Hello guys, I have some questions I hope you can help me answer.
So I am trying to learn some Rumba strumming styles. However, the thing is I live in an apartment, so I am already getting the feeling that my neighbors are annoyed even when I play relatively quietly. Now, vigorous rumba strumming makes the apartment just explode with sound, so I decided to quiet my guitar a bit.
I took one of those hand sponges that are about the size of a bar of soap, cut it into 2, a thin piece and a thick one, and I put either one or the other (depending on how much I want to dampen the sound) under my strings above the bridge.It works great I can still hear the chords but the sound is reduced enough so that I can hit the strings harder and throw my hand around freely without feeling like I am playing to loud and the neighbors will go into a rage and murder me.
Now here is my question. Will practicing like this translate into playing well when the guitar is unmuted? Or will it sound ringy and sloppy if I get used to playing this way. I ask because as soon as I started using this thing I noticed great improvement in my strumming, specifically, I could now do it much faster. I just assumed it is because I am no longer afraid of making noise so picking up the pace with my strumming is easier, whereas before I would try to play tamer and more quietly and that would make it hard to play fast. Yet I began wondering, could it be simply because all the sloppiness of my strumming is being absorbed by the dampener.
Anyway just wonder what you guys think.
Thanks in advance.
We all have to deal with the neighbours at some stage in our playing lives and this sounds as good a way as anything.
You might find you need to fine-tune your playing once the sponges come off but it should only be fine-tuning.
"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
I have always felt that it is better to do what is beautiful than what is 'right'" - Eliot Fisk
Wedding music and guitar lessons in Essex. Listen at: http://www.rollmopmusic.co.uk
I'm wiling to wager a lot of it has to do with you trying to play quieter instead of allowing yourself to just go for it. There is a device that you can place in the sound hole that "quiets" the guitar down, similar to what the sponge is doing. I suspect the sound hold insert may be a bit louder than the sponge but give you a better tone.
Check out my guitar blog at http://www.sixstringmadness.com
