Strumming help

Practice is the only solution.  I hate the ones where you have to mute a string between other strings to get the chord.  I suppose Russell the mutant can play those too. 

- Zurf

all your doing is adding the 5th of the C chord (G) as the root  332010 is G C E G C E you could also note this as C/G , you said earlier you were hitting the top string without meaning to I just pointed out that its ok to hit it because its part of the chord

Loved the description AcousticNoyz.

I hate /dislike intensely the C chord played with that bottom e, g will do, but e makes my mind froth.

Once you are happy playing and changing to the basic chords, you could start to pick out individual notes of the chord with your pick. You should at least be able to pick out the root - it will help you move your playing up the neck. It will sound like an old fashioned boom-chukka, but you can vary that till the cows come home.

Sorry to dredge up an old thread but I have a related question and rather than post a new topic..

On the down stroke the base note should be the first string strummed and it sounds ok but on the upstroke it becomes the last note played and when I do it it sounds awful, to compensate I try to only hit the first 3 or 4 strings on the upstroke, perhaps only the 3 strings on a D?  This is the only way I can get an upstroke to sound "normal" and not deep and dead?

Hi Buble,
Your choices with C chord are:
1. Play strings 1 thru 5 and avoid sounding the sixth string.
2. Drop your pinky in the sixth string third fret and get a G tone added underneath.
3. Let the fat edge of your finger deaden and mute the sixth string.

For C, I reached over and muted the E string with my thumb for a long time.  Now I've learned to catch the A string and am trying to learn to keep my thumb where it belongs. 

For upstrokes, I frequently only play a few treble strings rather than all the strings of the chord.  It's OK to just grab two or three strings from the middle of the guitar too.  Whatever doesn't sound bad is good, unless you want bad for 'tension.'  I always call poorly formed chords 'tension.'  I pretend it makes me sound like a jazz musician to save my ego. 

- Zurf

Cheers Roger

I think I sussed my problem and you were correct.  I don't think I've been rotating my wrist enough on the upstroke, the result being the pick was hitting the strings at almost 90 degrees resulting in a "harsh" sounding up strum!

Anyway, it's back to the drawing board for me!  I started learing online with Justin Sandicoe and after a few weeks, thinking I could play chords better than I actually could, I jumped feet first into trying to play every song I knew without knowing the basics.  Result, me learing to play guitar badley, out of time, strumming probems and more buzzing than a swarm of African bees on E!

I've now taken a few steps back, regrouped and be I'll be a little more patient in future.

Cheers