5 Strumming mistakes that RUIN your sound! Fix them in 13 minutes 

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I was progressively getting worse and more frustrated as I was developing these habits. I can't tell you how much I appreciate this video. It instantly helped.

As someone with 25+ years of playing, I must say..this is a great video for beginners. I'm planning on teaching my nephew, he wants to learn, he's 13. So here I am, going through tutorials on RU-vid to get better ideas on how to teach, so THANK YOU so much for this video! 🤟

For years I've been trying to figure out what's wrong with my guitar techniques, why it sounds different than others. And was in vain. Finally, you point that out. Thank you.

Dude, you just opened my eyes! I have been struggling with strumming with my (unfortunate) intermittent practice time and this has made a world of difference. Especially mistake #1. I never realized it until now. Thank you for this great lesson.

Also, people who strum all 6 strings all the time. Should play the bass note and down. Good video.

This helped me out a lot, I thought I was doing okay, but i was making almost all of these mistakes. Thank you for this, this was much needed for a beginner.

Dude, you totally nailed it… I’m a pretty confident rhythm guitarist and I’m guilty of #5 a lot. It’s almost like you get lazy or hypnotized half way through a song and you find yourself scraping. Thanks for this!

Essential viewing for anyone with an acoustic guitar. This is brilliant. This should be the very first lesson for anyone who's just bought an acoustic guitar. This is all about building quality and finesse into your playing from day one -- so it becomes second nature. Strongly recommended! 😃👍🎸

#4 took me FOREVER. I played piano for 30 years before picking up a guitar. There is no equivalent motion, and it made no sense to me. I did have a teacher when I started. He told me my timing was excellent even though I was strumming wrong. He made me learning the technique, and it did wonders for my playing. So much more comfortable, tighter rhythm, and a much more consistent tone. Learn it!

For a beginner, this is great information. Once you progress to an intermediate level, I'd encourage the player to be able to control some of these elements at will. Being able to control pick angle is very useful when playing single lines (as opposed to strumming), and slow strums can be good for landing chords (like rolling a chord on Piano) if used sparingly. Being able to deviate from natural strumming (down/up/down/up, etc.) is also very useful once you get to more advanced rhythms (for different accents, triplets, etc). But none of these things should be practiced until you've got the fundamentals down.

This was fantastic video. I really agree with the 5 mistakes. I think I’m lucky enough to have not developed them as habits in my playing. But I’ve heard plenty of others playing with a sound I didn’t like, so hearing you break this down has identified WHY I didn’t like their sound. What a huge difference correcting these methods can make. Big thanks and please make more like this

The suggestion about holding the pick lightly really helped me a lot. Thanks! I've been afraid to let go of it, but I definitely play better holding it loosely. Hopefully I'll find that sweet spot of just the right force to hold it lightly without losing it.

I have been playing guitar for 15 or 20 years. It was nice to know all these tips. I am self taught. But it was good to know some things I was already doing correctly. And Some things that I need to improve on. Good video

Ive played for 40 years. Still found a couple of these tips useful. Thanks Andrew.😊

These honestly helped so much. The person who was teaching me stopped after a few weeks, so I was stuck on the early stuff and lingered for the past year on struggling with barr chords, and strumming, and ... honestly a lot more. This video, I am extremely greatful for... The pick one especially, it was a point of upset for me when I'd try playing a song I thought was beautiful, like Willow Tree March, and I'd get this rough and loud mess no matter what I tried.

I’m glad you specified that #5 isn’t actually wrong - in some cases it’s actually part of the desired sound!

This was outstanding! I tried to learn guitar (for a short time) and it always sounded so completely awful I gave up and gave the guitar to a family member. I want it back now! I think I did everything wrong that you pointed out. He he, good thing I can laugh at myself! Anyway, this was incredible and not one single thing that was too technical that I didn't get it! Simple solutions.

Great tips. I'm 3 years in and Ive just caught myself moving my elbow too much. Now I'm moving the wrist more and it makes a real difference. It's something I'd kinda noticed when watching people play but without your explanation of right and wrong way I hadn't really put it into practice. Thanks.

Been playing for many years and never even thought about it. I would listen to songs and try to sound like the original. I knew the right way through watching others play. Thank you for bringing to lite the "five mistakes." Wish I knew them when I first started playing guitar.

I’ve been playing for 3 years and caught me high E and b strings far to much , I’ve just learned that I was holding my plec wrong after watching this , this has completely fixed my issue 🎉❤

This was so very well put together video , i have been playing for 10 months now and was worried that my guitar wasn't sounding soft , but these techniques really helped me achieve the melody of an acoustic! Much appreciated ❤️✨

These tips are so good in building the right technique. Been playing acoustic guitar and I didn't even take note of some of these mistakes I made and challenges I had to get past. This is an eye opener.

Thank you so much! This video is absolute gold. I was seriously stuck with my strumming technique and despised the pick, after watching this the difference is like night and day

Lolol I taught myself guitar some years ago but haven’t touched it in a while. Now I’m going to start over considering I did almost all of these and never knew why I couldn’t get it right. Thank you.

Great lesson! I’ve been playing for about a year and a half and have figured out a lot of this on my own just by listening to how it sounds. I sure wish I had a guitar teacher like you. I’ve tried three different people but no luck.

Excellent!! I've done some teaching over the years. I've never concentrated in getting my beginning students to strum better even though many need to do just that. I just try to make them work with a metronome and then focus more on learning chords and theory. What you present here is really important. I'm going to use your video as I couldn't have presented proper strumming better if I'd tried! Again, good job! 👍👍

I took piano for 4 years and tried self teaching myself guitar and I’ve been playing for years now and I don’t really get frustrated when I don’t get something it’s fun for me to work it out on my own and it’s a great feeling when I can see myself getting better and better and learning more and more of a song and fine tuning it until I’ve got it to a point I’m satisfied with.

This instruction instantly improved my "playing" a great deal. I'm a beginner, and this is the first time I enjoyed it. Thank you very much!

I feel like #5 is not necessarily a mistake, but more of a stylistic choice. Used well it can add a bit of percussion to what you;re playing. The same with #2. I found that pinching the pick a bit harder is a good, quick way to get that bit of extra volume when you need it.

Thank you sooo much Notes: - use wrist not elbows (elbows - too stiff and too much distance cannot play fast chords) - don't hold pick too tight. Relax. Sounds smoother. Keep balance, right enough so it doesn't fall but relaxed enough so that it's smooth -angle of pick. Don't strum face on (too loud), play at angle. Put pick on low E n push down and you'll get position of angle. - strum. Hand has to move according to count and rhythm. When not strumming, hands still motion according to rhythm - don't scrape. Aim for achieving one sound

I’ve been playing (mostly self taught) for about 5 years and this helped me a lot with some errors I was doing! Thank you very much!

The history of Epiphone is very fascinating. Justin, you do a great job of explaining the differences between the guitars.

Thank you, You are exactly right. When we make these mistakes we feel negative by hearing our own performance and usually put the guitar away early.

I have been playing guitar for the last 25+ years and I have many lessons to learn from this video. Wonderfully simple. Thank you.

Love the tips and love the "sounds really not groovy" description of improper stumming technique. Fun engaging and relatable. Very groovy. Thanks.!

Excellent video! I've been struggling with my strumming and now I see where I'm making my mistakes. Thanks so much!

Thank you so much for these tips. I've been playing guitar for almost 2 years now but it's so annoying how there are days I'm so good with my strumming and some days I don't know what I'm doing. I am just so inconsistent. Thank you!

Man this is so great. I've been playing guitar since 2 years now and I didn't know what was wrong in my playing. But now I figured out the subtil mistakes that makes my play "too rough"! Thanks a lot ! Now I have to work on this :)

one of rarely helpful videos , really. especially about the angle and the way how to strum properly, everybody else talk about the rythm but no one talks about the actual technique. this is some good stuff . thanks !

I'm a total beginner, just now learning the fretboard, and I feel a bit more optimistic now knowing that, on the long road ahead of me, I at least won't be making THESE mistakes. 😅 Thank you!

Thank you as I've recently picked up my guitar after many years break (my work made my hands & arms very sore, then became quite unwell with a chronic illness, & back problems), but now after several spinal operations at least I'm functioning better despite not being well enough to work. Although I wasn't angling my pick quite enough, I struggled with keeping time as I was making the mistake of pausing my strokes, plus I'm also guilty of dragging rather than strumming as you've shown! Actually found very early on that strumming with my elbow was awfully tiring, especially with my larger flat-top. One thing that has helped my timing has been playing around on a 2008 Yamaha MM6 I purchased several years ago. It's a keyboard with basic synthesizer controls, but the same processor & voices as their more complex Motif-Series. As a young teenager 50yrs ago I began learning the piano but struggled with my smaller hands on a piano gifted to my parents which wouldn't stay in tune due to what was eventually found to be a cracked frame! One question though; How flexible a pick/plectrum should I use?

As a beginner I've been struggling with awful strumming sounds. This video is really helpful since noticed i make all the mistakes. Thanks for the info and time on this so helpful video

Like others have said, I was also making these mistakes. I kept getting told I was too loud and my singing couldn't be heard over the guitar. Very helpful video!

This is a really great video… I’ve been playing guitar for more than 40 years, but I still can remember progressing past each of these. And I apologize if there is any possible way this next comment can possibly be misconstrued as anything other that a compliment, but for a non-native English speaker, your English is absolutely amazing!!! Many years ago I could communicate somewhat effectively in German, but I can’t even imagine developing your level of bilingual skill.

Iv played acoustic for years, but have to admit iv'e learned something here, much thanks😊👍

I'm over 70 and still can't play. Apparently, you have to practice. Tripped over this short video and actually found the advice quite helpful. Simple tricks for simple minds that make sense. Thanks for sharing.

I appreciate you pointing out the mistakes I'm making. Appreciate even more the corrections.

This is great! Thank you 🎸🎶✌🏼👍🏼🙏🏼

Thank you so much for this lesson. Everything makes so much sense.

First of all, thank you very much for these really important tips. I'm a beginner and they helped me a lot to improve my strumming tecnique. I've got a question related to the up strumming phase: do we need to "invert" the angle we used in the down phase?

I'm a born again musician on guitar a bit over four years now, originally a sax player, Berklee alumni and all that. I know the discipline of musicianship. This is a great lesson at any level. I feel like my playing evolved naturally to not make these mistakes in the pronounced way you demonstrate, but I never learned this from any lesson and it's a great video for cleaning up my technique. Even the bit about how firmly to hold the pick, that's something I've been working on lately, this is a valuable thing to learn. Not really beginner stuff but great for people like me who know how to play and want to play better.

Helpful! Thank you.

I've played guitar for ten years now, but this video still helped me, namely the tip about pick angle -- I generally finger pick and have always struggled with a pick, for exactly the reason you point out -- I've been trying to keep it perfectly horizontal! thank you, this is so much better!

Thank you so much!!! This is what I've been looking for! I've stopped using a pick and started strumming with my fingers as I found it easier to stay on the correct strings. Now I can go back to the pick using this lesson.

Great points! An added advantage of wrist strumming vs elbow strumming is that your guitar won't get beaten up.

I appreciate the teaching. My first teacher was the lead guitarist of a famous rock band who stated the left thumb in this case over the fret board was incorrect technique.

All of my mistakes in strumming, being corrected in one video...Thanks you.

I'm surprised this video doesn't have more views, this helped me so much Thanks dude

I noticed, while watching the video, I do scrape my pick and I also don’t really attack the strings like a drummer. Thanks for the video! I had no idea I was making these mistakes 👌💯

Very useful.. thank you

First vid I've seen where you play while you explain. Like that. Thank you. I will use this😎

Hope this video is gonna help me improve my guitar playing... Very clearly explained. Thanks so much to 1st Fret!!!!

I really needed to see this after a while of half-hearted learning. I want to be better at playing guitar and this has opened my eyes (or ears lol) to these mistakes I'd been making. Thanks for this video.

Started playing guitar again after a nearly 8 year break and watched this to see if I make any of these mistakes, thank god I do not, maykes me feel a bit better ^^ Awesome video! Great explanation, awesome advice!

I spent way too much time fretting the left I fell behind with the Right hand work. My buddy in school taught me to Travis pick before strumming because my first song was " Dust in the Wind " so it's great to see this video. I will save and subscribe. When things start to get a bit cruddy, I always work back through my fundamentals. I like your drum stick attack visual to keep ahead of getting behind. Visual ques work well for me. You are good at that. I use my fingers to strum alot too. I think Mark Knophler talked about that idea. Thanks great lesson. Well explained.

The best tip I can give it to listen to all styles of music, and feel what the musician is making you feel. Then just put that into your music when you play your instrument. Your heart and your emotions and will guide your music. All of the musical tips won't make you play music you can feel. The more you think of how to play something, the less you'll actually play something. You play how you feel. Cheers and merry playing!

I am into my instrument for only a couple of months now, and I find lessons like this to be very helpful. As I explore the wonderful sounds this thing can make, it's good to be mindful of the mechanics of what I'm doing, so as not to develop bad habits. I've enjoyed the lesson and have subscribed to your channel.

This was amazing! I just got my first acoustic and couldnt figure out why everythin just didnt sound right and after these changes im sounding MUCH better. Thank you so much!

That was very helpful, I do all these mistakes not knowing what was wrong with my strumming, I'm self-taught. I'll try to fix them. Great lesson thanks.

As a beginner with a super duper instructor who's one of the best in the whole of my country,I just want to let you know these are the mistakes and more I keep making and my instructor keeps correcting but it's not easy for me 😀 which is why I'm here to find something to support what he teaches me so that I don't put that man through all the pains like I usually do 😁😁😁 Thank you,man Please keep doing more strumming videos. I'm currently struggling with how to strum to Alan Jackson's the older I get 😅😅😅

Very nice video. I am a beginner level guitar player, and I could never get my strumming right. Happened to come across this video and now I know I have been making all the 5 mistakes listed here. Thank you, will work on these from now on to get my strumming right.

I just bought myself a guitar a few days ago as I'm starting to learn how to play, and this video totally showed me my mistakes I made while strumming. The single notes sound good, but when I strum the chords it just sounds so awful as if every note sounds the same. Thank you!

Great tips. Thank you

I’m strictly a rock/metal guitarist, but this still helped me a ton. Thank you.

It seemed like a computer generated voice that didn't match the video, at first, but then I realized it was really good info, and the demo was showing exactly what was needed. I am just learning, and this was a great instructional video for me.

I was making all of the mistakes you pointed here. Thanks to you, my strumming just got 47,3% better!

This was a very nice eye opening lesson!!! Thank you for it!!! All these intricate techniques are simple at first glance but they really matter a great deal!!! Youre a very good teacher producing such a treasure trove of information in less than 15 minutes. Bravo!!! ❤️❤️

Helpful lesson - thanks!

I actually learned a lot from this video. I mean I know I have had a lot more experience when playing instruments so it was easy for me to transfer those skills over to guitar but using a pick was the most difficult thing for me. Even when I was holding it right I didn't have good technique when strumming. After watching, I'm already more comfortable playing with a pick.

Number 5 helped me so much! I have only been playing for a couple days but was so confused when i did everything right it just sounded wrong. Now I figured it out! thank you!

So helpful!! 🎸 ♥️

This is really good content - concise and organized with good examples. I’m definitely gonna follow you. Thank you. Btw, You also remind me of my favorite Grandmaster Chess player, Alex Yermolinski. Keep up the great work!

I come back here after a year of learning guitar, this video help me a effing lot, thank you!

Thanks for posting this video. Today I was discussing with a fellow amateur player that I needed to work on my strumming technique…I was doing 4 out of 5!!! This will help! Thanks again

Now I know why my strumming sounded terrible 🙈Thanks for your excellent lesson! Much appreciated 👍🏻👋

Amazing video. This helped tons. Any chance you might do a finger picking lesson in the near future? You explain things so well

Amazing tips. Especially number 5. You can really hear a huge difference. Thank you very much.

This video is amazing! Thank you very much for all those insights

Very good beginner lesson. Helpful!

Thank you, I've been working through Fender Play (I which I like a lot) for the last three months but I think I was making all the mistakes you have mentioned. After this video my playing feels much more natural and more enjoyable.

Very helpful! Thank you for covering such a basic but important topic.

deeply appreciate your videos. my strumming instantly sound different after follow your guidance. 🤟

Very good lesson. I play classical instead of flat-pick and as a drummer first, I think I learned a lot of this stuff early on. In fact I think all musicians should start on drums. Fundamentals.

This is such a great video and helpfull tips. I've always avoided using a pick because of how horrible and loud the guitar sounded whenever I used one. Now that I know what I was doing wrong (basically everything except the elbow mistake😅) I feel more comfortable playing with it. And I could already hear an improvement! so thank you for restoring my faith in picks.

🛐 well conveyed and very respectful and points at least to ponder for any level player. Thanks

Very good help! Thanks

I played guitar for 15 years before I made myself learn to strum, I naturally started doing number 4 thinking I was crazy for moving my hand so much, and you're right I was using it as a pseudo metronome

Great lesson. So many intermediate players lack feel and want to strum every single part and its obnoxious. Could you give a lesson on dynamics and feel and how to blend in when playing with others. I think it would help us all.

I’ve just started learning and don’t have a pic yet but the first one definitely helped me even with finger strumming.