The more I play my five tunes - yes, I have five now, though no way will I need them - the more decisions I have to make. What order, what key, where do I speed up, where slow down, where soft, where loud .... So many choices. Tonight I had a really good practice, but complicated it yet again by looking at different thumb picks. At the top is my favourite Perfect Touch thumb pick that I have used for years. Below is the orange Kelly Speed pick that June Maugery introduced me to, though not trimmed as short as she did. I thought I would give that a try for a change and was just amazed at the difference. It is louder, but also much brighter. So then the question is, do I want a bright loud bass line that might compete with the tune? And the answer is - sometimes in some parts of some tunes. Ideally I would be able to swap picks when I need to but that is of course impossible in a live performance. So .... more decisions. Which tunes will work best with which picks? I think I have made up my mind, for now .... it may change, still time. Meanwhile back to my list - spare glasses to add!
PS: have today recorded on my iPad four of the five tunes, once using the Kelly, once using the PT picks. So that is eight recordings to listen to. I needed about 30 seconds listening to each track. In every case, the Kelly made a harsh sounding bass line that competed with the tune. This is my opinion, yours may vary. But I want the bass to support the tune, not compete with it, so for every tune I will be using the quieter, more mellow Perfect Touch thumb pick. And still bare fingers, with about 2-3mm nail showing.
The other things recording showed me were how many dead notes I am still hitting, how inconstant my tempo is, how I still don't have enough dynamic range, how I am still making loads of mistakes .... I will definitely only need two tunes, so I have to make those as good as I can.
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