Is it time for Strumming the Code?

Playing Technique
#1

CTC has helped my single-note technique immensely, but I still suck at strumming :smiley:

We had glimpses of world-class strumming technique in the Joscho interview, but it would be cool at this point to have a Troyesque breakdown of some of the great strummers’ right hand technique. I can’t think of too many names besides Joscho at the moment, but Steve Vai, Guthrie Govan, Tommy Emmanuel, Nuno and Ross Bolton come to mind.

EDIT: Oh and obviously the great Django!

\m/

PS: @Troy I know you are uber-busy with producing content at the moment, this is just a thought for the future if there’ll be enough interest / if you’ll ever have a day when you don’t know what to do :wink:

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#2

Something like this could be interesting. Something a bit different for sure! I enjoyed the Joscho tremolo stuff.
In addition to all the great players you mentioned, got to give some love for Nile Rodgers!

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#3

Did you manage to imitate it? My pick flies away instantly!

EDIT: Having tried this again briefly, the problem for me seems to be in the upstrokes: they feel awkward and unpredictable, and they can make my pick move around.

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#4

A little bit, not very well at all and could only do in very short bursts before it fell apart. I should revisit it really, it’s a cool sound. If I ever find a way of getting a camera on my picking hand then maybe i’ll upload something to get some advice on it!

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#6

A classic of the genre:

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#8

Thanks, that Guthrie video is great (as is the player), but it only shows “what” to do and not “how”. I suppose for him the mechanics came together without too much detailed thinking, but it is not so for me.

For example it seems to me that Guthtie changes both hand position and pick grip when going from single note to strumming, and I am not sure of the details and of what the important elements are. My pick grip + motion works well for single notes and “regular” strumming but not for the cool funky stuff shown here.

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#9

Some cool strumming from the Vulfpeck guitarist here:

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#10

Nile is awesome, has written so many classic songs, and seems like such a nice guy. We’ve talked about calling him up. Don’t know where he lives now but he’s from the Bronx.

Here’s a cool pattern I sometimes screw around with when I’m bored. I’ve never looked at it before. Here’s a quick slow motion clip while I’m taking a break from editing Andy Wood:

The bigger movements certainly have a forearm component, but the fast triplets I think might be more strictly wrist - flexion / extension perhaps.

In general, to me “strum” means forearm + wrist flexion and extension happening together in a blend. This is actually very similar to the two-way pickslanting movement, and the forearm-oriented crosspicking technique from the other thread. It’s combination that works well for a variety of guitar playing applications.

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#11

Awesome! Do you always hold the pick like that when you strum? Or can you do the same with your typical DWPS grip? I noticed that also Joscho curls the fingers up quite a lot when he goes intro hyper-strumming mode. I am not good at this, but also for me it seems the best way to avoid the pick from flying away.

Instead Govan (see video above) seems to change his grip into a more thumb pad - to fingertip thingy - no idea how he can make that work! Cory wong from Vulfpeck (also in a video above) instead uses an unusual trailing-edge technique.

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#12

Awesome Topic! My and probably many’s favorite Strummers are Motörhead:

The band’s tempos normally range from 120-160 bpm, 16th (and 8th combination) strums, often like simple standard campfire strumming rhythm patterns, sped up (and, of course, loud!!) I think it’s a good band to start. Unfortunatley the videoshot is not so focused on the picking/strumming hand in the way we’re used to in CtC, but one can get an impression. Also Lemmy, who partly plays his bass like the guitar, is very notable in doing his strumming job :spades:

PS: I’m referring to the classic line-up with “Fast” Eddie Clarke (RIP) on the guitar.

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#13

I think the next logical step for CTC is to examine left hand mechanics in order to develop speed and accuracy. I fear one of the hidden secrets to developing speed with your left hand may be in shifting positions, which I’m terrible at.

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#14

No more like the opposite. I usually use an angle pad grip so this feels a little weird. I’ve just been taking the opportunity since the crosspicking tutorial to try and get more comfortable with it since the amp is in the shop anyway. I figure it’s a good idea to know multiple grips in case they influence things in ways we might need to be aware of for teaching. So far it doesn’t appear to be a better / worse scenario so much as different.

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#15

Interesting, thanks! In my own setup I noticed that a grip with extended fingers (like your angle pad) sends some kind of “mini-shocks” to the knuckle - because longer pick-knuckle distance means higher torque on the knuckle joint(?), if the force experienced by the pick remains the same. This is particularly noticeable/unpleasant to me when I try to strum or pick fast with that grip. But this may be due to me playing too hard or with the wrong angle of attack. I have seen plenty of players, including you, Guthrie Govan and Steve Vai, getting a very authoritative attack with that grip without hurting themselves :slight_smile:

Ehrm
 sorry if my explanation is a bit messy.

Edit: the mini-shocks seem to be due to the upstrokes. In general, in strumming, I feel more resistance on the upstrokes (probably I have a bit of a DWPS - biased posture for these things).

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#16

Great playing as always Troy. A Nile interview would be amazing, and very different to what you’ve done before. I’m also unsure about where he lives, for some reason I had it in my head he lives in London, but googled it and can’t find any evidence of that so I’m probably confusing him with someone else. I’d love to see the magnet on him though, something of musical legend at this point.

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#17

I get what you’re saying. I’m guessing it may have something to do with the strum form rather than the grip per se. Andy Wood is an angle pad player and a masterful strummer:

https://troygrady.com/interviews/andy-wood/clips-mandolin/rhythm-strum/

This was a little nothing he played while describing studio work. He intended it as a demonstration of “easy” mandolin playing on a tune where the producers don’t want anything fancy, but it’s exactly the opposite. The double time strums are so well done. There’s more Andy acoustic guitar strumming coming up in the next interview, and it’s great.

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#18

Is there’s a reason why you start your triplets with an upstroke besides the one, that it then ends with a downstroke? I usually start my funky triplets with a downstroke


I love Guthries approach with the 32nd note bursts because they can be better mixed into a 16th rhythm stream without stoping on an 8th to ‘correct’ the picking flow because it doesn’t begin or end with an ‘wrong’ pickstroke

but it is even harder to do because of the extra note :weary:

How can the wrist be so relaxed?

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#19

Because I want the chord to be on the beat. Edit: the “two”, I guess in this case. So it’s tri-puh-let-beat.

It’s not! There’s a lot of power in this movement which I think you can hear. It doesn’t feel “relaxed”, per se, it feels a little more surgical, to use Andy Wood’s term.

I’m noticing a tendency for people to see wrist movement, or combinations of wrist movement and forearm movement – anything that looks strummy – and think that must be or feel loose. Why? These are just movements, they can feel all sorts of ways.

You can even use rapid elbow movement for the double time movements. And elbow to me always feels powerful and precise. For those having trouble with the wrist / forearm thing, and I agree it’s a little bit of a weird coordination exercise like walking and chewing gum, maybe try elbow. You might think it’s too rigid but it’s fast and it does work. This is especially true if you’re already a capable uwps player, since fast elbow is often a pronated movement for a lot of players.

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#20

I just took a closer look on your clip. You are starting on the ‘and’ of the beat with an upstroke and you’re landing on the beat with the last Downstroke, that’s right. I do that rarely sometimes too. But usually I start that figure with a downstroke because i play 16th notes (beat-e-&-a) down-up-down-up. So it doesn’t matter if I start on the beat or the &, it is unusually a downstroke in the picking chain.

Yes, your picking looks and sounds powerful, but the Nile, Guthrie and Cory Wong clips look and sound more relaxed IMO.

I must post a clip when I am back in my studio and put my ghetto magnet on


#21

Strumming is so basic that I can’t see the need for it but if they wanted to devote something to heavy metal rhythm guitar that could be cool. The rhythms in Megadeth are especially challenging and a look into the mechanics of James Hatfield’s rapid down picking like on Master Of Puppets would be very interesting. I think Mustaine and Hetfield are the best metal rhythm guitarists around, at least for that style of metal. I’m not too familiar with recent Megadeth but there are songs on their debut - Killing Is My Business And Business Is Good that are so complex it’s amazing. Just listen to the rhythm guitar in this song!

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#22

Well, Guthrie made the point that is should be relaxed. I think this might be a difference with a professional musician who’s required to do something like strumming every day for prolonged periods with no tolerance for rhythmical inaccuracy (James Brown would fine band members for mistakes!) and not damage themselves in the process over the years.

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