Strumming and doing backup on electric guitar.

I´ve been playing bluegrass on a dreadnought for many years now and I´ve recantly started playing the electric guitar again. I find it very hard to play backup on the electric. Strumming chords sounds and feels so awkward. The strings feel too soft even though I use 11´s. (I play countrymusic by the way). What is your approach to playing backup on the electric? If I use a light touch it feels like I loose feel and tone.

How many years on the dreadnaught? And 'never' on an electric, even just a little bit?
If so, then really you'll just need to get used to it.
Maybe try a lighter pick (or heavier?)
When I do heavy 'strumming' on an electric I tend to turn my volume down a bit so I can dig in without overpowering anything else.

For rhythm playing I'd use a medium pick, heavier (12s?) strings, slightly
higher action, and a middle position, on most electric guitars.
Creedence records are full of good, solid "strummy" rhythm parts, if'n
you want to practice.

a full chord on an electric can be overpowering ... i like partial chords ... also crosspicking chords in a rhythmic pattern or just creating parts that complement the song ... less is usually more ...

Palm muting so the strings don't ring out and you don't have to play all six stings when you strum. Sometimes all you need is 2 or 3 strings.

As always , excellent advice from Ken about volume.

Are you practicing with an amp? My backup/rhythm playing on electric depends pretty heavily on the amplified sound. Although I am no judge how successful I am, I try to play with dynamics no matter what kind of pocket I'm in (or nearly in:smile:). When I play fiddle type tunes on my flat top or mandolin, it's more of a punch up.

Also - and this is more if your playing with a band - a compressor can really help!

a well made electric will have good sound and resonance unplugged- you will hear & feel it
ears are sensitive we can detect quiet sounds its a survival instinct
your a musician you should protect your hearing

sound doubles as it goes up in +dB
most amps are powerful and loud

you are accustomed to playing the acoustic

In these situations I'd try use a parallel pickup switch setting ie the middle position on a tele or 2 and 4 on a strat. This tends to dip the midrange & attack slightly, which allows a slightly heavier attack with the right hand without overbearing the mix with midrange kraaaangggg.

In these situations I'd try use a parallel pickup switch setting ie the middle position on a tele or 2 and 4 on a strat. This tends to dip the midrange & attack slightly, which allows a slightly heavier attack with the right hand without overbearing the mix with midrange kraaaangggg.

+1

Bluegrass? - no wonder then. One doesn't strum, one comps.

Definitely agree on rolling back the volume.

Also agree that different pickup selection can be a good call. Or sometimes rolling off some high end on a bridge pickup (for the strummy stuff) if you're in a situation where you might need more sparkle for arpeggiated parts or fills (bringing the high end back up). In other words, when you need to jump between strum playing and other types of parts at the drop of a hat, living with the pinky on the tone knob can be as effective as pickup selector moves.

I find the much maligned "in between"/"ducktone" strat thing to be really useful for strummed rhythms. On a strat with a five way switch, that is of course pickup selector positions #2 and #4. Heretic that I am, both of my teles have a middle pickup as well, one key reason being the above.

Edit: Looks like tjalla beat me to the punch on this one. Great minds think alike - and so do we! :mrgreen:

Some strummed parts want to maintain sparkle as volume is rolled back. I know plenty of electric guitarists that truly hate this approach*, but a capacitor/resistor treble retention mod wired to the volume pot can be handy here. *Personally, whether I prefer it or not has a lot to do with stylistic considerations. For something like a blues or blues rock thing with crunch tone and lots of fills and leads, I'm not a huge fan. However, I've worked with a lot of power pop acts, and I miss the treble retention when rolling back volume in this setting.

For general purpose playing on guitars and mandolins, I use a fairly thick Dunlop tortex 1.14 pick. That said, while strumming is certainly do-able, the thick gauge is not my fave for such. For recording rhythms, I carry a variety of flimsy picks which "give" more and afford rhythms a breathier character. Most live work sees me needing to go with the general purpose thick Dunlop, but for the few tunes where I strum all the way through, it's often a thinner pick. I keep a bunch of the Dunlop 1.14s in my right jeans pocket and a couple of the flimsier jobs in the left pocket.

Lots of folks that are accustomed to playing acoustic guitars with .13-.56 gauge strings sound - I'm just gonna blurt this out - pretty horrible at first on electric guitars. This is largely due to fretting hand pressure intonation issues. You might need to work a bit on lightening your touch with the fretting hand with electric for chords to sound as in tune as what you're used to with acoustic. This fretting pressure thing can be different if you're playing sitting down vs. standing up, and adjusting strap length can actually make a difference here.

Last thing I'll mention isn't so much acoustic- or electric- specific, but I get in this mindset fairly often when other stringed instrument players are present. For a lot of strummy work, there's of course the venerable open position "cowboy chord". I'm really careful with third intervals and often leave them out entirely. I'm not necessarily looking for typical crunchy R&R "power chords" on the lower three strings, but I do use a lot of open, ringing 5 chords with no third present. A few examples:

C

-3-
-1-
-0-
-X-
-3-
-X-

A

-0-
-5-
-2-
-2-
-0-
-X-

G

-3-
-3-
-0-
-0-
-X-
-3-

E

-0-
-0-
-4-
-2-
-2-
-0-

D

-5-
-3-
-2-
-0-
-0-
-X-

Four string D chords with the root on bottom don't always provide enough girth; the above grip has a fifth on bottom.


Sometimes I like a little extra color without getting in the way of existing harmonic content. Generally for strum stuff, I like the color tones, extensions, etc. in the upper register. For example, this A2:

-0-
-0-
-2-
-2-
-0-
-X-

Some good suggestions here, especially using a thinner pick (for strumming) and turning down the guitar volume.

Personally I think you have more control playing fingerstyle in that situation. You don't have to play Chet Atkins level stuff - just gently pluck and mute with the right hand rather than strumming. It's easier to keep control of volume/dynamics that way.

Of course, if you currently don't ever play fingerstyle, it may take a while.

Hey Stefan, haven't seen you in a mighty long time. Welcome back!

One thing to try on a Tele: Bridge pickup. Roll volume about halfway back on the guitar. Also roll tone a bit back. You will have to play around to find the sweet spot(s), but this can give a sound that's kind of plunky in a halvrutten way, but usually sits very nicely in a band situation and can be used with a heavy right hand.

Thank you all for your thoughts on this subject! There is a lot of good posts here!

Yes, fretting too hard with the left hand is an issue for me. I also strumm too hard as well. I will sit down and work on this. Try to soften my touch.

Hey Stefan, haven't seen you in a mighty long time. Welcome back!

One thing to try on a Tele: Bridge pickup. Roll volume about halfway back on the guitar. Also roll tone a bit back. You will have to play around to find the sweet spot(s), but this can give a sound that's kind of plunky in a halvrutten way, but usually sits very nicely in a band situation and can be used with a heavy right hand.

Thanks Guran! Yes I´m finally back beeing away for a few years. I started playing bluegrass and flatpicking with a band and got myself some very nice dreadnoughts. I had no band to play electric with and I didn´t find it very interseting playing by myself at home so I put the Tele in its´ case and forgot about it. I kinda missed the electric and got a bit bored with the acoustics and to get that fire burning again I had to buy a new guitar. Picked up a Road Worn Tele and I love it! Great chunky neck and awesome vintage look. It´s good to be back in Tele-land again! :mrgreen:

You are not alone in this situation. Most folks have a rough time adapting from acoustic to electric, but most don't realize it! They crank up the tele and go boiing boiiing boiing, and it comes off bad. There are a lot of good tips here, and the most significant thing is using your tone and volume controls as you adapt your attack and touch. The Road Worn tele sounds and feels great, so cool. I wish you the best in your endeavors, and as always.....Twang oN...

I played in country bands for a while and used a Tele thru a Peavey Nashville 400 with MXR 90 phase shifter (a la Waylon) where needed. I used and still use Dunlop .60mm picks and anchor my right hand on the bridge so as to mute as needed. My strumming style is a semi flat picking with hammer ons, pull offs and runs to add color. It worked well, but I had trouble going acoustic, as it is very different from the Tele. Best of luck to you!!

Bluegrass? - no wonder then. One doesn't strum, one comps.

^^ THIS ^^ Kinda recent revelation for me, actually...this is where chord-voicing and amp+guitar settings really make the difference IMVHO.

If you think back over electric tunes that use a more traditional strum-style rhythm, they tend to crank the treble and cut the bass to keep the part woody-and-interesting-yet-secondary (Beatles, 'All My Lovin'; Bongos, 'Number With Wings'; Bluebells, 'Cath', just to mention a couple).

Ive found that either recordings with good separation among the various parts...or, and theres been a number of them..recordings broken down into their various parts..(there were some beatles stuff, and I found a few others-Werewolves of London is one)...to be real helpful in figuring out how rhythm parts are constructed...most of us begin thinking rhythm is "clang clang ching"...which is what we all learned on our flat tops...and sometimes it is...but sometimes its also a riff or a fill repeated..double or triple stops, sliding 3rds or 6ths or tritones...or sometimes a single note line..and sometimes even just a single note repeated thru the whole song... a rhythm part..what sounds all the world like one guitar will actually be 2-3-4 distinct parts...the early Eagles were good at that....I think its a good exercise to try and break out the parts of a tune...sometimes good tab can be a roadmap to help see whats going on..but work your ears as much as possible...follow when the rhythm guitar parts come in..and go out (you are running the dynamics with rhythm guitar) ...when its strummed, and when its arppegiated...what sort of chorus or reverb or tremelo they have on it...you have to play a n electric different than a flat top...

Then, of course, there's the Luther Perkinesque stuff. Or doing a regular boogie kind of figure, you know for a E chord you play E-G#-B-C# on the bottom two strings. Then you snap an E on the second fret of fourth string between them, using pick or finger.

----------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------
---2----2------2------2----------------------------
-----------2------4-------------------------------
0---4----------------------------------------------

Play this with a shuffle feel. Now bend into the G# from third fret instead. Make sure the notes you play on the D string are snappy and quickly muted. They are more of a snap than a note. Starts to sound country, right? Or maybe rockabilly.

Now start switching the bass notes around. There are many good patterns there. Involve the seventh as well. Just make sure you've got the snappy rhythm going.

Dam-padam-padam-padam-pa.

Try various hammer-ons to the bass notes. Play them as a descending pattern instead. Fool around, switch around but make sure you've got that rhythm going!

As my brother told me when I first switched over to electric... "You don't always have to hit every string on every chord." This allowed me to emphasize a certain chord voicing without sounding mushy or overpowering. For certain strumming situations I do thumb strumming in a Waylon style. It drops the volume significantly and you can switch back to your pick when you want to grind on it.

I also agree with the pick suggestions. I mostly use a heavy pick, but on the louder "strummy" songs, I use a much lighter pick. As others have mentioned, then volume, tone, and pickup selector are all important. Middle position with the volume rolled back a bit is my "go to" strum position.

I think the real answer is to just spend time doing it. After awhile your hands will just adapt to the amount of force/pressure needed to get the sounds you want. A medium pick would help, but even with a heavier pick you will just adapt. Don't overthink it!