Upstrokes

[metalligimp]

No matter what I do, I can't consistently figure out how to do an up stroke without my pick just kind of jamming my pick into the strings and it getting stuck in between. Do I need to move my wrist so it's opposite the slight angle I use for down stroking?

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[DavidP]

Metalligimp,

I'm just wondering about the angle of your guitar? I can imagine if the top of the body  is angled towards your body, so you can see what's going on then up strums might be difficult? Guitar should be vertical and your hand & arm moving parallel to guitar body and strings. Then should be able to do up strums ok without angling the pick, though I believe that may be useful in time.

Hope what I say makes sense. And is not a lot of nonsense ... if nonsense I'm sure other more advanced members will chip in.

Cheers
David

[redrhodie]

When I had that problem, I experimented with different picks. I finally found Dunlop max grip. They have texture, so you can lighten up your grip, adding fluidity to your strumming, without dropping the pick.

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[tobyjenner]

Slow and very light strumming until you get the feel without snagging. I also agree with Red re Dunlop Max grips which I tend to use all the time now.
😎

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[Rossco01]

Yes you do need to angle your wrist slightly. Try to think of how your wrist position changes if you were holding a paint brush and painting a wall down and then up. The angle of your wrist would change depending on which direction your are going and it's the same for the strumming. So in a similar way think about your hand turning slightly to the right i.e. away from the guitar, on the way down and then slightly to your left i.e. towards your body, on the way back up.

As other has said a light grip is essential otherwise even you do turn your hand your fingers wont allow the pick to turn as well.

[suffolk112000]

Well, I have read otherwise that you should not angle your pick. So I'm now more confused. Hopefully more will chime in as I had the exact same questions as the OP.

[jono]

I would look at how you are holding the pick in your fingers, make sure only a small bit extends out of the fingers and hold on fairly losely. Then do very slow down and upstrums without  a metronome until it feels and sounds OK.

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[jono]

Having studied my upstrums a bit I can see my thumb is almost brushing the strings on upstrums. So my whole wrist / lower arm turns to angle the pick. The thumb is further away from the strings during the downstrum.

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[DavidS]

I'm having the same upstroke issue. I can do it at slow speeds but doing 16th notes at say 100 bpm everything falls apart. i can't keep twisting my wrist back and forth consistently, so the pick bounces off the high E or gets caught up in the strings. The only way I can get it to "work" is by either choking up on the pick so that my thumb and forefinger are basically touching the strings as I strum, or rotating the pick to one of the very rounded top edges. Neither solution seems right.

[keybyte]

I have found that just getting the tip of the pick to brush the strings on both down stroke and up stroke works well for me. If I was to really dig the pick into the strings it throws me off from nice fluid strumming.

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