Popular strums for guitar. Varieties of guitar strums. Famous Gaming Techniques

Abstract: If you have not yet learned how to play in combat, this article will help you! After reading this article, you will learn to read and play guitar strumming. Recommended for beginner guitarists and for those who don't know how to read a strum.

Guitar strumming is the simplest and most common way to play the guitar. Combat is used in huge quantities, and there is a great variety.

Guitar strumming - symbols

The battle is usually denoted by three rows of symbols:

• First row and symbol: I– is a designation for the actions of the index finger of the right hand. The ^ sign means an upward strike, v - naturally downward, and the X sign means that we should hit the strings down and muffle the sound of the strings with the edge of the palm.
• Second row and symbol: P– designation of actions for the thumb of the right hand. If you see a ^ sign next to the letter P, then you need to pluck one bass string (bass strings are 6.5 and sometimes 4). That is, you touch a string and stop on the next string (thinner). Symbol | means that you need to do an action such as sliding your thumb down the strings, hitting several bass strings.
• Third row and symbol: L– Describes the game with the left hand. Symbol designations: v – at the moment of striking with the right hand, the strings should be tightly clamped. x – the strings are released (that is, the fingers simply lie on the strings), when the strings are struck, a muffled sound is obtained. ^ - press the strings well, make a blow and then slowly release ( note: this sign applies only to the strings that you strike (play) with the index finger of your right hand).

In each row, there is a - symbol, which is responsible for the duration of the blow.

Examples of battle designation:
I-^--v---v-x-v-^-v---
P-^-----------^-----
L-v--v---v-x-^-v-^---

Got it? If yes, great! If not, then read it again, then we will try to play in combat!

Learning to strum the guitar

And so, we take the guitar (In the last lesson, we talked about that). We hold down any and try the battle that we described above.

The first meaning of the letters I - ^, P - ^, L – v. Therefore, we need to firmly press the strings, pluck the bass and hit it up. Further, the value of I becomes v, P is empty, L is v. That is, we pinch the strings well and strike downwards with our index finger. Further I – x, P – empty, L – x. Therefore, we need to hit the strings (on which our fingers simply rest) and the plug with the palm of our hand.

This is how the battle is read and played. There is nothing complicated about this, the main thing is to train your fingers!

So, let's begin. When a beginner, an aspiring guitarist, picks up an instrument and tries to immediately play something like that, then, as a rule, wonderful music does not come out. This is not surprising, because the guitar requires diligent and, most importantly, productive practice. All said and done, let’s put aside the “strumming” and take the first step into the world of guitar music.

“Are we really going to learn notes!” - you exclaim. "No and no again. We'll get straight to the tastiest part: learning the simplest guitar chords and learning varieties of guitar strumming».

For now, we will not focus on studying chord progressions, but will press the simplest combination of notes on the fretboard - Em (on the second fret we press the 4th and 5th strings to the fretboard). Let's hit the strings - great, there's already sound. Our goal now is to get acquainted with different types of guitar strumming. We will start, as usual, by studying the basics.

Guitar fight- this is a type of accompaniment (accompaniment) that consists of striking the strings with the fingers of the right hand or with a pick.

In this definition there is the phrase “strumming the strings”, which is the key to learning various guitar strums.

Strike the strings There are several types:

• Strike down the strings with your index finger. Denoted as ""
• Strike up the strings. Denoted as "↓"
• Thumb strike. Denoted by "p"
• Muting the strings with the thumb of the right hand. Denoted by “*”“+”

• Rising rasgueado. Performed in the direction from the 6th string to the 1st. To perform this technique, gather your fingers under your hand. except for the big one, and then spread the “fan” by running each finger along the strings. There should be a continuous stream of sound.
• Descending rasgueado. Performed from the 1st to the 6th string. The essence of this technique is that the open “fan” slides in the direction from the first string to the sixth, starting with the little finger and ending with the index finger. As in the first form, you should get a continuous stream of sound.
• Ring rasgueado. This is a combination of two techniques: ascending and descending rasgueado. Waterfall of sound!

Come on Amigo, play!

Well, we relaxed a little, feeling a little like Spaniards. Perhaps your neighbor has already started dancing the tarantella...
Let's get back to learning basic guitar strums.

Simple guitar strum

Its diagram looks like this

Or it’s easier to say, strike the strings down and up, alternately. To get acquainted with the fight, we begin to perform it first with one finger of the right hand - the index finger. Next, you need to connect the thumb of your right hand to the execution, that is, the downward stroke is carried out by the thumb “P”, and the upward stroke is carried out by the index finger “i”. This scheme is more suitable for training the right hand.

Simple guitar strum No. 2

His diagram looks like this

This is the most popular fight for many yard songs. Great for noisy companies. “On a deserted street, together, you and I are going somewhere... mmm, eighth-grader..” Nostalgic memories. By the way, V. Tsoi’s song “Eighth-Grader” is played with this particular fight.

Fight six

The most common type of combat for accompanying songs. His scheme is as follows

That is, six strokes on the strings. It’s better to split the study of combat into two parts: first we hone ↓, and then ↓↓.

Fight six with jamming

Battle scheme

The whole difficulty of this fight lies in the correct and clear muffling of the strings with the thumb when striking down.

Fight eight

Here is his diagram

When fighting, you should use your thumb (p) and index finger. Play this fight without jamming first. Once you learn how to play this fight, you will end up with something like a dance...

Thieves fight

Battle scheme

Using your right thumb, strike the bass string (indicated by the letter “b”) of the chord, usually the 6-5-4 string, and then strike down with your index finger and quickly mute the sound with your palm.

Difficult fight

With our thumb we strike the bass string of the chord, then pause, with our index finger we strike up the high strings, strike the strings downwards with muting and up again. A beat similar to this is played, for example, in Alexander Rosenbaum’s song – Black Tulip.

In fact, there are a lot of variations of down and up strokes, jamming, pauses and, therefore, guitar fights are the same. And if we remember that we also have rasgueado with its “fan” and the work of the thumb in the style of a mediator technique, then the scope for exploration opens up boundless.

Good luck to you and all the best!

Guitar fight

In order to be able to play the guitar, it is not enough just to know the placement of the chords. You also need to be able to extract sound from them. To do this, you need to study fighting techniques. Guitar strumming is a kind of accompaniment in which sound is produced from the guitar strings by striking them with the right hand or a pick. So, there are several varieties of it. Here I will try to explain the principle of guitar strumming as accessible and simple as possible.

Simple guitar strum

So, first, practice counting exactly to eight: one-two-three-...-eight. It is very important that this count is even (with equal intervals between numbers). So, the battle consists of striking the strings in turn up and down. One - down, two - up, three - down, four - up. Repeat several times to strengthen this skill. This is the foundation on which all other combat skills are built.

Another simple guitar strum

One - down, two - up, three - a pause (that is, nothing is played, at this time the right hand is moved down, but without hitting the strings), four - up again. This is the most popular type of battle for noisy companies and songs in the style of Tsoi’s “Eighth-Grade Girl”.

Fight "six" on guitar

This is one of the most popular types of guitar accompaniment. As you can easily guess from the name of the battle, there are six strikes on the strings. It is played as follows: one - down, two - pause (moving the hand up without hitting the strings), three - down, four - up, five - pause (moving the hand down), six - up, one seven is down, eight is up. There were six hits on the strings in total. This fight is not easy. However, once you learn how to play it, you can play almost any song.

Figure eight on guitar

This type of combat is a little simpler. It is played like this: One - down, quickly moving the hand up, two - down again, three - up, four - down, then again quickly moving the hand up, five - down, six - up, seven - down, eight - up.

Another interesting fight - Spanish guitar fight

This type of combat is quite difficult for beginners, but practice makes all the difference. The main thing is to understand the essence and principle, and then reproduce it yourself and repeat until it turns out perfect. This technique is also called "rasgueado" or "fanning" because the technique is visually similar to opening or closing a fan. So, the Spanish fighting technique. The fingers are gathered together into a fist, but not tense. Imagine that you are holding a butterfly in your right hand - at any moment you can straighten your fingers and release it. In this case, the little finger may not participate in this - it is not needed. As soon as you bring your hand to the strings, begin to sharply straighten your fingers and hit the strings with each of them. First, straighten the ring finger, then the middle one, then the index finger. You have “opened your fan.” Repeat this at a faster tempo so that the strings ring continuously throughout all three beats. Some sources indicate that the little finger can also be used. This will only give the sound fullness and volume. Such a “fan” is called ascending - from the lowest string to the highest (by sound, not by location!). There is another type of Spanish fighting - downward. It is performed by striking from the highest string to the lowest. We now “close” our “open fan” by striking first with the little finger, then with the ring, middle and index fingers from the highest string to the lowest. This again creates a continuous stream of sound. Another option is to combine the first and second types of Spanish combat. First ascending and then descending. This technique is called "ring fan".

The six guitar fight is almost the simplest and most popular type of fight, especially in Russian rock songs. With it you can perform most of the compositions. In general, strumming is the most popular way to accompany singing. It is not much more complicated than the four, but it sounds more driving and is played faster due to pauses. The six strike is a great option for both beginners and advanced guitarists.

The game of this battle is very simple, here is the scheme: down - down-up - up-down-up. Long lines between movements indicate pauses. To better understand how to perform this smoothly, play the following sequence: down-up-down-up-down-up-down-up. Practice it with any chords until it works well. Now remove the second and fifth elements from the diagram. That is, you play down, and where it should sound up, you simply move your hand without touching the strings, and then continue to play down and up, and again move your hand empty.

There is another easy way to learn how to play this guitar strum. You can break the entire sequence into two parts and practice them separately, and then combine them. It looks like this:

1. down-up-down-up.
2. down-up-down-up.

Selected elements are played with sound, and not selected elements are played without sound. Practice the guitar strumming piece by piece and then try to put it together. To make your practice more interesting, try playing different chords. For example, sequences: C, Am, F, G or Em, C, G, D. Many songs are built on them so that playing them will help you not only practice the technique, but also learn the accompaniment of a song in absentia.

It is better to combine chords when you confidently play the pattern on one chord. Many beginners have difficulties when changing chords: for example, it is difficult to maintain the rhythm or it is not clear at what point to change the chord. Let’s immediately clarify this point: the chord is rearranged immediately after the last stroke up and on the new chord we immediately play downwards without a pause.

Below we will attach video lessons that show in great detail and clearly how to play six. Look at them carefully, they will help you clarify unclear points.

What is fight six from the point of view of musical theory?

As you know, any song has a meter, which defines, roughly speaking, a set of notes of different durations in each measure. So, the guitar strike six corresponds to 4/4 or 2/4 time signatures. What is meant. Let's look at 4/4 as an example. This meter means that each measure has 4 beats, which can be read as ras-and-two-and-three-and-four-and.

If you superimpose the battle and score diagrams on top of each other, you will see that the elements completely coincide. By the way, learning to play with a count is a good way to learn how to play correctly and evenly. Try to count for each movement (including idle strikes).

At first it will seem that this is impossible, but after a few attempts you will succeed. This useful skill will significantly help you learn how to perform more complex combinations in the future.

Complicated version of the battle

If you are already good at playing a simple version of combat, you can move on to studying a more complex and interesting version of it - with jamming. The game scheme remains the same, we just add jamming on the second and fifth hits. What does it mean to add jamming? This means that instead of making a sound, we hit the strings with our fingers, and then immediately cover them with the edge of our palm so that they stop sounding. If you do this with little force, you may even get a click from the beating of the strings on the floor of the frets. This sound makes the sound more interesting. The video lessons attached below talk in detail about how to properly mute strings.

What songs are played?

Of course, to learn how to play six 100%, you need to do this with some song. Here is a small list of diverse and simple compositions that you can learn to play with a six:

1. Last call.
2. Orbit without sugar.
3. Vladimir Central.
4. Three white horses.
5. When your girlfriend is alone.

In fact, the list is almost endless, if you sing well, then take any song you like, with a 90% chance the battle six will suit it. Video lessons on YouTube will help you learn how to sing correctly to accompaniment.

What other types of fights are there?

Types of strumming on the guitar in order, from simple to complex:

1. Four or simple (down-up-down-up).
2. Six or variety (army) (you already know the pattern).
3. Figure Eight (down - down - up-down-down-up-down-up).
4. Spanish.

As you can see, fights are named based on the number of strikes used in them (with the exception of the last one). Spanish guitar strumming is a separate topic. In general, this is a collective definition that includes many different ways of accompanying using techniques characteristic of Spanish music. Lessons on YouTube tell you in detail and show how to do such things.

That's all, we wish you good luck on the difficult path of mastering the guitar. We hope that this article has moved you a little further towards your goal. We remind you that we also have a VKontakte group where we post various lessons, sheet music, tablature, videos and other useful materials for guitarists. Come in!

And a small gift - a lesson in Spanish combat!

When a beginning musician picks up a guitar, one can hardly expect that he will immediately be able to play something truly beautiful. The guitar, like any other musical instrument, requires constant practice, especially when it comes to types of guitar strumming. In general, very often learning to play the guitar begins not with learning the notes, but with practicing the simplest guitar strumming.

Types of guitar strumming

Of course, it is advisable to start mastering chords in parallel with guitar strumming, but for starters, a simple simple chord combination will be enough. At its core, guitar strumming is a kind of accompaniment that involves striking the strings with a pick or the fingers of the right hand. We can safely say that this is also a guitarist’s secret weapon, the possession of which will greatly help to better master a musical instrument.

In this regard, the key point is hitting the strings, and they come in several types. You can strike the strings down with your index finger or mute them with your right thumb. You can also strike the strings upward with your thumb. For a beginner, these fights are quite enough, but many would also like to master Spanish techniques, known for their expressiveness. The most common Spanish guitar strum is the rasgueado, which is also called a “fan.”

Spanish and simple combat

An ascending rasgueado is performed from the sixth string to the first, and to perform this technique, you need to gather all the fingers, except the thumb, under the hand, and then open the fan, running each of them along the strings. This should result in a continuous continuous stream of sound. But the descending rasgueado is performed from the first to the sixth string and the point is that all fingers, starting with the little finger, slide from the first string to the sixth and produce a continuous sound. The ring rasgueado combines ascending and descending rasgueado, but these are fights for more experienced guitarists, and it’s worth starting to learn how to play the guitar with a simple guitar strum.

A simple strike is striking the strings up and down alternately, and to become familiar with it, it is enough to learn how to perform it with the index finger of your right hand. Next, the thumb is connected, which strikes the strings downward, while the index finger strikes upward. At the same time, you can perfectly train your right hand. There is another very common yard fight, which is usually used to accompany songs. It involves six strokes on the strings and the only difficulty is to clearly and correctly mute the strings with your thumb when hitting down.