Chunking Etude ML018

[carynjoy]

Hello friends!

I’m working on the Chunking Etude ML018 right now and slowly getting up to speed (I’m almost comfortable at 115bpm) but when I play I’ve been struggling to hear the lovely melody line in measures 11-12 ring out. I thought my rhythm was off or maybe I was playing it too straight and needed to add some swing, but when I list to recordings of myself it just feels like the volume of my open C string overpowers the higher melody notes in those chords.

So with that in mind I started wondering if I could change up my strum a bit. I usually up strum with the fleshy part of my index finger but perhaps I need to up strum that section of the song with with my thumb nail instead to make those higher notes a little brighter? I’ve tried this a bit and can definitely hear a difference, but switching up my strumming like this also sets me back a bit in terms of fluidity so now I’m playing slower and would need to work on building up speed again. This is a big change to my strumming style (I pretty much never up strum with my thumb nail) so I figured this was a good time to check in with others…

I don’t mind stepping back in speed if I’m developing better sound, but I guess my question is, for others who’ve worked on that song, did you have a strategy to get those measures to really sing out? Was it a strumming strategy or something else? Am I on the right path here? I’m happy to try anything at this point. 🙂

Thanks!
Caryn

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