Strumming…..
‘Strumming’ is when we use the hand that is not forming the chord shapes on the fretboard to make the strings sound.
We do this by brushing our thumb/finger/fingers in a down (towards the floor) and up motion over the strings to make them vibrate. There are many ways to do this – but what is important first of all is to be able to play ‘in-time’. Most popular songs have four beats in the bar – this is why you often hear someone count 1 2 3 4 before a song starts.
To play in- time requires the Ukulele player to strum a regular beat – this could mean a down strum on beats 1 2 3 4. (This is Strum Pattern 1 which follows this introduction).
To begin with, using your Thumb to brush down over the strings might be a good way to start, although, upstrokes with Thumb can be difficult. What is more popular and more flexible is to use your fore/index finger and strumming ‘from the wrist’ rather from the elbow. Two or three fingers can be used together.
In the following examples the beat is split further from 1 2 3 4 to include beats in-between 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +. Generally speaking – the down strums are on the main beats 1 2 3 4 and the up strums are on the +’s in-between the main beats. In some styles of music the main beat can be on the +’s.
Practice with the audio tracks until you can get an even regular beat in time with the click on the track.
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