In this chapter we talked a lot about strumming and different techniques that you can use, some of them basic some of them more complicated. Let’s take a moment just to review.

We started out with song form which is kind of a key thing for understanding what you’re trying to do. You want to break a song down into the various parts. Usually there’s different strumming for different parts, and you just work on them separately.

Then we talked about taking a strum pattern and simplifying it. This is critical because all strum patterns are based on rhythm and timing. And if you take out all the fancy stuff you want to make sure that you’re changing the chords at the right time, and that the chords last for the right length.

Then we went in and we put some cool details in, including some more advanced techniques with the arpeggiating, and the base and chord, and palm muting, and string muting. So these are all techniques that are common to guitar players. Most guitar players use them in one way or another.

These are all things that just take time to develop. You have to have patience. A lot of people actually find one to be easier and another hard, and maybe another guitar player is the opposite. So everybody’s a little bit different, and a lot of time this raises a question, well can I kind of just do it my own way. Depends on what you’re trying to do.

A lot of that has to do with the pick, and if you’re playing styles of music that are really based on pick playing it’s good to kind of stay with the pick. If I think about, for example, like a blue’s thing, maybe I’m going to go, [MUSIC]. For some people that might be like okay, the chord part is easy, but when I go to play the notes I get messed up, so can I just drop my pick on my knee and use the fingers. It’s a good idea if you’re playing with a pick just to keep the thing in your hand and stick with it. It’s going to fall in the guitar, it’s going to rotate in your hands, it’s going to drive you nuts, but this is something that everybody goes through, and it’s just a part of kind of learning to be comfortable with it. So stick with it.

In other areas though you might really end up doing something that’s unique to you and in many ways that’s cool because the fact is no two guitar players play exactly alike. And as long as you’re doing something that’s based in rhythm and proper timing when it comes to changing the chords, you’ll be all good, because you might play with another guitar player that learned it just like the record, and you’re doing the simple version, but if you’re both playing in rhythm you can play together, which is a great thing. And then you can develop all the details over time.

Some of those details, back to the pick, can really have to do with the direction that you are comfortable with. Some people are like I’m cool on the down’s but the up’s are difficult. Well it depends on the style of music. For example, jazz, swing jazz, gypsy jazz, a lot of that is very down-stroke oriented. This kind of thing [MUSIC]. Maybe it’s like ska, or something like that, where it’s very up-stroke, whatever. So different styles of music usually require different picking techniques.

So strumming and getting comfortable with the pick is something that you really kind of want to work on, but have some fun with it. Expect some of this stuff to take a little bit more time. We’re really just kind of waiting for the part of our brain that’s thinking about it to sort of not have to consciously be thinking about it. When it’s all in the subconscious and you’re just kind of expressing yourself, that’s when it really gets to be fun, but that takes a while.