Acoustic technique - strumming too loud compared to finger picking

thecolourbox

Hi all

Got a question for the Acoustic players, if you are able to advise at all.

I've been playing more acoustic lately, not my favourite thing but I've found I maybe have a better affinity with it than electric now my voice has improved. 

I generally like finger picking, though basic as I've only ever taught myself so it's rough around the edges. I don't usually strum much, definitely not a "drum rhythm strummer" of chords. Sort of simplified Laura Marling type stuff but without the alternative tunings, mostly picking but occasionally there is a section of strumming for contrast or for building a rise and fall into the mood of the songs.

But the strumming is way louder than the picking. My voice is quite quiet so is ok over the top of finger picking but gets drowned out by strumming. I don't use a pick.

So when you see people performing solo by themselves, how do you they manage to balance the two? Finger pick louder? Though that tends to sound too twangy.

Or is it just clever compressors on recorded sound?

For example on this I have to mute my strumming to repress it on the chorus when I'd like to be able to go fully ringing chords for some variation, but quieter than just strumming it out normally

Thanks

Lewy

I wouldn't over think this...as is so often the case, the answer is that the balance is totally achievable with practice. You can absolutely learn to strum lightly enough to blend in with your fingerpicking without needing to resort to signal processing to do so. You know that your fingerpicking balances nicely enough with your voice, so put that to one side for now and, using the loudness of your voice as the benchmark, try playing songs just with strumming, focusing on doing it lightly enough to let your voice sit on top. Then you can add the fingerpicking back in later.

danishbacon

Another thing to try is a lighter gauge flat pick. 

Lewy

danishbacon said:

Another thing to try is a lighter gauge flat pick. 

OP says he doesn’t use a pick.

stickyfiddle

If recording - try adding some compression/limiting. You can both bring down the strumming and bring up the finger-picking?  

In the room there's not too much you can do beyond strumming lighter. 

DulcetJones

Whether I'm using a pick or fingers I angle the attack so either the fingers or the pick are just brushing the strings.  To explain a bit clearer, with a pick the pointy end is angled up, pointed towards my head on the down strum, and on the up strum the pointy end is aimed downward toward my legs.   I have over time developed a habit of strumming with less "force" at the same time.  The main idea is not to have the fingers or the pick rigidly pointing straight at the strings and fighting their way through each strum.

CarpeDiem

I think your finger picking volume and technique is good and well balanced. I would try strumming more softly by not digging in as hard. It takes practice, as one risk is that it may affect your tempo. Perhaps try it without singing and, as @lewy suggests, try not over thinking it. Whilst you don't use a pick, it may be worth trying a hard pick just to help you whilst you are refining how hard you hit the strings.

thecolourbox

Thanks everyone for the comments and useful info. I think some of the problem is that my experience of listening to acoustic music is from recordings and videos which are going to be compressed/limited  so they don't represent the "in the room" effect, but also performed by people with greater skill on vocals and guitar playing than me! Hence as said above, practice is perhaps the only thing.

Will try the stuff mentioned here and see how I get on. The video is perhaps not the best example of it but I don't have anything else on video at present - I'm really holding back a lot and only twanging a couple of strings at a time over alternate bass on the more "strummy" bits of that.

I watched the online Laura Marling gig the other week and it struck me there the contrast was great between the two but again, could be comp/limiting or that her voice can keep up. But there's a video of Chris Cornell that does what i'm on about, where the strumming bit is so much louder than the picked bit it sounds really out of place. For first verse & chorus it sounds sounds great, but then the strumming at 1:59 and 2:15 sounds way too loud compared to the picking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul45DZg4i74

I am overthinking it I Know I guess it comes from being an electric player who tries a bit of acoustic as the compression of volumes takes care of itself on electric, and just picking harder on the non-strummed bits is effective. But less so on acoustic - I played an acoustic folk open mic thing earlier this year, where there was literally just a mic hanging from the ceiling for amplification, and I found i was finger picking too hard and it sounded terribly twangy like elastic bands haha

Roland

Something I found helps is to strum without using your index finger. Two things happen. You tend to strum more gently because your right hand moves less. Your second and third fingers contact the strings at more of a glancing angle. Both of these mean that your strumming is quieter.