Outside Strumming
It's not when you play outside of your house...
It is an easy technique...
You can do it immediately and make your strumming sound different
In this article, we will discuss a guitar strumming technique called outside strumming. When playing a six-string or a five-string version of a full chord, you usually strum your downstroke through all the strings. However, if you use a downstroke on the bass strings and an upstroke on just one or two of the higher strings, it can instantly change the sound of your strumming. This technique is called outside strumming because you are playing on the outside strings of the guitar, rather than strumming straight through all the strings.
Strumming in this manner can be an easy and effective way to vary your rhythm and make your playing sound different from your usual strumming. You can also add variations to this technique, such as strumming the bass strings twice before playing the upstroke once, or strumming the downstroke once and then playing the upstroke on the high strings several times consecutively. You can use this technique with any chord, but it typically sounds best using 5 or 6 string versions of chords, whether they are open string first position chords or barre chords.
Outside strumming is super easy to do and is something that you can immediately implement in your playing. It takes almost no effort other than making sure that you do not strum down through all six strings. Play around with different variations and hear the difference it makes!
Remember always to have fun with your guitar and I’ll see you next time.
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About Mark Turko: Mark Turko is a professional guitar player and instructor with over 30 years of experience and teaches guitar lessons online.