the triplet strum

ive been toying with this on and off for a few months now. and i have seen several ways to do it.

jake's triplet: down with middle&ring fingers, down with thumb, up with thumb
tafkam1's triplet: down with ring, down with index, up with thumb
lilrevdotcom's triplet: down with index, down with thumb, up with thumb

looks like it all comes down to what you are comfy with and how youre willing to practice it the most.

hence, mine is: down middle, down index, up thumb
but im still having trouble with it. just doesnt sound clean enough to me.

matter of fact, when i try to really do it fast, i end up doing:
down middle, down index, down thumb, up thumb. hahaha

so how you do you guys do it... if you do. i would like to try other ways if there are any, just in case one of them turns out to be more comfortable for me to do with more cleanliness.

The way I do it is

Up with the thumb, up with the pointer, and then down with the pointer

Try that out

Nuke, there are a bunch of ways to do a triple strum. I suggest mastering all of them you run across. This will help you down the road once you advance in playing skill and techique. Here is a run down on some of my favorite triple strums.

1. As Aldrine said, thumb up , pointer up, pointer down.

This is a very fast, very smooth sounding, and overall useful triple strum. Nail this sucker down!

2. pointer down, pointer up, pointer down.

This is all in the wrist action. It is basically a quick snap of the wrist and is really nothing more just the first 3 strums of a basic up, down pointer strum. Practice this a thousand times or more until you can do it without hesitation. Very powerful, useful, and precise sound.

Here are some additional variations of triple strums:

...JAKE has two (that I know about). Here they are...

Taken from (2) four strum techiques of his...

1. Jake four strum movement: middle/ring finger together down, thumb down, thumb up, middle/ring finger together down.

I love this 4 movement strum. It can be used as a continuous strum or 3 or 4 movement strum. It is very aggressive, very percussive in nature, and has a lot of nail attack going on. It was very hard to master, but well worth all the effort. A strong variation to have at your command. Adding this strum will begin to set your playing apart from the pack...

Note: the related triple strum for this would be the first "3" movement of this strum, but I have found that I rarely use it as a triple strum...perhaps I will revisit it as a triple strum. (i.e. middle/ring finger together down, thumb down, thumb up.)

2. Another Jake four strum movement: pointer down, thumb up, pointer up, pointer down.

Notice that this is the last "3" movements of Aldrine's triple strum. Again, a must have in your playing skills.

This strum is also a great continuous strum.

*** The last strum I'll give you is an incedible sounding triple strum that I just stumbled across by accident and use all the time. I would almost call it my "Triple Roll Strum". It is a quick and powerful strum/roll that requires very little effort to excute and involved little to no wrist movement. It is actually a 4 strum movement but squeezed into a triple strum time frame.

Here are the 4 movements of my Triple Roll Strum:

Ring up, middle up, pointer up, pointer down.
The first 3 movements should feel like an upward triple roll squeezed into a two stoke movement.
The last downward stroke will finish off the triple time frame.

I believe the origin of this strum comes from Jake's 10 finger roll which I practiced for month to master. Perhaps this strum/roll already exists. I don't know, but I am just thrilled and excited each time I excute it.

Good luck dude with the triple strums...thanks, e...

I tend to strum with my middle finger and the easiest way to triple strum (for me) is down middle, up thumb, up middle

these are all very helpful thank youu!

What up... Believe it or not, the tripple strum was one of the first things I learned on the uke. Don't ask me how or why....still pretty confused about it myself. I saw a lesson on youtube by Jake literally the day I got my uke and went for it. I have my style of it mastered now and it sounds pretty nice. Here is what I do:

Middle and ring finger down together.....followed by thumb down....back up with thumb...repeat process.

Tip: Once you want to go super speed, move your hand in a circular motion over the strings....not sure why, but it makes it more fluid and easier to speed it up.

Also, I have mixed in Aldrine's finger roll technique with it and it sounds killer...

Hope that makes sense...good luck.

UKESTAR said:

What up... Believe it or not, the tripple strum was one of the first things I learned on the uke. Don't ask me how or why....still pretty confused about it myself. I saw a lesson on youtube by Jake literally the day I got my uke and went for it. I have my style of it mastered now and it sounds pretty nice. Here is what I do:

Middle and ring finger down together.....followed by thumb down....back up with thumb...repeat process.

Tip: Once you want to go super speed, move your hand in a circular motion over the strings....not sure why, but it makes it more fluid and easier to speed it up.

Also, I have mixed in Aldrine's finger roll technique with it and it sounds killer...

Hope that makes sense...good luck.

Click to expand...

thats how I do it as well

Aldrine Guerrero said:

The way I do it is

Up with the thumb, up with the pointer, and then down with the pointer

Try that out

Click to expand...

I do it that way too.

i actually had a dream last night that i was doing the jake triplet (middle/ring down, thumb down, thumb up). and for some reason, it wasnt until i started going in a circular motion that it started to work really well.

hahaha. im hopeless.

NukeDOC said:

i actually had a dream last night that i was doing the jake triplet (middle/ring down, thumb down, thumb up). and for some reason, it wasnt until i started going in a circular motion that it started to work really well.

hahaha. im hopeless.

Click to expand...

LOL!

nah it came naturally in a few minutes.

I mostly use the 'Jake triplet', but you can't beat the fan stroke when you want to showboat.

Woodshed said:

I mostly use the 'Jake triplet', but you can't beat the fan stroke when you want to showboat.

Click to expand...

dude, if i was still trying to learn all my chords, that little stamp doohickey would be awesome!!! i will definitely recommend that to anyone that is learning to play da uke.

ok this is just a leeeeeeettle scary.

remember my dream? well i just now picked up my uke and started trying to do the triplet jake stylee.

started slow. pretty sad.

sped it up a little. still pretty sad.

went in a circle and NAILED IT!!! hahaha.

Glad that helped. I saw some Flamenco guitarists jamming and they went in a circular motion over the strings to speed up the strum. That is where I got the idea and it really worked for me. I can sort of make the uke sound Flamenco style now...sounds really nice I think..

man, you guys are da best. i guess you can teach an old dog new tricks. taking all your suggestions and a little determination on my part, i think i pretty much have it down! now i just need to figure out how to incorporate it into a song hahaha.

basically, ive found the easiest varation for me was the jake triplet. but on the first down stroke, ive pretty much got it down with middle/ring, just middle, ring/pinky, and still kinda working on just index.

thanks to everyone who helped me out! i never would have been able to figure this out on my own.

ive been practicing one way for a couple months now here and there with no results. i ask you guys, and i nail it in two days. awesome. just awesome.

i think i almost got the hang of it.

I learned the triple strum (down middle+ring, down thumb, up thumb) from a rodrigo y gabriela guitar tutorial video on youtube. If you want to see some crazy strumming patters AND drumming techniques learn from gabriela.

Other than that I use the same triple strum as Aldrine (up thumb, up pointer, down pointer) then if you need a 4 strum just add another up stroke with the pointer. (up thumb, up pointer, down pointer, up pointer) Doing it this way is much easier than any other way for me. It sounds good too!

I do it the same way Aldrine does it.