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How you can Strum A Guitar Without A Pick

acoustic guitar - How you can strum a guitar with no pick is really a question beginners and advancing guitarists often ask, specially because they become excited by the discovery of recent guitar styles. Definition of strumming versus plucking

"The left-hand may be the smart one, as the right executes"

This famous phrase was the response given by Paco de Lucia on a Spanish tv show several decades back. It did indeed cause him a lot of suffering in the way of physical injuries. Those injuries were inflicted by a number of extreme right wing fanatics simply because they decided that Paco's response had political connotations.

The question resulting from the interviewer was: "As a guitarist, which of these two hands carries the biggest challenge?"

As with Paco's answer, it is indeed true that the right hand executes the notes prepared (or fretted) through the left hand, as well as open strings. (Please note the example covers right handed guitarists, obviously the alternative holds true for left handed guitarists).

To learn how to strum a guitar with no pick, there are many different techniques by which this can be accomplished, but they all belong to either from the following main groups:

Plucking and
Strumming

Plucking happens when each string is picked individually. This can be done in succession, as in executing arpeggios, or concurrently, as with "claw hammer" style.

Strumming is when the strings of an instrument are played in fast succession, one after the other, inside a sweeping motion, which can be descending, ascending, or a combination of.

Using the possible exception of some "rasgueado",( I'll come back to this later) strumming is always done over several strings consecutively. Plucking can be done either using claws and thumb picks, as in banjo styles, or with bare fingers or natural nails, as in classical and flamenco guitar styles.

Strumming can be achieved with the aid of a plectrum, aka pick, or with bare fingers or natural nails. We will focus on this short article on how to strum an instrument without a pick.

Bare hand strumming styles

The basic bare hand strumming styles could be divided into three main groups:

Thumb strumming Index or index and thumb strumming "Rasgueado" or ripping style

Plus all mixtures of any of the three in the above list.

Thumb strumming

This is perhaps the most basic from the bare hand styles. Thumb strumming is performed by resting either the little finger or both little and ring fingers of the right-hand on the body, underside of the strings and running the end from the thumb over the strings.

The motion can be descending only ( most common), ascending and descending (less frequent) and ascending only ( rare). As we grow the nails on the right-hand, the descending stroke is going to be made by the nail hitting the strings, which gives a more percussive tone and sharp attack.

The ascending motion is always done by the nail striking the string. This method does not involve any wrist movement, hence the small finger resting on your body of the guitar. Some typical uses have been in playing jazz ballads, specially one chord per bar type songs. The notorious jazz player Wes Montgomery used thumb strumming as his main right-hand technique. If we want to learn efficiently how to strum a guitar without a pick, it will be very beneficial that we observe such players and learn from them.

Index or index plus thumb strumming

This is perhaps the most widely used technique for strumming a steel string electric guitar, but not necessarily exclusive to. The basic motion is, since it's names indicates, done with the index finger alone, or both index and thumb pressed together.

guitar chord charts - When having fun with the index finger alone, the ascending stroke will attack the strings using the back tip from the finger, or nail, depending on whether we've grown it.

The downward motion always requires the finger nail striking the strings. When utilizing finger and thumb together, the ascending stroke will always attack the strings using the thumb's nail.

Again, nail attack is sharper and brighter. The most important part of this technique is the wrist movement. The right ways of executing the strokes are: Before starting the down stroke, the rear of the hand is facing slightly upwards. To execute the down stroke, the arm must descend gently as the cuff is rotated inwards and also the index finger attacks the strings starting at the The upstroke is performed exactly reversing the down stroke, starting to rotate the cuff first, then raisin the forearm as the finger begins attacking the strings We can decide to grow the finger nails depending on what sound and tone we're attempting to accomplish

"Rasgueado" or ripping style

Probably the most difficult of the strumming techniques is the "rasgueado". The reason behind the reason being it calls for more muscles from the right hand compared to other kinds, although it does not require a rotation from the wrist for the down stroke.

The fundamental technique starts by looking into making a fist using the thumb extended from the hand. The palm from the hand holds the tip from the fingers, which are primed to spring out. Then, because the arm lowers the hand to the strings, we spring each finger with force in rapid succession, beginning with the index. Some players will release the index first, while the most typical way is to release the little finger first and index last.

This creates a ripping effect since four fingers are hitting several strings, creating a very percussive, drumming and dry sound.

The upstroke, if required, is performed usually with the upper part of the thumb, the nail, requiring then for the wrist to become rotated. Styles done with just the down stroke would be tango plus some flamenco "palos". Styles completed with both of them are mostly flamenco styles or "palos", rumba, and other South American styles for example milonga. Just about all players possess a firm foundation on how to strum a guitar with no pick.

Combinations of the above

acoustic guitar - Most flamenco guitarists, such as Paco de Lucia allow us very advanced right-hand approaches to accessory for those explained above

This concludes the description of the basic styles for how to strum an instrument without a pick.