Help with songwriting and strums.

I've endeavored in learning some strums and right hand techniques and stuff, the names seem to vary, but I've learned the basic strum, triple strum, 4 and 5 finger rolls, a sort of upstroke 4 finger roll, chunking, in and out picking and some other stuff. Thing is, whenever I'm writing a song, I just revert back to only using the basic strum and in and out picking. It's just that nothing else feels right. I was wondering if any other songwriters had this kind of problem and if you did, how did you overcome it?
Cheers!
-Zach.

You can do a couple of things. You can commit to a strum at the outset of writing, and not change it.

You can also just write the song with your basic strum and then embellish it with fancy strums when it's done.

Good luck.

Thank seeso! I'll try both of them when I get to writing a couple more songs.

For me, it takes a while for the chord changes to sink in. When I get to a point where I can make the changes and sing without really thinking about it, then I add in the embellishments. I usually throw in a split stroke and a 4 finger strum here and there. Remember, these should just be embellishments and not to be overused. Kind of like editing video.. you don't add in fancy wipes and fades between every cut. My 2 cents... -john

Don't worry about the strum first. Worry instead about the rhythm. Waltz, rumba, back-beat, swing, funk... etc. The strum follows from that. Like jggarl35 said, most "strums" are really just tricks and embellishments. The real difference in "patterns" emerges from the actual rhythm of the song.

There's more than one strum?

Kidding. I confess I have a go-to strum when writing songs. Been trying to change it up a bit, though.

Thanks for the advice guys! I think I may have been going wrong in trying to make some of the strums the main strum, and not just embellishments. I'll try and throw one in the next song I write as a bit of extra pizazz.

The more "technical" a player you become the harder it actually becomes to write songs for exactly the reasons you gave.

I used to get throug 3 or 4 new songs a week...now because I feel the need to put triplets & solos into all my songs I maybe only write one a month...and the songs aren't any better, they are just more technical!
It's like a loss of innocence!!!
Like sesso says,

2 ways 2 write a song:
1. The words first and then come up with the chords & strums
2. The music first (strums and chords)...then the words.

Rhythm is, though seemingly obvious & straightforward actually the trickiest part in "songwriting"....and only by repetition do you discover the rhythm in your songs...it's what differentiates a good from a great player...a great player has real rhythm.
Practicing initially with a metronome helps...especially when learning new strums.

(A good example here I hope will be my song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZloHFzf8R4w
I am always far too eager to post my new songs.....this one has, for me, quite interesting & nice picking and strums and sweet words...but I ain't found the rhythm in that song yet....I'll record it properly in the next few months & hopefully I will have found it...and we'll hear the difference!)

I did notice a more technical sorta melody and stuff in that song than your earlier stuff.
I write a song pretty much whenever I pick up my ukulele, but usually I just think they're rubbish and don't make anything of them, but I want to put more of a technical aspect in there, so learned these techniques, and now can't use them!
Rhythm's been one of my major problems throughout playing instruments, I'm slowly getting better though. Thanks for the advice May use my metronome on garageband to get my rhythm better!

AverseBliss said:

I did notice a more technical sorta melody and stuff in that song than your earlier stuff.
I write a song pretty much whenever I pick up my ukulele, but usually I just think they're rubbish and don't make anything of them, but I want to put more of a technical aspect in there, so learned these techniques, and now can't use them!
Rhythm's been one of my major problems throughout playing instruments, I'm slowly getting better though. Thanks for the advice May use my metronome on garageband to get my rhythm better!

Click to expand...

Not just timing with the metronome (great idea) - but styles as well. Get some samples of classic rhythm styles and play along. My bet is you'll find your strumming patterns changing to meet the need of the style.

I know that my 2/3 country waltz and my 4/6 shuffle use totaly different U, D, X patterns - even though fundamentaly they are the same rhythm.