One of the first things any aspiring guitarist needs to learn is how to strum their instrument.

Before You Begin

Your guitar needs to be strung and tuned correctly.  To achieve this, either buy a tuner from the music store, or download an app to help you.

Getting Started With Strumming

Strumming a guitar is about rhythm and consistency.  Before you pick up the guitar, simply practice the playing action and movements of your arm and wrist.  If you struggle to pick this up, go out and buy a metronome to help you with the timing, or download a free metronome app.

Once you are happy with the timing and your technique, it is time to get the guitar in your hand and start practicing for real.

Take some time to get used to the rhythm again.  More importantly, you need to ensure that the way you play guitar means you play each string evenly when you strum.  If you hit the top string and then feebly strum over the others, you will get an uneven sound.  Aim should be for a strong sound at all times.

Although different songs and styles of music call for a variety of strumming styles, we suggest you start with a full downstroke followed by an upstroke at the same velocity and volume.

Moving On

As you get used to strumming your guitar and have the rhythm down to a tee, start practicing the upstroke without actually playing any sound. A subtle movement of the wrist and fingers is usually enough to master it.

Introducing Chords

The best approach is to start with something relatively easy that utilizes a natural finger position on the fret board, such as G major.

Go back to when you first introduced the guitar into this practice, and do the same thing again, continuously playing up and down at a continuous rhythm.  Start by playing the downstrokes only, getting quicker and quicker until you are confidently playing at a steady rhythm.

Introduce another chord and start moving around the fret board.  C major is a good chord to use, and is easy to get to from G major.

As soon as you are familiar with both chords, begin to alternate between the two.

Building Your Confidence

If you have mastered the metronome-like rhythm in your playing hand, then moving from one chord to the next mid note should start to come naturally to you.  However, doing it at speed is difficult, so as with the standard strumming, it is best to start slowly and gradually build up to the pace you want to play at.

Advanced Strumming

Eventually you will start to introduce more chords and perhaps even start picking individual strings as you strum.  This is a more advanced style of guitar playing, so do not be annoyed with yourself if you struggle to pick it up right away.

As you get started with strumming, it is worth remembering that music is an art, and it will take time to master.

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Why a Guitar Needs Stringing

There are several reasons an acoustic guitar might need restringing.  If one string snaps, then it is advisable to replace all of them, while intensive use of a guitar may also mean that the instrument needs to be restrung.

Restringing Your Guitar

Once you have decided that your guitar needs restringing, it is time to begin.  What should you do?

Buying New Strings

Buy strings from a specialist music store.  This way, you will be able to have 100% confidence in what you’re buying.

Removing Existing Strings

Ensure you have plenty of space, and lay your guitar on a flat, clean surface.

Starting with the bottom string (the low E), unwind the turning tuner to loosen the string and eventually remove it from the hole in the tuning peg completely.

It is up to you whether you swap one string at a time, or completely remove them before replacing.  If you opt for the latter so that you can polish up your fret board, for example, be careful of damaging the bridge or neck of the guitar, and look to keep both as still as possible.

Once you can see the end of the string, pull it from the hole in the tuner.  The final part is to remove the bridge pin that will enable you to remove the other end of the string.  Using bridge pin pullers from a music store will ensure you don’t damage either the pin or the guitar.

Having removed the bridge pin, pull out the string and throw it away.  If you’re taking them all out at once, then repeat before moving on.  If not, continue.

Maintenance Work

Polish and clean as you go, remove any dust or debris from around the bridge as well as the turning tuner before replacing each string.  Again, use specialist guitar polish and a cloth.

Replacing the Strings

With guitar shiny and new, you can start placing your new strings onto your new looking guitar.  If you’ve removed them all at once, then begin with the sixth string once more.  Having opened the packet and unwrapped the first string, you are now looking for a small ball on one end of the string.

Place this end a few inches through the hole you created when you removing the bridge pin.  Start to replace the bridge pin, and tighten the string until you feel the ball falling into place, at which point you can push the bridge pin all the way in.

Take the other end of your string to the top of the guitar and place it through the hole in the tuning peg.  Continue to feed the string through the hole before starting to tighten.

Tuning Your Guitar

Once your strings are all fitted, it is time to tune them.  Guitar fully tuned, you can then cut down your guitar strings, unless you are going for the ‘busker look’ and are happy to have them flaying around while you play.  Just be sure to leave enough string for you to retune to a deeper tone should you wish to do so.

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Myths of Guitar Practice
• Structured practice is pointless, it takes away the fun of guitar playing and stifles creativity
• Practice doesn’t even work, I learn more by simply picking up my instrument and doing whatever I please
• Doing the same thing every day won’t help be learn anything

Debunking the Myths
1. If you have a negative attitude towards structured practice, you won’t benefit from it, because no matter what you learn, the negative feelings dominate your thinking and are telling you you’re wasting time
2. A good, structured practice session will actually make you more creative, as you will learn and become confident using a new skill or technique.
3. If you have an objective, such as learning how to play Blues styles, then your practice will be fun and have a purpose
4. Ultimately, what and how long you practice for is down to you, so if it does get boring or tiresome, change it up a little!

Your Personalized Practice Schedule

Look to the Future
Start at the end of your practicing regime, and ask yourself what the ultimate, long-term aim is for you as a guitarist. Think in terms of your own style and about what you can do with the instrument, “I want to be the next Slash,” sounds great, but is a little ambiguous to work with in terms of becoming better yourself.
From here, put together the pieces and come up with a step-by-step process that will take you to your aim.

Strengths vs. Weaknesses
While you should put more time into honing your weaknesses, failure to practice your strengths will eventually see your standard of playing drop. One way to look at your strengths is to imagine yourself becoming famous; these strengths will be your trademark and inspire players to pick up a guitar themselves. Work on your weaknesses, but do not forget to pay homage to what you’re good at; it will help your confidence, too.

Be Realistic
If you can only practice guitar for an hour a day, then work with it. The quality over quantity argument definitely comes into the equation here. If your one hour a day is quality, dedicated practice where you can focus on what you need to, this is much better than stolen chunks of ten minutes here and there throughout the day.
Do not commit yourself to three hours of guitar practice each day if you are unable to do so.

Build in Application Time and Free Time
A lot of guitar practice sessions work like this: Guitarist practices new technique, approaches end of session, does their own thing, starts again next week from same point in respect of new technique.
Instead, make sure you give yourself the time in your practice session to apply what you have been working on. Keep the free time at the end of your session to do your own thing, but ensure that application comes first.

Keep Your Sessions Fresh
Keep sessions fresh by having a variety of different things to practice and work on.
If you’re not working to a regular pattern, the chances of you getting bored and demotivated are far less.

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