multiple note strumming

[daryle_ackerman]

Okay, I'm kind of embarrased to even ask this but:

How is it that a guitar player can seemingly strum all the strings? I mean, wouldn't that invariably produce bum notes that can't be properly fretted seeing as there's six strings but only four fingers available? Surely players aren't only strumming some of the strings when their hand strums very quickly.

(I'm a keyboard player who's very new to playing guitars, so this is very mysterious to me. When I play chords on the acoustic, I play maybe three strings at once and use one finger per string to pluck them so as not to play the other strings `cause they would sound notes that don't fit the chord.)

I hope you understand my question and that I don't get laughed out of the guitar forum for this.

D.

 

[mshilarious]

Well, there are open strings that are part of the chord being played, there are barre chords (where one finger, usually the index finger, covers an entire fret), and then there are strings that are muted so they don't sound. And then there's picking/strumming technique--it might look like a guitarist is strumming all six strings, but in fact they might be purposely missing the high or low strings.

 

[IronFlippy]

After a bit of practice, you will learn how to mute the strings not being played using your fret hand. It's kind of like when you're just learning to play a chord and you can't quite get all the notes out because your fingers are blocking some strings, only this is done on purpose.

When you're only playing the bass strings or the treble strings, you can miss some strings on purpose, like mshilarious said. You can even bend your thumb up onto the fretboard to the mute the low E string, but I don't really recommend it because it gives bad playing habits (you want your fret hand thumb to be pretty much centered on the back of the neck, it makes it easier to switch notes and stuff).

Basically, the whole thing takes practice. It sounds like you're playing sans pick, so it makes it easier to miss certain strings. Just keep trying and it'll become natural. Hope I explained everything alright.