Strumming and Fingerpicking

We’ve found out how to form the chords, but how do you actually play them? There are several standard strumming and fingerpicking techniques that you should start with.

Why standart?

Every newbie guitarist or an ukulelist will think about the strumming technique he’s gonna use before playing his favorite song, but it’s nearly impossible to figure out the technique yourself at once. That’s what the standard strumming technique, which is used in the majority of the songs, is used for. With time, you’ll learn to figure your own techniques and to improvise while playing!

Let’s try and figure some of them out:

Six step strumming:

↓↓↑↑↓↑

down– down– up– up– down– up

Here’s my tip for you: the arm should go up and down in a rhythm of a pendulum!

There’s also the same technique with muffling, the arm moves the same way only to muffle the strings in some places. Look forward to the muffling itself during the next lesson.

↑↑↑ – Red ones indicate the muffling!

I’ll mention the strumming with the muffles, as the difference here is that instead of strumming the strings up-down, we just muffle them.

Six step strumming with muffling:

↓↑↑↓↑

down-up-muffle-up-down-up-muffle

Fingerpicking:

Weirdly enough, the internet lacks standard fingerpicking techniques for the Ukulele, so I will write some of my own for you that I use most often:

(4-1)-3-2-3-1-3-2-3

I play 4th and 1st strings at the same time (in brackets means simultaneously), then one by one: 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, 1st, 3rd, 2nd, 3rd.

Generally, most players strum, as it’s easier to concentrate on the singing. However, a bit of fingerpicking always benefits a lyrical song, with some after a chorus, for example.

There’s also a half-strum, half-pick that I use frequently:

3-↓-2-↑↓↑