picking hand help. please?

[robharries13]

hi everyone on these forums   :)

my situation is this:

i have been playing guitar for about 3-4 years now, and ive always rested the underside of my forearm and wrist on the body of my guitar (a fender strat). recently ive been trying to increase my speed, learning classic shred. you know, "eruption" and the like. i was have little or no success, so i reasearched on the net to see if my technique was wrong. i discovered on a few sites that it is not recommended to rest any part of your picking hand or arm on the guitar. is this true? if this is the case, am i right in thinking that you have to hover your picking arm over the guitar body without making any contact?

sorry to sound real trivial and like an unintelligent beginner. its just that im self taught, and ive never had someone to correct my "mistake". i guess thats why im here.  :(

many thanks to anyone who can help me. much appreciated

[Woogie]

I play with hand resting on bridge most of the time.

[robharries13]

thanks for the fast reply woogie :) ill give it a go

[noodleplugerine]

Resting your forearm on the guitar is pretty standard.

Resting your wrist on the guitar I find completely perplexing. Just tried, and I couldn't reach the strings - But then again, I'm playing on a TOM.

[Will]

What do you mean by resting?
If they are anchored there, it is probably a bit limiting, but there is no reason why having it resting there would be bad.

I generally have my outside palm on TOM bridge so I can move forward for string dampening / PMing etc

[robharries13]

i just find that when my forearm rests on the body, i find my picking hand hitting the other open strings on the guitar, totally destroying any clarity.

[maverickf1jockey]

Basically I'd say that your hand position improves with practice using a metronome so I shouldn't worry about it just working on it. Michael Angelo Batio's right hand barely moves bar his thumb and forefinger but you'd be hard pressed to find a better picker despite the awkwardness of his hand positioning.

[robharries13]

this is the sort of thing ive been finding. i just had this response from another forum:

"More important is to keep your picking hand "hovering" and not touching the guitar, unless technique, (like palm muting,) demands it. If you ground your hand, you will lose some natural motion that greatly contributes to speed."

ugh, im so confused

[Jonny]

I have the bottom of my hand, just before the wrist joint resting on the bridge, which is a Floyd Rose. And have it angled so my pink finger is somewhere near the bridge pickup.

If I play any higher than the 12th fret and on the thinner strings, my hand slides down and off the bridge and my last two fingers usually hold onto the 6th string if I'm not playing, when I am, they're anchoring my hand where the grove in my guitar is. It's only in my guitar though.

Other than that, welcome.

[noodleplugerine]

Basically I'd say that your hand position improves with practice using a metronome so I shouldn't worry about it just working on it. Michael Angelo Batio's right hand barely moves bar his thumb and forefinger but you'd be hard pressed to find a better picker despite the awkwardness of his hand positioning.

Check this vid from Shawn Lane:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=57q5zdvMw58

Forearm very much hugging the body of the Charvel.

And this vid from Rusty (Far better technique than MAB imo)

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=sUGYxDOBupg

Lots of bridge hugging - Get comfortable, and then do what feels right to you.

There's no right and wrong way.

[maverickf1jockey]

I'd say that you should mute the strings below (musically) the one's you are playing with the picking hand and to mute the ones above with the fretting hand.

To say you have to 'hover' is misleading as you need to stop unwanted noise to have a clean technique, conductive of fast playing, by muting.

I'd also say that it's a good idea to have a different pick attack for chords and for single notes.

[maverickf1jockey]

Basically I'd say that your hand position improves with practice using a metronome so I shouldn't worry about it just working on it. Michael Angelo Batio's right hand barely moves bar his thumb and forefinger but you'd be hard pressed to find a better picker despite the awkwardness of his hand positioning.

Check this vid from Shawn Lane:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=57q5zdvMw58

Forearm very much hugging the body of the Charvel.

And this vid from Rusty (Far better technique than MAB imo)

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=sUGYxDOBupg

Lots of bridge hugging - Get comfortable, and then do what feels right to you.

There's no right and wrong way.

Almost paraphrasing me I think (and with better explanation so fair do's) ...

[Jonny]

..do what feels right to you.

There's no right and wrong way.

That is ultimately the best advice.

If you start off slow, you can notice what your hand is doing and when you want to speed up (and I don't mean play a lick, just speed up your picking) and if it's not working you can notice more easily what you're doing wrong FOR YOU. It might be perfectly comfortable for someone else to do what isn't comfortable for you.

It's really a long term thing. You'll get there. :)

[robharries13]

thanks for all your help guys  :D
i feel all inspired now  8)
much appreciated to all of you

[samoth2]

Just some quick things to consider
Economy of motion
Shoulders parallel
Stay relaxed