The School of Feedback Guitar Blog

Strumming loudly has it's place, but what does it accomplish? If we are talking about rock and roll, it accomplishes a lot. Of course, there a lot of power and aggression with strumming loudly. People like the sound of aggressive strums especially when playing music with more energy. However, there are other situations where strumming with a bit more control, a bit less volume, and playing a bit more "cloud-like" is appropriate. The following entry is all about understanding what strumming loudly does, as well as reasons for easing up on the volume.

The following are some not-so-good consequences of strumming loudly:

1. The left hand usually tightens up. This is usually an experience factor, meaning that it's possible to play loudly and not have the left hand tighten up when one has a bit more time on the guitar.
2. Since the left hand is tighter, the pressure used on one chord is immense, and it makes getting to a new chord a bit more difficult.
3. Every buzz, at the result of finger positioning not being close to the fret, get's magnified.

The solution? Like all of them, this is something I wouldn't have ever figured out if I didn't teach: Play guitar like a nice rolling cloud is ambling over the country side. Of course you can also get in touch with your inner zen, reach satori, and/or levitate. Those might help, and if you figure any of those out let me know. Especially the levitate part. That would be really cool and I would love to have a nice new party trick. Anyhow, just imagine the cloud going over the country side while strumming and watch what happens. This has the effect of making most fret buzzes dissapear, loosening up the left hand, and giving you more control over strumming and changing chord progressions.