How to Hold a Guitar and Strum Your First Rhythm

Before learning lots of chords, it's worth getting comfortable with the guitar itself. A relaxed, balanced position helps young players avoid sore shoulders and makes chords much easier to reach.

Sitting with the guitar

• Sit on a chair without arms, with both feet flat on the floor.
• Rest the guitar's waist (the curvy middle) on your right leg if you're right-handed.
• Let the back of the guitar touch your tummy, with the neck pointing slightly upwards.
• Relax your shoulders. Your strumming arm rests over the top of the body, near the bridge end of the sound hole.

Holding a pick

Rest the pick on the side of your first finger, then press down with the pad of your thumb so just the tip pokes out. Hold it firmly enough that it doesn't fly away, but loosely enough that it can flex a little on the strings. Many young beginners prefer to strum with the side of the thumb at first, which is completely fine.

Strum from the wrist

Strumming should feel like gently shaking water off your hand. Keep the movement in your wrist rather than swinging your whole arm, and brush across the strings rather than digging into them.

Pattern 1: four steady down-strums

Count 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 out loud and strum down on every number. Hold an E minor chord and keep going until the strums are perfectly even.

Pattern 2: the classic pop strum

This pattern fits thousands of songs:

Down, down-up, up-down-up

Count it as 1, 2 &, & 4 &. Your hand keeps moving down and up all the time, even when it doesn't touch the strings. That's the secret to staying in time.

Free toolOnline MetronomeA precise, free metronome with click, tick-tock or voice counting, tap tempo, time signatures and subdivisions.

Set the metronome to 60 BPM and play each pattern for one minute. When it feels easy, go up by 5 BPM.

Keep it in tune

A guitar that's out of tune makes even perfect chords sound wrong. Tune before every practice session; it only takes a minute.

Free toolOnline TunerA chromatic tuner that listens through your microphone, with guitar and ukulele string guides.

Last updated 9 October 2026

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