Day 2 - Awkward Strumming

Today I focused on my new (correct) picking technique. May I scream in frustration??!!!  

 

It feels like I am taking major steps backwards, but I know in my heart of hearts I need to tackle this problem NOW.  I want to cultivate good habits and proper technique. But strumming today was absolutely painful. I shut the door of my music/exercise room in hopes the family wouldn't hear me lest they might mistake my "music" for a screeching cat or something. Ugh. 

 

Here's a summary of today's practice:

 

Warm up, spider, scale practice.

 

Riffs (with new pick grasp)

Practiced Bringing on the Heartache with pick. (I'm more comfortable playing this with my fingers but need to move out of that comfort zone ). 

 

 

Strumming Practice

Then I probably did 40 minutes of strumming practice. I used my orange Star pick (Phil X uses Star picks, although heavier gauge.  Oh, and he uses them with just a bit more talent and finesse than I do!)

 

Phil X's Star picks.  I took this photo before the Kansas City Bon Jovi concert in 2013.

 

Despite the star cut out, the damn pick kept slipping in my hand. And my fingers kept tensing and curling into a fist. So the new pick technique feels incredibly awkward and sounded like total shit.

 

Toward the end of my practice I discovered a few helpful hints:

• I concentrated on relaxing my wrist (what a paradox - "concentrate" to "relax")
• I tried to ignore the fretting hand and just played easy cords or muted the strings (rather than trying to play songs).  Muting the strings was certainly easier on my ears, lol.
• And this was a biggie - moving my hand/wrist in more of a natural arc than straight up and down along the strings

I realize these may be concepts that the majority of people either intuitively know or soon pick up.  Unfortunately not me. 

So apparently the word of the day is perseverance!  And persevere is what I'll do.

 

 

 

 

I also managed about another hour of practice this evening. First with my cherry red Fender Starcaster and then, when the strumming still sucked, I went back to the Takamine.  Most of the  session was spent on strumming. I just messed around with songs I like and strummed them slowly (and awkwardly). I still miss many up strums.

 

I spent a little more time working on Bringing on the Heartache riff using the pick.  It definitely sounded better than strumming chords.