For example, a guitarist can strum the chord (this would be a block chord) or use a picking style to play broken chords.

There are great songs that make sense — songs that, if we mere mortals strum the chords, we can, sort of, work out how some greater being might have written them.

He's never just strumming the chords.

The player typically strums the chords with the left hand.

On this first version he also played the harmonica and just strummed the chords, rather than picking the strings.