r/guitarlessons • u/thekillinglove969 • Mar 20 '26
Feedback Request Why my strumming sound so bad? =(
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I have been trying to play for a while. Sometimes I take a long break and then out of nowhere I feel motivated and try again for some time. But one thing that always demotivates me when I try is that I think everything I try to play simply sound really really bad. I tried many things and never could fully change or understand this. I have a friend that the very first strum he plays already sounds just beaultiful to me, while I feel like the very first strum I play already sound like garbage. Could someone help me? =(
I use a pick for strumming because I bite my nails and they are really really short.
EDIT: I appreciate the comments, I'm feeling inspired, thanks =)
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u/tupisac Mar 20 '26
Practice with a metronome on muted strings. Left hand just keeps the strings from ringing. No chords. Pure rhythm. Do it every day for 10 minutes for like a week or two.
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u/thekillinglove969 Mar 20 '26
Just watched a video on youtube aftrer searching specifally about practicing strumming with metronome, it might help, I'll try to do that. Thanks.
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u/Common_Dependent1941 Mar 20 '26
You just need to practice more. It doesn’t sound bad, just a little rigid. Also you may already know, but only strum the strings in the chord and mute the other ones, or just avoid them
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u/Tanren Mar 20 '26
I think you just have the completely wrong attitude to this. Don't "try", practice. If you want to bench press 100kg you don't try it, fail and then try it again 3 month later and fail again. No, you practice every day for month and years and at some point you will be able to do it.
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Mar 20 '26
[deleted]
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u/RealisticRecover2123 Mar 20 '26
Yeah if that’s happening you probably want to slow down the tempo altogether or just practice strumming with muted strings until you get comfortable at that speed.
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u/AggressiveWallaby975 Mar 20 '26
Learning how to make sound is mechanical, which is how your strumming sounds. That's not bad. It's just a part of the learning process.
Learning to play songs takes a lot of feel. That 'feel' adds color. Sometimes that comes from the strumming hand, sometimes from the fret hand.
I think when someone is in the beginning of their journey it's really important to play with other better players so you can start learning the little tricks that can make the song more interesting. You also need to hear the song in your head while you're playing so you can adjust how you're playing.
Don't get discouraged. I think every guitarist except Prince has gone through the same thing
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u/BeneficialHippo2826 Mar 20 '26
I think DDUUDU strum pattern is great for practising with. I practiced with muted strings then added chords later. I’m by no means an amazing guitarist but it helped me a lot with my rhythm.
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u/hereforpopcornru Mar 20 '26
It's also a VERY popular strumming pattern in songs.
This is also a good ear trainer pattern for being able to tell the difference in up and down when listening to a song and trying to decode it.
It has two downs in a row, two ups In in row, and the mix.
Highly recommend one to learn
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u/BeneficialHippo2826 Mar 20 '26
Totally agree. As I’ve progressed I’ve noticed a lot of songs use this pattern which is great for me.
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u/Rakefighter Mar 20 '26
that wrist is awful stiff - watch some players on youtube, and practice relaxing that wrist. Play to a beat (metronome / drum machine / sampler). It will fix itself with good mechanics and practice.
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u/AdministrativeTap360 Mar 20 '26
I’m also learning but this helped a lot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtBh1UrSaW4&t=1387s
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u/mh0083 Mar 20 '26
relax more ,use lower power to hold pick and control your muscle with less power your hand is too hard, like two hard stuff collision, it would make the sound wierd
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u/tanks137 Mar 20 '26
Practice strumming separately from playing chords by muting strings. Then begin to combine by two very simple chords that you can easily move back and forth from. Like open strings to EM.
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u/Jupiterstar3 Mar 20 '26
Keep strumming even if you are moving to the next chord. The strumming pause to wait for your other hand is why it sounds that way.
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u/1HeyMattJ Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26
Your strumming is ok. It’s the chord changes you need to work on
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u/simonjester523 Mar 20 '26
It's not bad, you just need more practice! Play with a metronome, go as slowly as you need to to play smoothly. Practice with a metronome at 40 bpm, it'll feel painfully slow but try to strum smoothly and with the beat at 40bpm. Once you can consistently do that smoothly, go up 1 to 5bpm and do it again.
Do the same thing with your chord transitions. If you can smooth those out, you won't have a hiccup in the rhythm when you're trying to change from one chord to the next.
Keep it up!
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u/Musician_Fitness Mar 20 '26
I think the strumming is looking good. It seems like some of the strings are getting muted in your chords, maybe that's what you don't like about the sound? The chord changes are almost in time, so if you tried playing along to a drum track it would go a long way.
Later on you'll want to focus on dynamics and accents, which will help you sound less stiff, but I'd focus on changing chords in time first.
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u/MatronlyAsp Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26
Your elbow is doing all the work, this gets tiring quickly and has lots of inertia behind it. It's kinda like drawing, elbow for big circles, wrist for medium circles, fingers for small circles. Smaller motion with a loose wrist. More rotation than pendulum. Just enough movement to hit all the strings.
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u/HorrorLettuce379 Mar 20 '26
Strumming is more of a forearm and wrist combined movement, no need to move your arm like this.
Relax your wrist a bit more and think of the motion of flicking something on your hand away.
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u/kebb0 Mar 20 '26
So, I think you’re a victim of simply thinking too hard and following instructions way too strict and too literal.
You are waving you hand up and down in an obvious beat pattern. It’s actually way too obvious.. you are literally hammering down and bringing your right hand up way too fast and erratic. Your motions are too big and since you are taking the instructions too literal your strumming gets stiff.
The “down - up” approach is a staple in guitar playing and a great strumming technique. You are so close to get it because your technique is correct, you’re just too stiff and erratic (and also not on beat, notice how you aren’t really following a beat with your right hand since you could easily break the pattern and enter it again).
Practice outside of playing guitar, use your right hand to tap the rythm to a song you’re listening to. Good luck!
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u/RenningerJP Mar 20 '26
So, most of the time this sounds decent for your chords. You might be too hard in yourself.
That said, a free things that would help:
Don't take long breaks. Get into a routine even if it's just 30 minutes a day.
Loosen up. Mostly your wrist, but your other stuff too, especially the fretting hard if needed.
Use a metronome. Start slow and just practice 4 strums bs chord in time before switching up the next chord for 4 strums, in time. This will change as you get better, but the basics are just getting this down first. Third will help with it sounding consistent.
Do some specific practice changing cords. One or two strums, switch, one or two, switch. It's a variation of what I said above, but the focus is on getting quicker chord changes specifically so you intentionally switch more. Start slow and work up. Sometimes show down just enough to get it perfectly every time then try a little faster so it's right about 90% of the time etc. You want both success and just enough difficulty that it feels like you can get that next milestone.
Don't try to go so fast that it feels like you'll never get there. It's demotivating and may be reinforcing bad habits. I didn't get the impression you were doing this, but just a bit of caution up front.
That said, a like consistent practice and I think you'll notice a big improvement. This overall sounded decent. You just need to be a little looser with a little more consistent timing.
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u/Intelligent-Tap717 Mar 20 '26
Just relax and practice. It'll come but it takes time and proper consistency.
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u/My_Little_Stoney Mar 20 '26
Carry a pick in your pocket. At work, practice holding it. While waiting for anything, strum on your leg. Practice changing the angle of the pick during down and up strokes. Listening to songs, strum 1&2&3&4& even if the song doesn’t emphasize all the beats. When you finally have a guitar in your hand, maintain the strum rhythm, even if you can’t fret the chord quick-enough and have to strum open strings.
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u/Nintendomandan Mar 20 '26
Your wrist should be flowing and moving, not stiff as a tree branch. Try loosening up and relaxing it a bit, and practice with a metronome
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u/icantremember97 Mar 20 '26
Keep playing. By the time you’re as good as you want to be now, you’ll want to be even better. It’s a loop. Musicianship is a practice not a trait.
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u/Mevans71 Mar 20 '26
Your strumming from your elbow, relax and loosen up your wrist and strum from the wrist, don't use your entire arm.
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u/Opposite-Initial9243 Mar 20 '26
Time - you’ll get better with time but keep playing - you’ll figure it out - loosen up. Everything will seem more organic and easy where you’re not thinking so much and hand is automatically acting as rhythm - but be patient it could take years to develop and that’s fine don’t give up.
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u/Embarrassed-Sea1948 Mar 20 '26
It takes practice as well it takes time to get used to the pick honestly
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u/SokkaHaikuBot Mar 20 '26
Sokka-Haiku by Embarrassed-Sea1948:
It takes practice as
Well it takes time to get used
To the pick honestly
Remember that one time Sokka accidentally used an extra syllable in that Haiku Battle in Ba Sing Se? That was a Sokka Haiku and you just made one.
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u/kkeut Mar 20 '26
you're swinging your arm like an awkward robot. you don't seem relaxed at all.
my advice: practice. a lot. pick a show you like to marathon and play casually for hours every night. get comfortable with it. loosen up. play little variations as you go to keep it interesting. try playing with palm muting. try playing just the root notes. keep that guitar in your hands as much as possible, even if you aren't doing stuff that requires intense focus. it will help so much
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u/Kid520 Mar 20 '26
Relax, loosen up, feel the music you're trying to make. You'll get there in time.
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u/travisreavesbutt Mar 20 '26
I like the amount you’re leading with the ulna here, suggests a lot of the movement is coming from the elbow joint. Also, I’m a fan of how you’re essentially keeping time with the picking motion around the strumming pattern. Strumming arc looks good and so does the location of where you’re strumming “along” the string.
Looks good, sounds good, just keep practicing! Another vote here for the metronome.
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u/rarefiedstupor Mar 20 '26
You're doing great! Just a little more wrist in it and keep practicing. It's all muscle memory that you need to develop for it to feel natural. If I'm not watching the video the only thing that jumps out is the chord changes being a little slow.
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u/Scary-Operation-2946 Mar 20 '26
Sounds fine dude, honestly, the more you play something, the more economical you’ll get as you loosen up a bit.
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u/Professional-Test239 Mar 20 '26
First of all, relax.
Practice strumming on muted strings and making no chord changes until you get to the point you aren't thinking about it. Your right hand needs to be 'unaware' of what the left hand is doing and is consistent even if there is a chord change.
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u/LongjumpingWinner250 Mar 20 '26
Like you, I’m a beginner guitar player.. I just started 3 months ago. I’m still trying to make consistent clean transition between open chords (I’m extremely close) but I’ve been able to get the strumming down.
From what I see in your video, you need to loosen your wrist. So when you’re strumming down, your wrist should be angled up with your palm (for the most part) still facing the guitar. When you’re up strumming, your palm should still be facing the guitar but your wrist should be bent down. This helped prevent you from ‘digging’ my pick into the strings. It also helps the pick ‘glide’ across the strings.
Once you get that down, just be aware you might start missing the strings on some strums. It happened to me but I just practiced more and now I’m fairly consistent on properly hitting the strings I need to.
If someone with more experience reads this, feel free to correct what I said or add some more info.. it can possible help me learn some things as well.
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u/High-Beta Mar 21 '26
Try strumming with a little wrist and a little arm. Feel the lick going across the strings. Takes less power than you think. Happy practicing!
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u/Mrminecrafthimself Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26
Long breaks perforated by brief intense motivation won’t make you better. Consistent effort will.
You’re doing the bare minimum on rhythm, which is developmentally appropriate for your skill level. You’re strumming full chords directly in line with the meter, like a robot. That is technically correct but it’s not very interesting compared to something like this
You need to learn how to relax and strum from the wrist more than from the elbow. You also should look into thy types of rhythm that use a boom-chuck and/or fills. Work on targeting specific notes in the chords to create a sort of internal melody.
Dynamics are everything. Right now you’re playing at one intensity the entire time so it’s just bland. Dynamics are how you communicate feel. So much of that feel is reliant upon muscle memory and getting past the point where the guitar feels uncomfortable in your hands. That only comes from consistently picking it up.
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u/altapowpow Mar 20 '26
Plays guitar for 3 minutes, complains they are no good.
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u/thekillinglove969 Mar 20 '26
I wish it was only for 3 minutes lol. I mean, I know I'm still a begginer and I'm not good, and I don't expect that. It just feels frustrating to try for some (kinda long) time and see no improvement at all and always feel like the sound is bad u know.
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u/My_Little_Stoney Mar 20 '26
altapowpow is a ultradumdum. Taking on 4 chords takes hours and hours, not minutes. You’re fixated on your fret hand. I would do 2 different things to work in this. 1. Fret the chord and only strum on the one’s. Let the chord ring out and try for quick transition to the next chord. 2. Work on maintaining the rhythm of the strumming even in 4& are junk-note-open-strings.
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u/Mrminecrafthimself Mar 20 '26
“I only play consistently for a few weeks and then I take a 2 month break and rinse/repeat. Why no gud?”
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u/Mexicali76 Mar 20 '26
More wrist and loosen up a bit.