Strumming Rant

My advice (and the only way to improve):

Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice.
And have a glass of wine.

You don't get better by doing 1,000 things, but rather by doing one thing 1,000 times. The wine is merely a reward for perseverance.

Sometimes I like a hard cider before I start. And then another when I'm done for the reward.

Don't laugh. My first ukulele teacher told me she wished all students had a shot before lessons to calm them down. I think she's right. It really is about the practice.
 
Instead of trying to focus on a strumming pattern and trying to finger chords, you might want to try something different for a while.

Just pick a chord you like (it doesn't really matter) and stick with this one chord. That doesn't sound to hard, does it.

Then you start strumming up and down keeping the time for all the upswings and all the downswings the same. When you master this, you can leave out some strums. Try to do all the down strums (but keep your hand moving with the same speed, you are just lifting the hand slightly so they don't touch the strings when you swing up. If you master this, you can add some upstrokes again. After this, you can leave one or downswings out of the sequence.

The final step is just playing random strums on one chord (and if you master this you can increase the number of chords), the most important thing about this is that you decided what you are going to strum before you do the strum and that you analyse the sequence you created.

The most important part about this is having fun with what you're doing. Don't do this for hours if it's not fun anymore. You can do this as a reoccurring assignment.
 
You can also do some first beat strumming. Say the song calls for a G chord in 4/4 time. You would typically strum the G 4 times. Try strumming it just once and counting out the other three in your head. Switch to the next chord at the appropriate time. If you keep the song's rhythm in your head, pretty soon you will find your right hand aching to move on 2-3-4 to match the rhythm. And it will tell you which direction to go.
 
I found strumming difficult at first as well. Trying to figure out the different strums–– very different than guitar. I seem to do better when I totally disconnect my brain from the process, and just play along with the group... getting the beat and strum pattern by feeling it. So, get a friend to practice with, or play along with a video or audio track and unplug that pesky brain. It might just get you some confidence. After you are loose, think about that "Practice x 1000" advice. The goal is to get a good number of strum variations on auto-pilot, and that is what it takes to make muscle memory. After that, it's magic.

–Lori
 
After watching many ukulele covers on Youtube I noticed that many (if not most) ukulele players are stuck in the same strumming trap as the original poster. It makes every song sound like the "ukulele version" of the song rather than a cover played on the ukulele - I hope that makes sense. The bottom line is that strumming pattern does not work on every song.

I never think of strumming patterns as a formula. Listen to the song closely before attempting to learn it. Play along with the song WITHOUT thinking of patterns. Let your right hand find the groove and the pattern on it's own. People that think too much sound stiff. Music should flow naturally.
 
For me personally, I mess up when I think too much about the strumming pattern. Get the general idea down and let it flow, if you overthink it you'll stop yourself and be like "no thats not right..." when it really isn't that hard to "fill-in" strum if you get off the pattern until you hit a place you can get back in your rhythm again... But I still have a hard time figuring out the strumming pattern in the first place xD once I can do that, its just practice practice practice until I can get it down.

You don't get better by doing 1,000 things, but rather by doing one thing 1,000 times

I love that. Amazing advice.
 
I still can't strum if by strum you mean the way that all the youtube uke celebs do. I use thumb down, forefinger up. Otherwise fingernails tend to get caught on the strings and I slow down.

And chunking? forget it. There's no tutorial in the world that makes any sense to me whatsoever when it comes to chunking. The people making the vids just kinda know it, and figure you do too. No offense to them, but they've been playing the instrument forever and know it like the back of their hands.

But I agree with Ken, so many people overuse the chunk anyway. It's meant to add a percussive element, to highlight a passage, to make or change the statement. Still, I'd at least like to freakin' be able to. :)

I'm hardly someone who has seen huuuuge amounts of improvement, but I have improved from day one to now. Just keep practicing until it stops feeling weird.
 
Oh Plainsong, thanks for that post...I thought I was the only person who was unable to follow tutorials about strumming...excepting Peter Nixon's one on the fan stroke...which is the only fancy strum I have in my artillery. As for strum patterns its all ups and downs...read the advice in this thread re clapping the rhythm...heck I cant even figure that out..I am hoping someday by osmosis or something similar I will pick up strumming patterns....or I will remain a mediocre player with one trick, DOH. (fortunately I can keep time, so at least there is somthing there)
 
I kind of have a pretend Spanish strum... if you aren't paying attention and you squint your ears, it sounds almost right!

I can keep the meter and have fun, but any of that other stuff, I'd need an actual lesson, and even then, we're carrying a bucket of water uphill here. :)
 
Try to let your right hand strum as if it were playing the melody or singing the melody. In other words, try to strum the song chords the way you feel it. You will get some totally different strums, but they will go with the song you are playing.
 
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I still can't strum if by strum you mean the way that all the youtube uke celebs do. I use thumb down, forefinger up. Otherwise fingernails tend to get caught on the strings and I slow down.

And chunking? forget it. There's no tutorial in the world that makes any sense to me whatsoever when it comes to chunking. The people making the vids just kinda know it, and figure you do too. No offense to them, but they've been playing the instrument forever and know it like the back of their hands.

But I agree with Ken, so many people overuse the chunk anyway. It's meant to add a percussive element, to highlight a passage, to make or change the statement. Still, I'd at least like to freakin' be able to. :)

I'm hardly someone who has seen huuuuge amounts of improvement, but I have improved from day one to now. Just keep practicing until it stops feeling weird.

I am with you and GreatGazukes... I can't do it like that YET! someday.. maybe in another 5 months!
 
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