Ok I will admidt it...

UkuleleHill

UkuleleHill

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I can't chunk! I really can't! Can someone please help me with how to even teach myself how to chunk? I have been playin way too long to not know how... I just can't figure it out...
 
Of all people!!! Haha, just kidding.

Curl up your fingers a little (like a girl looking at her nails, haha) and put your thumb on the side of that middle part of your finger. And it's as simple as quickly turning your wrist over the strings so that your thumb mutes the strings.

I hope that was easy to understand. If not please tell me what isn't clear :D
 
Yes... watch the vid on chunking... it's kind of a wierd feeling going from a normal strum to a chunk, but it just takes practice until you can get the muscle memory on how to do it. I couldn't figure it out either until I went to Aldrine's workshop here in SD... he explained it just like he did in the videos, but for some reason, I guess a little confidence maybe... I was chunking the next day!! Now don't get me wrong, it's not pretty every single time! Sometimes when I chunk I don't quite get the last string muted with my thumb so you hear the A string ring a bit, or I don't mute quite fast enough so you hear a spilt second strum to mute... but hey, I can chunk most of the time now lol...

But like mentioned earlier, it's kind of a strum but with more twist of the wrist, so that way your thumb(or kind of the side of your thumb) can mute all four strings almost simultaneously as the strum.

Watch the video and practice practice practice... I think I made my wife go crazy because all I did one day was make a bunch of noise chunking to try and get it down, lol...
 
I've seen the video but it didn't help initially. But then again.... I only watced it once so I will watch it a few times and try to mimic him while I watch. Maybe I will get it then.

Thanks all!
 
Is it "chunk" or "chuck"? I've seen it referred to both ways.
 
ukulele2544 said:
Check this out :shaka:
Click to expand...

i do it differently than the video says...i find it easier to only do the strum with my normal index finger strum and then mute with the side of the thumb...as opposed to strumming with 3 or 4 fingers like aldrine instructs...sounds good to me!
 
I couldn't either, but now I can... :)

I read about chunking, I watched videos on chunking, I practiced chunking, but could never do it reliably. I went back to just playing songs, and after a while I tried adding some chunks and it worked.

If there's anything to learn from my experience, it's that it may be better to practice something else for a while. Any practice helps ;) When I return to a song I played two months ago, I can play it much better than back when I practiced it every day. And when I happened to play a song with chunks, there it was, as if I already knew it.
 
To me it came naturally I guess....
I was just messing around with my ukulele one day and I just did it. I didn't even know what it was called until I came here.

Don't say "dats what she said"
 
the.ronin said:
Is it "chunk" or "chuck"? I've seen it referred to both ways.
Click to expand...

Lol, at Aldrine's workshop he asked us what names we know this technique as... most people said chunk, some said chuck, and a few said scratch. One guy says he calls it the "slappy slap"... so whatever works I suppose :)
 
If I am in chunk-strum mode I usually keep my palm close to the strings. When I want to chunk it's pretty easy to just let my palm rest on the strings since it's not far off of the strings.

It's sort of like a 1-2 punch...strum...rest. Just follow through with the palm rest right after your strum as if your palm was another finger.

That's what works for me. Hope it helps.

I should clarify..when I say palm...it refers to the part of my palm on the pinky side of my hand.
 
It's a strange thing, chunking. I couldn't do it for months, after watching all the learning videos, and then, suddenly, I could.

Before I learned how to chunk, I usually just 'hit' the four strings with my four fingers curled up almost like a fist (so I hit the strings with kind of like the knuckles/backsides of my fingers/nails) and if I hit hard enough, there is a little sound, and I pretended it's a chunk.

This might not make too much sense, but for me, the breakthrough was realizing I could use the same hitting motion above, except I'd release all my fingers quickly to strum (so, from curled up to straight), while muting on my palm (kind of like a see saw. When I straighten my fingers to strum, the natural movement is that the fingers go up and the palm down) directly after the release. Also important, if you understood all that, is that the release of the fingers and the palm muting is one real quick motion together.

Once that was accomplished, chunking is real fun to do, and it requires little strength compared to what I used in the failed chunks.

Hope this helps!
 
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OK... ONE MORE TIME FOR US SLOW GUYS.... When you Chunk you actually strum all the strings with your finger or fingers... Correct? And just as fast as you can, you try to mute all the strings with what?..... (A) Your thumb (B) The low fatty part of the thumb (C) Something else. Is there one place to chunk on the face that is better than another (soundhole, 12th fret, etc) Does your wrist have to use a rolling/rocking motion when chunking or can you just strum in a straight line up and down? I have watched about nine videos on chunking and I think I can do it until I actually try... :)
 
molinee said:
OK... ONE MORE TIME FOR US SLOW GUYS.... When you Chunk you actually strum all the strings with your finger or fingers... Correct? And just as fast as you can, you try to mute all the strings with what?..... (A) Your thumb (B) The low fatty part of the thumb (C) Something else. Is there one place to chunk on the face that is better than another (soundhole, 12th fret, etc) Does your wrist have to use a rolling/rocking motion when chunking or can you just strum in a straight line up and down? I have watched about nine videos on chunking and I think I can do it until I actually try... :)
Click to expand...
I think you use the low fatty part of your thumb. And if you roll, your closer to the strings so muting them might be easier.
This has been very difficult for me to do, I'm still having a very hard time doing it. I seriously think it's rather easy for younger people to learn, I feel it's a little more difficult for us older strummers to master, at least for this particular old dog.
Thanks for asking, Andy, I want to learn and bringing the subject up again, helps remind me to keep trying.
 
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