Video Question: Upstroke Without a Pick

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Date: June 5th, 2009 | Length: 2.18 | Instructor: Mark Lincoln

Dmitry asked "Hi guys! Question from a beginner about playing without a pick. I'm trying to figure out how to do down and upstrokes by hand (mostly for the chorus parts of songs / bridges where the usual strumming pattern gets boring). The downstrokes, where the nails of my fingers strike the strings, come pretty naturally. But on the way up, some of my fingers (pinky and ring finger mostly) get caught on the High-E and B strings. Are there any (1) hand positions/movements, and (2) exercises that you guys can recommend to fix the problem? Many thanks!" Another benefit of being a member of JamPlay is the video response section. Our expert staff fields questions from our members and provides video responses each week.

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Drum Beats and BPM - May 12th, 2009 (3 minutes, 00 seconds)

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Finger Positioning - March 21st, 2008 (2 minutes, 11 seconds)

Fairchildj asks, "I have just recently began with Phase I of training. One issue that I am having is that I find placing my fingers in the right frets extremely difficult for my middle two fingers. My fingers curl on each other a bit 3rd finger overlapping the 4th finger...so when I place them on the frets, the 3rd finger wants to poing back towards the 2nd fret instead of where it should be on the 3rd fret. By sliding my hand a bit, I can overcome this but I don't want to pick up a bad habit that will limit my advancement in the future...any recommendations?" View Response