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How To Strum A Guitar With no Pick

[http://www.more-than-guitar-chord-charts.com/acoustic-guitar.html acoustic guitar] - How to strum a guitar with no pick is really a question beginners and advancing guitarists often ask, specially as they become excited by the discovery of recent guitar styles.
Meaning of strumming versus plucking

"The left hand may be the smart one, as the right executes"

This famous phrase was the response distributed by Paco de Lucia on a Spanish tv show several decades back. It did indeed cause him lots of suffering when it comes to physical injuries.
Those injuries were inflicted with a group of extreme right wing fanatics simply because they decided that Paco's response had political connotations.

The question resulting from the interviewer was: "As a guitarist, which of these two hands carries the largest challenge?"

As with Paco's answer, yes, it is correct that the best hand executes the notes prepared (or fretted) by the left-hand, as well as open strings. (Please be aware the example covers right handed guitar players, obviously the opposite is true for left handed guitarists).

If we want to learn to strum a guitar without a pick, there are many different techniques through which this can be done, however they all belong to either of the following main groups:

Plucking and
Strumming

Plucking is when each string is picked individually. This can be done in succession, as with executing arpeggios, or concurrently, as in "claw hammer" style.

Strumming is when the strings of the instrument are played in fast succession, one by one, inside a sweeping motion, which may be descending, ascending, or a combination of.

With the possible exception of some "rasgueado",( I'll come back to this later) strumming is definitely done over several strings consecutively. Plucking can be done either with the aid of claws and thumb picks, as with banjo styles, or with bare fingers or natural nails, as in classical and flamenco guitar styles.

Strumming can be done using a plectrum, aka pick, or with bare fingers or natural nails. We'll concentrate on this article regarding how to strum a guitar without a pick.

Finger strumming styles

The fundamental bare hand strumming styles can be divided into three main groups:

Thumb strumming
Index or index and thumb strumming
"Rasgueado" or ripping style
Plus all mixtures of any of the three in the above list.

Thumb strumming

Perhaps the most basic from the finger styles. Thumb strumming is performed by resting either the little finger or both little and ring fingers of the right-hand on our bodies, underside from the strings and running the end from the thumb over the strings.

The motion can be descending only ( most typical), ascending and descending (less common) and ascending only ( rare). As we grow the nails around the right-hand, the descending stroke will be done by the nail striking the strings, which gives a more percussive tone and sharp attack.

The ascending motion is definitely done by the nail striking the string. This method does not involve any wrist movement, hence the little finger resting on your body from the guitar.
Some typical uses are in playing jazz ballads, specially one chord per bar type songs.
The notorious jazz player Wes Montgomery used thumb strumming as his main right hand technique.
If we want to learn efficiently how you can strum a guitar without a pick, it will likely be very useful that people observe such players and grow from them.

Index or index plus thumb strumming

Perhaps the most widely used way of strumming a steel string electric guitar, although not necessarily exclusive to. The basic motion is, as its names indicates, done with the index finger alone, or both index and thumb pressed together.

[http://www.more-than-guitar-chord-charts.com/acoustic-guitar.html acoustic guitar lessons] - When playing with the index finger alone, the ascending stroke will attack the strings using the back tip from the finger, or nail, based on whether we have grown it.

The downward motion always involves the finger nail striking the strings. When using finger and thumb together, the ascending stroke will invariably attack the strings with the thumb's nail.

Again, nail attack is sharper and brighter. The most important thing about this technique is the wrist movement. The right methods for executing the strokes are:
Before starting the down stroke, the back of the hand is facing slightly upwards.
To execute the down stroke, the arm must descend gently as the cuff is rotated inwards and the index finger attacks the strings starting in the
The upstroke is performed exactly reversing the down stroke, beginning to rotate the cuff first, then raisin the forearm as the finger begins attacking the strings
We can decide to grow the fingernails depending on what sound and tone we are trying to accomplish

"Rasgueado" or ripping style

The most difficult from the strumming techniques may be the "rasgueado". The reason behind this is because it involves more muscles of the right hand than the other kinds, even though it does not require a rotation of the wrist for the down stroke.

The fundamental technique starts by making a fist using the thumb extended away from the hand. The palm of the hand supports the tip from the fingers, which are primed to spring out.
Then, as the arm lowers the hand onto the strings, we spring each finger with force in rapid succession, beginning with the index. Some players will release the index first, as the most typical way is to produce the little finger first and index last.

This results in a ripping effect since four fingers are hitting several strings, causing a very percussive, drumming and dry sound.

The upstroke, if required, is done usually with the upper area of the thumb, the nail, requiring then for the wrist to be rotated. Styles completed with only the down stroke would be tango and some flamenco "palos".
Styles completed with both of them are mostly flamenco styles or "palos", rumba, along with other South American styles for example milonga.
Almost all players have a very firm foundation regarding how to strum a guitar without a pick.

Combinations of the above

[http://www.more-than-guitar-chord-charts.com/acoustic-guitar-lessons.html acoustic guitar lessons] - Most flamenco guitarists, for example Paco de Lucia have developed very advanced right hand techniques in accessory for those explained above

This concludes the description of the basic styles for how to strum a guitar with no pick.

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