Strumming from the Wrist Guitar Lesson

Chapter 1: (10:49) Introduction and Review

Review
- Warm up the hands.
- Stretch the wrists.
- Play the major and minor open chords.
- Warm up your strumming muscles by relaxing the wrists and letting the pick flow over the strings.
- Play the E major chord in the "new" way and play the type 1 barre chords.
- Play the A major chord in the "new" way and play the type 2 barre chords.
- Practice the "slanting A" technique.
- Practice the type 1 minor barre chords.
- Practice the type 2 minor barre chords.
- Play all of the type 1 mini-barre chords.
- Play all of the type 2 mini-barre chords.
- Review and practice quantitative and qualitative techniques.
- Review last week's exercises.
- Enjoy!

Ready?

Hopefully after the last forty lessons you have acquired some of the basic skills necessary to play the guitar and build a foundation for years of playing to come. I use the word "basic" loosely as it's definitely a subjective issue concerning where the beginning guitar series stops and the intermediate begins. I'm hoping that if you have any questions you will write in and let me know. I'm always happy to clarify any issues if I am able to in a timely manner. Okay, so where do we go from here? The answer: technique!

Although I have discussed playing from the wrist in past lessons and emphasized it to some degree, I want to reiterate the importance of it here. Smooth and consistent rhythm guitar comes primarily from the wrist and the more you are able to relax and strum from the wrist, the smoother your rhythms will become. Remember the exercise that I showed you earlier in this series where you move the wrist back and forth between your legs and attempt to touch the insides of your legs with the hand while keeping your arm relatively still? We'll refer to that exercise as "wrist warming" from this point on and you should all re-familiarize yourselves with it.

Exercise 1
Practice wrist warming until you feel your wrist loosen up and become jello-like (there's always room for Jello!). Do this for two to three minutes and then pick up your guitar. Now strum the following chords: D, A, Cadd9 and G using the strum
or "down, down-up, down-up." Remember to make clean snap-strums with your down-up strokes!

D
E_2_
B_3_
G_2_
D_0_
A_x_
E_x_

A
E_0_
B_2_
G_2_
D_2_
A_0_
E_x_

Cadd9
E_0_
B_3_
G_0_
D_2_
A_3_
E_x_

G
E_3_
B_0_
G_0_
D_0_
A_2_
E_3_

When playing these chords, focus on relaxing your wrist and allowing the pick to flow gently over the strings. Think "wrist" and not "arm" and your strumming will improve immeasurably. However, it should be noted that the elbow and forearm muscles are crucial to the strumming process. The wrist is your primary point of control when strumming. Chapter 2: (07:11) Over-Strumming Playing too Hard
Okay, so that's a good wrist warm-up exercise, but you should always attempt to play from the wrist in future exercises, especially for those of you who have the tendency to play too hard on the strings. How do you know if you're playing too hard you might ask? One characteristic of this is unpleasant sound, although this can be the result of a number of things, including mis-hitting chords, old strings (you can usually tell if you need new stings if you try to hit a harmonic and have trouble getting a note), or a guitar with intonation problems or neck issues. Sometimes if you find that your pick is "crashing" over the strings and not flowing, then this is a key indicator that you’re playing too hard on the strings. In general, use your ears as the best judge to find if something is not quite right with your playing. First thing, play from the wrist!

Slanting A Technique
I'm hoping that all of you are familiar with this term by this point and have been working on this challenging technique. You might recall that instead of playing an open A chord

A major
E_0_
B_2_
G_2_
D_2_
A_0_
E_0_

using your first, second, and third fingers, you can play the A with your third finger and barring the D, G and B strings all at once. I know this is review, but bear with me. This technique may have come easy to some of you, but is probably a source of some frustration for others. Sadly, this phenomenon is a function of genetics and while some of us have been blessed with longer, slender fingers and more malleable "double" joints, others have been destined to make the best of shorter and less flexible digits. Regardless, that is the nature of nature and we all have to make the best of what we have, right? That having been said, there are ways to utilize the appendages that we have more effectively, simply with insight, and constant, diligent practice.

Exercise 2
Play an open A chord using the slanting A technique. Make sure that you're covering the D, G, and B strings hard enough so that you're getting a clean sound and not touching the high E-string! Yes, I know that this can be the ultimate difficulty when attempting to perfect this technique. If you find that you are touching the high E, then try to push your chord arm (usually your left arm for most of you) forward slightly and apply more pressure with your hand. By moving your arm forward, you will hopefully keep your hand more perpendicular to the neck of the guitar and away from that ever-pesky high E. Use the strum that we used in the previous exercise or "down, down-up, down-up." Relax your wrist and allow the pick to flow over the strings gently. Play this exercise over and over until you are able to get a clean sound out of the A chord. Again, if you are not getting a clean sound, play each of the strings individually until you find where you’re not making good contact with the fretboard. Chapter 3: (01:43) Type 2 Barre Chords Exercise 3
Now that you are hopefully more comfortable with the slanting A, we're going to use it to play the type 2 barre chords all the way up the neck. Start with the open A chord. Then play B, C, D, and so on as high as you can on the fretboard. Play with whatever strum, you want but make sure that your strumming is primarily generated by the wrist muscles. Go for A NICE CLEAN SOUND EVEN IF YOU NEED TO PLAY THROUGH THESE EXERCISES SLOWLY! QUALITY IS WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR AT THIS POINT!

As most of you know about me by now, I'm the one who pushes you even when your hands are cramping and your fingers are throbbing from holding down the steel strings too long. But hey, someone’s gotta do it, right? Chapter 4: (02:27) Exercise 4 Exercise 4
Play the type 2 B major chord

B major
E_2_
B_4_
G_4_
D_4_
A_2_
E_x_

using the slanting A technique. Get good and comfortable with it. Keep an eye on your pinky finger, which up to now has been idle. Play the B chord with the strum or "down, down-up, down." Now, place your pinky on the B-string at the fifth fret. Your chord should look like this:

B sus4
E_x_
B_5_
G_4_
D_4_
A_2_
E_x_

You will still be holding down the B string on the fourth fret with your third finger. The pinky is simply added to the fifth fret, changing the chord to Bsus4. Using the strum pattern explained above, strum B and then strum the Bsus4. Feel the muscles in your hand work to accommodate the new chord. Watch me in the video for more on this, and don't forget to relax your wrist!

Member Comments about this Lesson

Discussions with our instructors are just one of the many benefits of becoming a member of JamPlay.