Day 4 - The Dava Made A Difference

I was able to practice a little right after work and again after dinner for probably about an hour and 15 minutes total.  I devoted nearly all of my practice time to strumming with my new pick hold.

I was very discouraged after the first session.  It is incredibly hard (for me) to relax my hand and strum while also gripping the pick tightly enough so it doesn't slip in my hand.  And then my arm/hand/wrist has? have? a tendency to drift away from the strings so I am strumming at some crazy angle - again.

The strumming is easier with a lighter pick (I was using a Dunlop .46mm - paper thin), but that pick kept slipping.  So I alternated with my Dava pick.  It has a nice rubber grip, but the pick portion itself is still rather thin.

My pretty Dava picks!

Interestingly (or not) the Dava picks are multi-gauge.  In other words, you can get the feel of a light, medium or heavy pick just by where you put the pressure with your thumb.  Ha! As if I would ever have the coordination to do that! 

From the Dava website:  Unlike ordinary picks, Dava picks have a flexible center section. This is placed right where you hold it. You control the flexibility by putting pressure either toward the tip or toward the back of the pick, or anywhere in between the two, giving you multi-gauge control.

Brief Interlude... Jon Bon Jovi's favorite pick

From an interview with Jon's guitar tech from the 2009 Lost Highway tour (who was unnamed in this article - not sure if he's the current tech), Jon uses a Dunlop medium pick.  The powers that be ordered 2500 picks for that tour.  Four are on each guitar.  I have a photo of Jon's guitars from the 2013 Because We Can tour, but I'll save that for another post.  Instead, I'll share a pic of my JBJ guitar pick which I wear as a necklace.

JBJ pick from Lost Highway tour.

And now back to our regularly schedule practice update...

One thing that helped with the dreaded strumming (God where is a thesaurus when I need one?), was to focus on keeping the guitar tucked in toward my body so it stays parallel to my body.  I have a tendency to let the bottom tilt upward.  Not so I can see the frets or strings, but it just happens that way.  I find I tend to press the guitar into my massive breasts (yeah right) rather than tuck it in closer to my abs and legs.  I'm probably not describing it accurately (and certainly the description of my breasts is fictitious), but the goal is to keep the instrument totally upright.

Another interlude...Thesaurus.com

So I am tired of saying the word "strumming" or "strum."  So I did visit an online thesaurus.  Guess what?  There are only three synomyns for strum - pluck, pick and plunk.  WTF?

Yes, back to practice notes...

Sometimes I swear I have adult ADD.

At any rate, by my second practice session, once I was warmed up, I noticed progress.  I could do some of my normal strumming patterns to speed.  I am still missing some of the upstrums, but less than I missed yesterday.  I know that I should just focus on the strum itself (soooooo tired of that word) but I want to play songs, and so I did mess around with some of my favorite easy songs (Stairway to Heaven, Freebird, Bringing on the Heartache, While My Guitar Lies Bleeding in My Arms, etc.)

OMG, another interlude...

Although I don't expect to have any readers, I did briefly think about how someone would describe me based on my posts so far, and from those to come in the future.  This since I haven't really said anything about myself other than that I am a mom.  And you can tell I have less than stellar writing skills.  And probably adult ADD.  Oh, and no musical ability whatsoever.  I promise I will not get sidetracked any further tonight.

These are my final practice comments - I promise.

Thankfully I don't have much more to add.  At least I am seeing progress.  Hopefully in another week I'll be back up to speed, so to speak, so I can focus more on the left hand. 

The sound, when all the planets are aligned and I get the strum at the proper angle, is good.  Better than before so I am pretty sure that my incorrect "pen hold" was the sound problem I was experiencing. 

I still have to concentrate on keeping my lower fingers on my right hand from curling into a fist.  So many things to think about while trying to relax!  Lol.  We will see what tomorrow will bring.  Rock on.