Man I need some help with this.

I can't move on from learning the changes here.
Do you have any exercises you can recommend to loosen a man's wrist who's worked with manual tools all his life to enable him to loosen up enough to accomplish the strum patterns. I ask because I've learnt my 4 basic chords, can sing in time, in fact my timing has always been spot on when it comes to singing but my strumming just won't come. Before I move onto to even attempting finger picking I want to get that down before I start learning finger picking. I just can't loosen up enough and keep hitting strings. One step at a time. Anything please?

Hitting the strings is kinda the point isn't it?

My advice on strum patterns is to not overthink it. If it sounds good to you, nobody is going to care if your pattern doesn't "match the record". I guess if you're trying to play in a group maybe it could be more important to play a specific pattern.

And if you want to finger pick, go ahead and finger pick. Often different skills will feed into each other. You might find after finger picking for awhile that your strumming is suddenly better.

It's called "playing" an instrument for a reason. If you're getting frustrated in one area, try something else to keep it fun.

There are physical exercises you could probably employ to stretch and warm up your strumming hand and wrist, but you can also get there by focusing on your strumming by itself — no fretting, no chords, no singing. Strum down slowly and lightly across the strings at a 90 degree angle to the strings. After you complete one strum, relax your hand, fingers and wrist by shaking your hand gently. Strum again, shake again. Repeat this for as long as you can stand it. Then practice strumming from the bottom up, again shaking out your hand every time you complete a strum up. Then practice strumming down, up, shake. Do these strums with as little arm movement as possible. Eventually you can speed up the repetitions, but take it slow and steady for awhile, focusing on strumming across each of the four strings evenly. The idea is to teach your hand and wrist how to strum without building up tension in the muscles and joints. The tension is what makes you hit random strings. Throughout the day, you can practice moving just your strumming hand as if you were trying to flick water off of your fingers. Keep your hand loose during each flick, and don’t move your arm. In time, your wrist will gain more flexibility.
Good luck!

Jan D said, "Don't move your arm" - this is important. When you are strumming, the movement should not come from moving your arm up and down, pivoting at the elbow. It comes from rotating the forearm. Use your index finger to brush down, trailing the back of your finger nail across the strings. On the up stroke, the pad of the finger brushes across the strings.

I'm assuming short finger nails. That's all I've ever had.

Hope this helps.

John Colter

From my experience, all of that comes with lots of playing. I don't like the term "practice" because I prefer playing to practicing. If you can play with a group - in person or on Zoom - you are forced to keep going and playing with the group - more or less. I'm surprised at how much I've improved over the years just by playing. Play around with it while you're watching TV.

My advice is that whatever you're learning, start as slow as possible.

For strumming, you can start by only using your thumb, using all down-strokes at first and then, after becoming comfortable with that motion, using both up and down strokes. Or, as already mentioned, just use your index finger--first, just down-strokes, then in an up and down motion. Another option is to use a flat pick. They're often very good for both clarity and volume.

Strumming is drumming.

Just relax. Make the smallest movement you can, and strum the rhythm you hear inside your head. Forget about applying a pattern rigidly.

Have a look for old videos of Cliff Edwards (Ukulele Ike), a superstar in his day, nowadays only really remembered as the voice of Jiminy Cricket. See how little his arms move? It's basically all in his hand and wrist.



It will come!

There are many hand stretching warmup exercises on YouTube and in instruction books.

It sounds as though you need to stretch your tendons and muscles and the connective tissues. Both in your fingers and the wrist. This is one of many stretching exercise videos available:

http://www.ukulelemate.com.au/how-to-library/finger-exercises-for-ukulele-players/

If you need to, soak your hand, wrist & forearm in warm to hot-ish water. This will loosen everything. The pianist Glen Gould did this before every performance or recording session. He did it for about a 1/2 hour. A heating pad would also work.

The amount of wrist movement in your strumming hand is not very large. Most if it comes from rotating your forearm as you strum. You can strum with your thumb or your index finger or both.

Brad Bordessa's book, Right Hand Technique for Ukulele, may help you find the best technique for you.

Most of all try to relax your arm and hand when you play. Consciously think about relaxing them as you warm up.

About 7 years ago I heard singer/songwriter Michael Johnson perform two separate times. In the 70s he had 3-4 hits, Bluer Than Blue was his biggest. He floored me with his guitar playing. It turned out he was a classically trained musician who had studied at a conservatory in Spain. He was an extraordinary guitarist.
I got to talk with him for a long time one evening about finger style playing. He was very generous with his time, extremely nice guy. I had just gotten my first high end tenor and knew next to nothing about finger picking. He gave me simple advice that has stuck with me since. He told me to play as relaxed as possible. I keep that in mind every day. As soon as I feel tension creeping in while practicing I stop, take a breath or two and get back on the horse.

chris667 said:

Strumming is drumming.

Click to expand...

^ This nails it.

Play with a metronome (or drum tracks), start slow and play accurately before speeding up gradually. Playing with others also helps to get the timing/pattern right.

BluesDave said:

I can't move on from learning the changes here.
Do you have any exercises you can recommend to loosen a man's wrist who's worked with manual tools all his life to enable him to loosen up enough to accomplish the strum patterns. I ask because I've learnt my 4 basic chords, can sing in time, in fact my timing has always been spot on when it comes to singing but my strumming just won't come. Before I move onto to even attempting finger picking I want to get that down before I start learning finger picking. I just can't loosen up enough and keep hitting strings. One step at a time. Anything please?

Click to expand...

Just practice. The fact that you've learned 4 chords and can sing in time is a great start. Do a single thumb strum down, which will sound good, and practice getting the upstroke in. there are many, many great Youtube videos on strumming for ukes. When trying so hard it can be difficult to get a good strum, because it does take a certain amount of limberness in the wrist. But just play, and it will come. I just want to mention that I think certain ukes strum better and easier than others. I started off on an inexpensive Ohana soprano that did not strum well naturally. Part of it was me being too stiff. But when I bought an easy playing tenor I found my strumming greatly improved quickly. Then I was a able to go back to ukes that were more difficult to strum well, and sound decent.

Jake S. has a good video on strumming which might help.

chris667 said:

Just relax. Make the smallest movement you can, and strum the rhythm you hear inside your head.

Click to expand...

We had a jam on Zoom yesterday, and it seemed that my strumming was more vigorous than that of other players. I guess to each his own. I do what feels right to me.

Cliff Edwards was great. I have most of his - and George Formby's - recordings. Cliff certainly had an unusual strumming style. Did you ever see Kimo Hussey play? He has a similar minimal approach to strumming.

It strikes me that there's different technique for playing on Zoom and playing with others. There's no real feedback on Zoom. I have been making myself play things on YouTube recently; it's really odd just playing to a screen.

Economy of movement is a fundamental in any playing of any musical instrument, I reckon. You will always be limited if you have to do more work than others.

Well there's been some good advice here so thankyou. I'm going to take it all on board.