An Essential Guide To How To Strum A Guitar Without A Pick

How To Strum A Guitar Without A Pick Using the Thumb and First Finger

The Carter Scratch is just one of the ways that you can use your thumb and first finger together to create a variety of interesting sounds on the guitar without a pick.

For a basic “boom-chicka” strum, you can pick the bass notes you want – the root of the chord, usually – with your thumb. That’s the “boom”.

Then strum the chord with your first finger, down-up. That’s the “chicka.”

This lesson from Adam Rafferty is a solid introduction to the “boom-chicka” strum. Also see our lesson, Alternate Picking: The Ultimate Guide for more information on where your thumb goes.

When you’re figuring out how to strum a guitar without a pick, you can perform the “boom” part of the strum without a pick by using a rest stroke.

A rest stroke is when you pluck the string with your thumb and let your thumb come to rest on the string below.

You can also learn how to strum a guitar without a pick by using your thumb and forefinger in combination as though you were holding a pick.

• For this “fake pick” method, touch your forefinger and thumb together as though you were sort of pinching a pick.
• Keeping your hand relaxed and your wrist loose, you can use your fingernail and thumbnail to strum the guitar.

You’ll get a tone out of the guitar that resembles strumming with a pick, so if your motivation to learn how to strum a guitar without a pick is that you currently cannot find a pick, this may be your thing!

One of the most interesting things about learning how to strum a guitar without a pick is that you can exert some fine tone control over the strings.

• The “fake pick” method above helps you to get a little brightness and twang in your strum by using the fingernails.
• Conversely, if you are looking for a rounder and warmer tone, you can use your thumb to strum down, as described above.
• Use your first finger to strum up. You can hear a little more calm in that tone, right?

When you’re using your fingers to strum (particularly the pads of your fingers), controlling the angle is important to avoiding injury.

Point your fingers too far into the guitar and you’ll wind up catching them on the strings.

Ouch.

How to Strum a Guitar Without a Pick Using All Your Fingers

You can get a lot more volume and rhythmic variation learning how to strum a guitar without a pick but using your whole hand.

• Mark Knopfler uses a clawhammer-type technique to thump out rhythm on songs like “Sultans of Swing” and “Money for Nothing.”
• Here’s how to strum a guitar without a pick Knopfler-style. Your thumb is strumming down on the bass strings, or more often, picking a bass note.
• This alternates with the first two or three fingers, which are curled in like a claw, hitting the strings with the fingernails.

The clawhammer name comes from a style of banjo playing you can see here, by noted banjo guy Steve Martin.

Another way to learn how to strum a guitar without a pick is with the fiery and impressive style of rasgueado!

Rasgueado is closely associated with flamenco guitar.

What sets it apart from other methods we’ve discussed is that it uses both the nail side and the pad side of the thumb and fingers in rapid succession.

• Here’s a great example of rasgueado in a farruca – a flamenco style – by Mehran Jalili.
• If you are interested in learning more about flamenco guitar and rasgueado, check us out here: 4 Essential Flamenco Guitar Lessons
• For more on Spanish guitar in general, read Spanish Guitar Lessons: 4 Essential Lessons.

Using Other Parts of Your Hand and the Guitar

One integral part of learning how to strum a guitar without a pick is figuring out how to get your strum to sound percussive.

• When you’re setting up a groove, with or without a pick, when the sound stops is just as important as when it starts.
• You can control that by using your strumming hand to touch the strings and stop them from vibrating.

This technique is called palm muting whether or not you are using your palm to stop the strings, and you usually won’t be.

You can use palm muting with a pick, but it’s so much easier with your bare hand!

• All you need to do is hit the strings with your strumming hand.
• Try it a few different ways!
• You’ll produce a different sound depending on how forcefully you hit the strings.

For more on palm muting, check out this lesson: Palm Muting: An Essential Guide

Now, try hitting other parts of your guitar!

Trust us – this is a thing! It is generally referred to as percussive fingerstyle guitar.

Here’s your percussive fingerstyle guitar pioneer, Michael Hedges, playing “Arrowhead.”

Hedges has inspired generations of guitarists since the 1980s to just start hitting their guitars to make cool noises!

Further Pick-less Exploration

For more on how to strum a guitar without a pick, there are loads of online lessons on fingerstyle guitar and strumming.

You can check YouTube’s seemingly endless selection of people with videos on fingerstyle guitar.

Better yet, find a teacher on a local message board! With a little guidance, you can incorporate strumming without a pick into your regular repertoire.

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