Lauren BatemanGuitar Teacher; Founder of the 7 Level Guitar System

The REAL reason your strumming sounds off

7 Sept 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:24

In this short tutorial, Lauren Bateman addresses a common issue for beginner guitarists: harsh, slapping‑sounding strums. She explains that the primary cause is excessive tension in the strumming hand, which makes the pick dig into the strings. Bateman demonstrates the problem, then advises players to relax their grip and let the pick glide over the strings. As a practical aid, she recommends switching to a lighter pick—showing a medium‑thickness 0.77 mm pick versus a thinner 0.50 mm pick—to reduce hand tension. She notes that once comfort and skill improve, players can return to a thicker pick. The video ends with a call for viewers to comment if the tip helped.

Chapters

So your strumming sounds off and you're not quite sure why. Well, I'm gonna show you one reason that is very common, especially for beginners. So maybe your strumming sounds a little bit like this. Oh, if you're like me, you're probably going, ooh, that's a little bit harsh. So what happens at the beginning for a lot of students is their hand is very, very stiff, very, very tight, okay? And it creates this almost like slapping sound on the strings. So what you need to do is you You just need to relax a little bit. I know that's hard in the beginning because you're you're trying to hold on to this pick so that it doesn't fall onto the floor. But I want you to do is try and relax the grip on your strumming hand and let the pick glide over the strings. Okay, instead of instead of digging into the strings, try and let it glide over the strings. Okay, and if you're having a hard time with that, a huge tip I tell beginner students is go to a lighter pick. So this is a medium size pick. This is 0.77 millimeter. If you move to something like 0.50, it takes a lot of the curse out of your hand, especially if you're having a hard time relaxing in the beginning. And then once you get more comfortable and develop your skills, you'll be able to upgrade and graduate to the thicker pick again. Leave a comment below if you felt that this tip was helpful.