The flat-pickers dilemma

When participating in acoustic jam sessions at bluegrass and folk events, the flat-picking guitarist faces a dilemma. When playing single note melodies the guitar does not have the volume that the fiddle, mandolin, and banjo does. What usually happens is you can see the guitarist playing but his playing is barely audible because the other instruments “accompanying” him are too loud. The solution to this problem is two-fold. First, the accompanying instrumentalists need to be aware of the problem. When the flat-picking guitarist takes the melody, they should make an extra effort to play very soft so the guitarist can be heard. Some of the accompanying instruments can drop out totally while the guitarist plays the melody, then resume when the fiddler or mandolin takes the melody. Second, the flat-picking guitarist needs to try to get more volume out of his playing. To get more volume he needs to use heavy or extra heavy picks. He needs to use heavy gauge strings or heavier than usual. Also, a full size dreadnaught guitar will get more volume than a smaller guitar. Finally, he simply needs to pick harder.

I hope this helps. If you have questions and comments just post them and I will respond asap.

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