confused....

Hootsmon

Imagine you are about to play a chord or series or a strumming pattern, starting with an UPSTROKE say

So you have the pick in place on the E 1st string.....is the BACK of your hand rotating AWAY from you to the floor for this UPSTROKE or is it rotating TOWARDS you ,to your face for the UPSTROKE?

apparently both are valid and I'm lost....no links to Troy dude please...how do YOU do it? 

kaypeejay

Away from you, or that's how I find it. 

Hootsmon

thanks Kay.....I'm curious as to how folks approach this..ta 

equalsql

I think that's how l would play a reggae rhythm on the offbeat so it would be towards me.

viz

No rotation of the wrist for me, it just pivots up tae get out of the way of the strings 

Hootsmon

Roland

Normally I'd bring my right hand straight up, with no rotation. However if I just wanted to strike a couple of strings, say D shape with no bass notes, then I rotate my wrist to get the pick out of the string line without slowing down the stroke.

HAL9000

Roland said:

Normally I'd bring my right hand straight up, with no rotation. However if I just wanted to strike a couple of strings, say D shape with no bass notes, then I rotate my wrist to get the pick out of the string line without slowing down the stroke.

This. If I do rotate my wrist at all then it's away from me. One thing though is that I never use a pick so on upstrokes I use the back of my thumb to hit the strings. Probably means my strumming technique is slightly different from most peoples' - less Pete Townshend and more Wilko Johnson.

Hootsmon

keep 'em comin' guys 

TheBlueWolf

Away

VimFuego

away.

mike_l

The top of my hand (ie the line from thumb and wrist) on a down stroke goes towards the floor, and towards the ceiling on an upstroke.

ElectroDan

Away for me.

stratman3142

I had to stand side-on in front of a mirror to figure it out because I've never analysed that before.

For a 'reggae type' off beat rhythm, the back of my hand rotates away from me.
For an upward sweeped arpeggio, the back of my hand rotates towards me.
For funk rhythm, my approach looks like Nile Rodgers. But he's my rhythm guitar hero that I copied like mad, so that's probably what I want to believe. My hand just loosely flails about and there's a mixture of things going on.

viz

Just done a litte Al di Meola string skip thing - I think the angle is fairly constant? 

stratman3142

I thought the question was about strumming not picking (i.e. macro motion not micro motion).

viz

Oh yes! The accent was too strong for me to understand it properly.

I can't strum anyway. 

PolarityMan

I dont get how rotating towards you would cause an upstroke unless the stroke itself is coming from the forearm or lateral movement of the wrist and you are dragging the pick across the strings and angling your wrist to soften the attack.

So I might do it like that if I was strumming softly with a hard pick for example.