Strumming vs Picking

Jerryc41

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Some people seem to think that strumming is just strumming, but finger picking is a skill. I prefer strumming.

Every song has its own need for a particular strumming pattern, and I try to find that when I play. Strumming hard and soft, fast and slow makes the song come alive for me. When I hear people picking every song, it often seems hollow - shallow.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against picking, but I think that some songs sound better when strummed. Picking can work beautifully with the right song and the right player, but I don't see it as a universal replacement for strumming.

I know I could have worded this better, so let me finish with a good statement. Some songs sound better when strummed, and some sound better when picked. I hope that's non-controversial enough for everyone. :D
 
Strumming is good for those who sing and use their ukulele for accompaniment. If one doesn't sing, strumming chords just gets boring after a while. You can spice things up a little with some fingerpicking. I think that's why a lot of people join groups. They can strum along while the singers carry the song for them.
 
Is this, as the kids say, actually a thing? Strumming and picking are different tools for different applications. I'm, by nature, more of a picker and therefore have the prejudice of my preference, but I would never dream of despising accomplished strummers with their fan strokes, and flamenco festoonings, or Caribbean strums with the stress on the 1, 4, and 7 beats. To me the obvious answer is that both strumming and picking are essential. For example, right now I'm working on my own version of Charlie Parker's "Blues for Alice" Where I strum FΔ7, improvise by picking a Scriabin scale (with an added flat vi) or D Aiolian. Then I strum an Eø and accompany it with some Phrygian Dominant picking. I need both.
 
Is this, as the kids say, actually a thing? Strumming and picking are different tools for different applications. I'm, by nature, more of a picker and therefore have the prejudice of my preference, but I would never dream of despising accomplished strummers with their fan strokes, and flamenco festoonings, or Caribbean strums with the stress on the 1, 4, and 7 beats. To me the obvious answer is that both strumming and picking are essential. For example, right now I'm working on my own version of Charlie Parker's "Blues for Alice" Where I strum FΔ7, improvise by picking a Scriabin scale (with an added flat vi) or D Aiolian. Then I strum an Eø and accompany it with some Phrygian Dominant picking. I need both.

I'm at the stage where most of what you said toward the end "was Greek to me" - literally. :D
 
Probably my favorite arrangement styles are chord melodies, where you're usually playing a combination of strummed chords interspersed with picked notes. Best of both worlds!
 
Probably my favorite arrangement styles are chord melodies, where you're usually playing a combination of strummed chords interspersed with picked notes. Best of both worlds!

I prefer chord melodies as well. I went in this direction very early (starting with the Ukulele Way course by James Hill) as I decided that I really did not want to sing for an hour or so every day but wanted to "hear songs" while I practiced and played.
 
It would be interesting to add a 'Strumming v Picking' poll although I suspect it has been done before once or twice.
 
Some people seem to think that strumming is just strumming, but finger picking is a skill. I prefer strumming.

Every song has its own need for a particular strumming pattern, and I try to find that when I play. Strumming hard and soft, fast and slow makes the song come alive for me. When I hear people picking every song, it often seems hollow - shallow.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against picking, but I think that some songs sound better when strummed. Picking can work beautifully with the right song and the right player, but I don't see it as a universal replacement for strumming.

I know I could have worded this better, so let me finish with a good statement. Some songs sound better when strummed, and some sound better when picked. I hope that's non-controversial enough for everyone. :D

I play what I hear in my head - some strumming, some plucked chords, some single string stuff...

There are things I can't do, like the fanning on "12th Street Rag", because my old, arthritic, nerve-damaged hands don't move that fast, and some rhythms that are too fast for me to play irrespective of strummed or picked. That being said, I really don't care, as long as I'm happy.

(And as long as the other players pause between verses, rather than dive into the following line without even taking a breath!)

-Kurt​
 
Both strumming and fingerstyle have their places. Both require skill and lots of practice to master. Chord melody takes it up another notch and combines the two.

One of the best resources I have seen for strumming is Ukulele Hunt's "How to Play Ukulele Strums". Ukulelehunt.com
For $12 USD it is full of different strum patterns. Lots of links to examples of their use. Info about how to choose which one to use. And has simple to complex patterns in it. I don't agree with some of his playing tips, but they work for him and he says as much. (He also wrote "Ukulele For Dummies.")

I've been concentrating on learning fingerstyle lately. So I have found my strumming is getting rusty when I play on a Zoom gathering.
 
I'm at the stage where most of what you said toward the end "was Greek to me" - literally. :D

If anything, therein lies the mystique of fingerpicking; there is so much nomenclature that you can, if you like, make use of. However, I still maintain that the picking/strumming dichotomy is silly. At breakfast this morning my wife and I were arguing whether assonance or consonance was more important to a rhyme. Picking vs. strumming is equally asinine since both are needed when they are needed. When you're soloing, you need solo notes; when you're accompanying, you need the accompanying notes of a chord.
 
I'm primarily a fingerstyle player, but I wish I were a better strummer. I'm less interested in things like speed and more interested in percussive stuff. More Feng E or James Hill than Taimane or Jake Shimabukuro.

Edit: I should say, I've only seen maybe one or two videos of performances by those artists, so I'm not sure how accurate I am about their strumming styles.
 
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Some people seem to think that strumming is just strumming, but finger picking is a skill. I prefer strumming.

Every song has its own need for a particular strumming pattern, and I try to find that when I play. Strumming hard and soft, fast and slow makes the song come alive for me. When I hear people picking every song, it often seems hollow - shallow.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against picking, but I think that some songs sound better when strummed. Picking can work beautifully with the right song and the right player, but I don't see it as a universal replacement for strumming.

I know I could have worded this better, so let me finish with a good statement. Some songs sound better when strummed, and some sound better when picked. I hope that's non-controversial enough for everyone. :D

I think strumming is just as much a skill as fingerpicking. You generally need to change the chords quicker in strumming than picking on the same tempo, for example. WRT to sounding thin, well, the uke only has 4 strings. So, I think it is more suited for strumming with vocal than anything.
 
Don't get me wrong, I'm not against picking, but I think that some songs sound better when strummed. Picking can work beautifully with the right song and the right player, but I don't see it as a universal replacement for strumming.

In practically all the music I play and listen to, strumming is used to accompany singing while picking is a solo instrumental, so one will never universally replace the other. The two styles can be mixed, of course, eg strumming and singing some of the verses in a song and picking others as an instrumental solo. I'm thinking of melody picking, not repeating pattern picking which can be used to replace strumming in some situations.
 
In practically all the music I play and listen to, strumming is used to accompany singing while picking is a solo instrumental, so one will never universally replace the other. The two styles can be mixed, of course, eg strumming and singing some of the verses in a song and picking others as an instrumental solo. I'm thinking of melody picking, not repeating pattern picking which can be used to replace strumming in some situations.

Not at all. If you you just strum as accompaniment or just pick solo it gets boring very very fast. For me the only way to keep it interesting is to mix both. So when I sing songs in a solo setting I either strum or use picking patterns for comping, but whenever possible also include instrumental breaks like chord melody interludes. This suits mainly pop songs but can be done for many other genres. If playing occurs in a group/ jam setting then it's also expected to alternate comping and picking/melody parts.
 
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For me I spend a lot of time just picking because I have an easier time hearing it. I play a lot of country music which has a lot of picking. For some reason I hear it better than strumming patterns.I've done done a lot of exercises for chord transitions so I can swap between chords quickly, but I just can't figure out what pattern to use. Everything sounds like D-du. Drives me nuts
 
Strumming alone seldom works, but picking can, they each have their place.

Usually strumming goes with singing, although works well with a picked melody too.

I prefer to pick melodies because I'm not a singer - although I have croaked out a few songs for the Seasons thread on here. ;)
 
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