One of my great Ah HA! moments was realizing that you don't have to strum all the strings all the time. Accentuate "In and down" and "out and up" strumming. Also work on playing less and less drone as you go above the 7th fret, and more and more drone as you go down the fretboard...

Dave...I struggle with the same thing...all the time! I still try all sorts of stuff....mute the bass string....& the middle string...tune the bass string to the same note as the melody string....change picks....practice my strumming angle like Lisa suggested. I'm getting closer to getting it, the sound & feel I'd like to have, but I ain't there yet.

The bad new is it may take a little while....the good news is it's fun working on it! Keep playing!

So glad you jumped in with a more detailed answer, Strumelia!

Oops- Robin and I were both writing replies at the same time!

Dave,

In general, the more experience you get in playing, the more control you gain over the loud/soft dynamics you will have.

In the meantime, a lighter thinner pick will help, and also practice angling your pick so that it strikes more downward at the melody string side than the drone string side. Experiment with really thin picks like plastic cut from plastic deli container bottoms, feathers, felt or leather picks, etc.

Angling your strum and pick: Spend a little time practicing with getting your pick to hit only the melody string when you strum. This involves again angling your strum direction. See if you can strum with alternating hitting all strings and hitting just the melody string . You may not actually use this technique much, but developing that little skill just a little can really help with being able to change the dynamics that you are discouraged about.

The basic technique is to simply strum across all strings on every stroke. As you become a more skilled player, you'll learn that you can vary your strum to include or avoid the drone strings whenever you want, thus emphasizing the melody during certain parts of the tune, and letting the drones be in the background more.

These skills do come with time as you play more, but you can help speed it along by practicing a little as I described.

Hi, Dave! I'm guessing your heavy drone sound comes from the angle at which you're strumming. Since I don't know whether your dominant strum is in (toward your body) or out (away from your body), whichever way it is, you want to adjust the angle of your strum so the bass string is getting an easier pick attack than is the melody string. It takes some practice to get the sound balance right-- it's a fun practice though. Over time, you get a feel for it.