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How to Develop Your Strumming Hand to Sing and Play at the Same Time

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How to Develop Your Strumming Hand to Sing and Play at the Same Time Once my guitar students get into strumming and having fun with their guitar, the next question I usually get is, “How do I play guitar and sing at the same time?”

By the time students get around to asking this question, we are usually on to some syncopated rhythm patterns. This means there isn’t a down strum on every beat. When they go to sing, their strumming falls apart. This is because the student hasn’t trained their strumming hand to be able do both yet.

When playing guitar, it’s easy to think that we have mastered something when he haven’t really taken things out into the real world and applied them. Most guitar students try to sing and play guitar way before they have actually mastered the art of strumming.

In this article, I’m going to give you some tips for how you can develop your strumming hand to the point where you can sing and play at the same time.

 

Step 1: Simplify The Pattern

Let’s say you are working on the strumming pattern below:

In this strumming pattern, there is no down strum on the 3rd beat. That can really throw students for a loop. What I recommend is simplifying the pattern so that you can sing it. Maybe something like the one below.

This will allow you to play along with the song and sing while you continue to develop your strumming hand. I removed the syncopation to allow your brain time to place the lyrics better without the hand skipping a beat.

Step 2: Practice Mastering Your Strumming Hand

While simplifying the pattern does offer us a temporary quick fix solution, it does not solve the problem, which is the fact that your strumming hand is not yet on auto pilot. In order to do this, I want you to take a strumming pattern you know, maybe the first pattern we used in this article. It is a common one my students have trouble with and one that is used in many songs.

First, make sure you can play the pattern with your eyes closed. Once you can do that, I want you to stand up. Make sure you have a guitar strap for this next step.

Start playing the strumming pattern you ‘know so well’ and try to walk. Yes, don’t try to sing, try to walk and play that strumming pattern at the same time. When you do this, you might find it very hard to walk naturally. Maybe there are pauses in your steps, maybe there are pauses in your strumming.

Step 3: Slow Down

While practicing the above activity, go VERY slow. I mean slow. Almost like you are walking through wet cement. Focus on getting your strumming hand to work perfectly whether you are taking a step with your right or your left foot.

Once your steps smooth out, start trying to go faster and then try to run while strumming and even jumping around if you can. Once you have that down pat you can add even more syncopation like in the strum below:

Here we have three up strums in a row and that can be quite difficult for someone to walk and play never mind sing over.

Step 4: Chat It Up

Once you have mastered walking around and strumming or at least feel like you can walk at a normal pace, try and have a conversation. You can have it with someone else or on your own. Pick your strumming pattern and try to answer these questions with more than one word answers:

  1. How was your day today?
  2. What do you have played for the weekend?
  3. What your favorite song and why?

When you can talk and play at the same time without thinking about your strumming hand, then you are ready to strum and sing at the same time.

For some of my students, this process can take a couple months and others it can take a couple weeks. It really depends on how much you practice and how coordinated you are.

When singing and playing guitar at the same time, the guitar has to be on autopilot. You cannot be thinking about it at all. Muscle memory takes over at that point which frees up your brain to think about the lyrics and singing.

Believe it or not, our brains were not made for multitasking. So, if you are thinking about your strumming at all, you can kiss good-bye to your singing.

Give these tips and tricks a try. They works wonders for my students and hopefully they will work wonders for you.

About The Author: Lauren Bateman is a successful voice and guitar coach in the Boston area. She and her staff have helped thousands of students learn to have fun with music. If you are looking for guitar or piano lessons in Medford, LB Music School is a great place to learn. Lauren specialized in teaching acoustic and rhythm guitar lessons and loves helping student strum and sing along to their favorite songs.

Why Developing Your Strumming Hand Is Vital To Becoming a Good Guitar Player

No matter what instrument you play, rhythm and timing is vital to becoming good at music, especially if you want to play music with others. That is a why I believe it is truly important that guitarist focus on the fundamentals of rhythm and timing right from the get go. If you are already playing guitar, you have probably noticed that strumming is controlled by your dominant hand (right if you are a righty, left if you are a lefty). In the beginning, strumming can seem very foreign and awkward, but, over time you can develop your hand to the point where it had a mind of its own. Honestly! Imagine being able to strum along to a song without even having to think about it. Well that is totally possible.

All you have to do is take the right steps towards building up the muscle memory in your strumming hand. I have developed a step-by-step approach that has helped my students get rocking and rolling with their strumming hand very quickly. Usually in a matter of weeks. Here is an outline of the process I use:

  1. Focus on timing right from the get go

I put students on a metronome as soon as possible. This not only helps them track their progress, it helps them start to build timing skills. I will often play along with students so that they can work off my timing like they would have to do in a real life band setting.

  1. Start small

I start by focusing on whole note, half note and quarter note strumming patterns to develop coordination and build confidence in their abilities to strum along with various strumming patterns. We start by using one chord and then add chord progressions to the strums. You can see in the examples below that rhythm is kept very simple in the beginning.

As a guitar teacher, I know it is very important to build confidence in the beginning stages of learning the guitar. I have yet to meet a student I couldn’t help master basic rhythms skills in a relatively short amount of time.

  1. Build upon your foundation

Once students have mastered the basics and built a foundation for timing in their strumming hand, we then build upon that foundation by adding more complex strumming patterns that include up strums and syncopated rhythms.

The timing of up strums can be difficult for some students and is why it is essential for you to have a good foundation before progressing to the next level.

Syncopated rhythms are when you do not have a down strum on the down beat, meaning there may not be a down strum on the 1, 2, 3 or 4 count. This can really throw students for a loop and, again, is why I recommend getting a good foundation for non-syncopated eighth note strumming before progressing to syncopated rhythms.

Example of non-syncopated eighth note rhythms:

Example of syncopated eighth note rhythms:

   

                                                                       

  1. Mix things up

There are some songs that use the same strumming pattern for the entire song, but many songs switch between rhythms quite frequently. When learning songs with students, I usually keep them on one strumming pattern for simplicity and ease of playing. But, as I notice a student’s strumming hand relaxing and become more adapted to the different strumming patterns, we will start mixing up strumming patterns. Maybe the verse is 1 or 2 strumming patterns and the chorus is something completely different. We work on the skills required to fluidly move from one strumming pattern right into the next without pausing or stopping. I find that students who have moved through my strumming system don’t have much trouble applying this skill because in the foundational stages I build in this type of practice without them even noticing.

By the time students are done with the first 3 phases of my strumming program they can:

  • Count and play along in time
  • Read basic rhythm patterns
  • Know the different between quarter and eighth note strumming
  • Understand the difference between 3/4 and 4/4 time
  • Change chords while maintaining rhythm
  • Switch between rhythm patterns without hesitation
  • Apply strumming patterns to the songs they love
  • Have more fun with their guitar and feel confident in their abilities

I have yet to have a student fail to learn rhythm while using my step-by-step rhythm system. People with no music experience were amazed that they could actually read music, understand it and play along to it.

Use this method when building your rhythm skills and I guarantee you will see success. Have patience and don’t rush any part of the learning process. Jumping ahead before you are ready can cause frustration and it why I set speed goals that must be hit before we move on to the next stage in the process.

About The Author:

Lauren Bateman is a successful guitar teacher and voice coach living just outside of Boston. She owns and operates two successful music schools and enjoy working with beginner guitar students and rock vocalists. Lauren was told at a young age that maybe music wasn’t her thing. This is why she is passionate about making music accessible to those who never thought playing music was possible or were told they could not do it. You can learn more about Lauren via her website www.laurenbateman.com or her music school at www.lbmusicschool.com