is better to combine chords when you confidently play the pattern on one chord. Many beginners have difficulties when changing chords: for example, it is difficult to maintain the rhythm or it is not clear at what point to change the chord. Let’s immediately clarify this point: the chord is rearranged immediately after the last stroke up and on the new chord we immediately play downwards without a pause.
Below we will attach video lessons that show in great detail and clearly how to play six. Look at them carefully, they will help you clarify unclear points.
What is fight six from the point of view of musical theory?
As you know, any song has a meter, which defines, roughly speaking, a set of notes of different durations in each measure. So, the guitar strike six corresponds to 4/4 or 2/4 time signatures. What do you mean? Let's look at 4/4 as an example. This meter means that each measure has 4 beats, which can be read as ras-and-two-and-three-and-four-and.
If you superimpose the battle and score diagrams on top of each other, you will see that the elements completely coincide. By the way, learning to play with a count is a good way to learn how to play correctly and evenly. Try to count for each movement (including idle strikes).
At first it will seem that this is impossible, but after a few attempts you will succeed. This useful skill will significantly help you learn how to perform more complex combinations in the future.
Complicated version of the battle
If you are already good at playing a simple version of combat, you can move on to studying a more complex and interesting version of it - with jamming. The game scheme remains the same, we just add jamming on the second and fifth hits. What does it mean to add jamming? This means that instead of making a sound, we hit the strings with our fingers, and then immediately cover them with the edge of our palm so that they stop sounding. If you do this with little force, you may even get a click from the beating of the strings on the floor of the frets. This sound makes the sound more interesting. The video lessons attached below talk in detail about how to properly mute strings.
What songs are played?
Of course, to learn how to play six 100%, you need to do this with some song. Here is a small list of diverse and simple compositions that you can learn to play with a six:
- Last call.
- Orbit without sugar.
- Vladimir Central.
- Three white horses.
- When your girlfriend is alone.
In fact, the list is almost endless, if you sing well, then take any song you like, with a 90% chance the battle six will suit it. Video lessons on YouTube will help you learn how to sing correctly to accompaniment.
What other types of fights are there?
Types of strumming on the guitar in order, from simple to complex:
- Four or simple (down-up-down-up).
- Six or variety (army) (you already know the pattern).
- Figure Eight (down - down - up-down-down-up-down-up).
- Spanish.
As you can see, fights are named based on the number of strikes used in them (with the exception of the last one). Spanish guitar strumming is a separate topic. In general, this is a collective definition that includes many different ways of accompanying using techniques characteristic of Spanish music. Lessons on YouTube tell you in detail and show how to do such things.
That's all, we wish you good luck on the difficult path of mastering the guitar. We hope that this article has moved you a little further towards your goal. We remind you that we also have a VKontakte group where we post various lessons, sheet music, tablature, videos and other useful materials for guitarists. Come in!
And a small gift - a lesson in Spanish combat!
Four- the simplest guitar strumming. At the same time, they can play 90% of all songs.
It's played like this:
down – up – down with mute – up
We play down with our thumb. Up with your index finger. Marked with an asterisk jamming.
How to play jamming?
You clench your palm into a fist and straighten it so that you hit the strings with your nails. At the same time as you strike with your nails, you need to place your thumb on all the strings. The nails make a click, and the thumb muffles the strings.
Once you've learned jamming, play with it. fight four described above.
Video: Fight four and jamming the strings
For working out battle four play the band's song Cinema-Pack of Cigarettes
Chords Em Am C D.
One beat for each chord.
Don't rush. Spend as much time on this strum and these chords as you need to play with confidence and not have to worry about where to stick your fingers. Some people need a week, others a couple of months, it doesn’t matter.
Also practice the standard sequences with this fight:
Am Dm E Am
Dm G C Am
Em C G D
Six- the second easiest fight. And the most popular.
They can also play 90% of all songs. In many songs fight six sounds more driving than fight four.
In addition, thanks to the presence of pauses, this battle can be played much faster than a four-man battle.
It's played like this:
To better understand how to play it, play this structure:
down-up-down-up-down-up-down-up
Those. just down and up 4 times, each blow of the same duration.
And then throw out 2 blows from it, the second and the fifth (these are up and down blows).
But don’t just throw them away, but run them through with your hand without touching the strings. This is called idle hand.
Those. the hand always moves up and down with the same frequency, sometimes it just doesn’t play, it moves idle.
This principle is based not only fight six, but also many others.
It's more clear in the diagram: 
- Black arrow - strike the strings
- White arrow - idle (hand moves, but does not play)
- Down arrow - play down, up arrow - up, respectively
The second way to understand this fight:
We break it into 2 parts and work on them separately:
1) down-up idle-down-up
2) down idle-up-down-up
Now let's combine both parts.
Practice battle six thoroughly using our already favorite sequences:
Em Am C D
Am Dm E Am
Dm G C Am
Em C G D
Play the same fighting six song Cinema-When Your Girlfriend Is Sick
Chords G Em C D
In the chorus C D G Em
One strum for each chord
As we can see, in the lead and in the chorus the chords are the same, it’s just that in the chorus the sequence starts with the C chord
Let's add jamming to battle six.
How to play jamming is described above in the four-man battle.
As we already know, six taking into account pauses it is played like this:
down – down – up – up – down – up
Make jamming on the second and fifth strike (downward strikes)
It will turn out like this:
down – down with mute – up – up – down with mute – up
Jamming is marked with asterisks.
The muffled impacts will occur after the same amount of time, i.e. they will keep the rhythm.
Yes, in fact, it is easily noticeable if you count the number of shares from one asterisk to another.
It is equal to four.
