How do I love my guitar, not beat my guitar?

[AZMLII]

Hello,

 

My name is Patrick.

 

For the last couple months I've been learning to play guitar using eMedia Guitar Method, and advice from my wife, who's played guitar for over 10 years.

 

At this point I can strum 8 cords, and I'm trying to learn to play Jambalaya.

 

Tuesday I had the setup on my guitar checked, since I was getting some buzz, and it was difficult to fret some of the strings. The repair dude made some minor adjustments, but left my action high since I strum hard, and lowering the action cause more buzz.

 

My wife has also repeatedly told me I strum way to hard.

 

So here's the question. How do I strum softer? I'm trying to strum softer, but I keep strumming hard.

 

When I instruct people how to do something, I usually, if possible, try to relate it to something they most likely already know how to do, so they can grasp the concept.

 

Doe's anyone have any advice on how to learn to play softer?

 

I've searched the forum, but I didn't find anything related to the subject.

 

Thanks,

Patrick

[i_am_an_owl]

petting a cat?

[BillyJack]

Switch over to hand wound strings @ $35.00 a set and that'll soften your strum right up!

[1001gear]

You can use very thin picks but frankly just strum softer! How hard can that be?

[Virgman]

In the immortal words of R/D:

 

"To stop strumming too hard, strum less hard."

[335clone]

It's all about dynamics and feel. When you drive a car, do you floor it then slam on the brakes, then floor it again?

I'm going to take a guess and say you are playing an acoustic with 'medium' strings, and you feel you need to strum hard to get all the notes to ring out.

Try switching to a set of 10's for an electric. Try learning a quiet song that does not lend itself to big strums. Try to play the chords as arpeggios, hitting single notes in succesion instead of the full chord. Toss your pick and strum with your fingers. Have your wife stand behind you when you play and smack you up side the head when you bang on the guitar too hard.


Or google up a video of Bob Brozman accompanying himself playing percussion on his National and make it your style. It certainly works for him:thu: He beats the living {censored} out of 'em (of course they are metal bodied and can take a bit of abuse).

[Janx]

Strumming hard might be a tension problem. Is your picking arm loose, or is it tense? If it's tense, you're probably going to pick hard, if it's loose, you'll probably pick softer. Imagine playing for an hour straight with a tense arm. Seriously gonna hurt your arm.

Like somebody else said, try doing arpegios (form a chord, then pick each note by itself). While doing the arpeggios, try it once picking hard, then try dong it softly, so each note rings more quietly. See and hear the difference.

There's probably a tone of music where picking hard will make it sound right, but then, there's also just as much music where a softer touch will get the right tone.

Try seeing how lightly you can pluck the strings. Work on scales while doing that.

Janx

[AZMLII]

Thank you to everyone for your advice.

In particular, I thank you to 335clone and Janx for the advice to play the cords as arpeggios, explaining what that meant, and explaining how being tense may make me play harder.

I

[double rocker]

http://datalink.homelinux.com/~jeff/media/jambalaya2.wav

 

 

about using the thumb, if you like doing that you could grow your thumbnail out a little and try picking that way. overall, it sounds like you just need to relax more.

[AZMLII]

Needing to relax seems to be a life theme. Funny enough one of the reasons I'm learning to play guitar is to relax.

double rocker, thanks for the thumbnail info.

[1001gear]

On the subject of nails and strumming, use the tops of your nails to strum. In other words, use the backs of your fingers for down strokes and the back of your thumb for up strokes. You'll find also that you get different rhythmic effects and qualities of density/graininess between just the thumb going upwards and the various combinations angling and/or drumming the fingers going downwards.

[CBLjazz]

I was experiencing a considerable amount of tension in my shoulder, arms, neck and found and article that discussed the amount of effort necessary to play a musical instrument.
It compared the hand strength of a concert pianist to the hand strength of a construction worker and found out what we all know.
The construction workers hands were 5-10x stronger. The point of the article was to help people realize that younger or less experienced players tend to exert too much energy when they play and that playing a musical instrument is all about accuracy and precise finger placement/ movement and not strength.

This helped me a lot. I now play the guitar with only enough effort to produce a sound. Try playing a song or chord progression repeatedly with as little effort as possible.
Try to make it inaudible (barely any sound). This will be difficult work but definitely worth the effort.
If you can play without sound you'll automatically be able to play softer.

[AZMLII]

Over the last few days I've been implementing your advice. I've been trying to relax when I play, playing each note in the chord, intentionally playing softer, and trying to economize my playing.

It seems to be working. I'm starting to play softer, gaining a bit of control, have more control over the volume, I'm getting less sore, and it's becoming easier to hold onto the pick.

Thank you to everyone for your advice. It's working.

Patrick

[335clone]

Over the last few days I've been implementing your advice. I've been trying to relax when I play, playing each note in the chord, intentionally playing softer, and trying to economize my playing. It seems to be working. I'm starting to play softer, gaining a bit of control, have more control over the volume, I'm getting less sore, and it's becoming easier to hold onto the pick. Thank you to everyone for your advice. It's working. Patrick

On the other hand, as I mentioned about Bob beating on his Nationals

[AZMLII]

335clone,

After you originally posted about Bob Brozman, I looked him up on Google, and watched some videos, on YouTube, of him performing.

I enjoyed watching the videos. However, I doubt my guitar will stand up to that kind of beating. Maybe my wife wouldn't mind me using her guitar.

Patrick

[335clone]

335clone, After you originally posted about Bob Brozman, I looked him up on Google, and watched some videos, on YouTube, of him performing. I enjoyed watching the videos. However, I doubt my guitar will stand up to that kind of beating. Maybe my wife wouldn't mind me using her guitar. Patrick

I doubt that Bob would be beating on a '20's National either if he didn't have dozens of them (they are $$$$$, but hell, he's a dealer) Though they don't seem much worse for the wear.

Just wanted to point out that one persons 'problem' is anothers' signature sound. Good luck, and above all- Have Fun.

[Kuhnfyoozed]

This is quite similar to beginning saxophonists, who tend to play incredibly loud because they think they have to put a ton of air through the horn to make it sound. Its a mental effort, really. Just stop and ask yourself, "Why do I need to tense up? Why can't I play relaxed like this..." and then do it. Eventually you won't even think about it, but you'll be playing in a very comfortable situation.