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How to Hold the Pick/Anchoring


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Posted

After years of working on my left hand thinking it was the weak point of my playing, I've come to realize I've been neglecting my picking hand far too much. :freak:

 

I'm going to sit down and work from the ground up in terms of accuracy and technique with my picking hand. This also means I want to correct any of the bad habits I have. The first being how I hold my pick.

 

There seems to be a lot of debate regarding how to hold the pick. Is there one way in particular I should be focusing on? Or is it just a matter of comfort, as long as the pick is striking flat both upwards and downwards?

 

Second, is anchoring really that bad? I've been doing it forever, but if it truly is bad practice, I'll work on it.

 

:)

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Posted

Anchoring is probably not that bad - Michael Angelo Batio, Steve Morse

and John Petrucci anchor it looks like it doesn't hurt their technique.

 

Here's an article about how to hold the pick http://www.ibreathemusic.com/article/1

The author talks about doing what works for you.

I also recommend to check out his articles about picking

(just click his name under the title and you'll get to a full list of his articles),

he's explenations are very good.

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Posted

That is a pretty good read. I am in the same boat as I have been practicing for the last 6 months or year with an alternate picking technique that had the pick as perfectly parallel to the string as I could. It probably isnt a very popular rock type technique as I see alot of peeps with the pick angled to the string at various speeds and that is how I used to play. I liked the "trumpet like" notes that it gives but it appears as though I have reached a platuea with speed and I cant get any faster. So for the past few days I have attempted to go back to the angles, less angle when playing slow and more when trying to play fast but it seems as though the sharp angles really dont sound out as much if that makes any sense. I guess I will give it a few weeks and see if it starts to sound any better.

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Posted

There's a nice part on the Get out of my yard DVD by Paul Gilbert where he goes into how he holds the picks, and how, when and why to vary the angle of the pick.

 

I found it very useful + it's a nice DVD :)

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Posted

Second, is anchoring really
that
bad? I've been doing it forever, but if it truly is bad practice, I'll work on it.

:)

There is nothing wrong with anchoring... if it works for you, then do it.

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Posted

I intellectually I tuck, holding my pick in between my index finger and thumb. However, my guitar teacher had been trying to get me away from that saying "The tighter you hold the pick the tighter you'll play" I never could tell a difference.

Posted

I used to be pretty "anti-anchor"...here is something I wrote about the subject:http://blog.markwein.com/2007/06/30/anchorman.aspx

 

I think the problem is if you have a "hard" anchor, where it interferes with your playing...I tend to loosely brush the front of the guitar when I am playing quicker, and play with my hand loosely tucked for the rest of it....I think the important this is what works best for a given situation and not to be inflexible with your technique....

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Posted

 

I used to be pretty "anti-anchor"...here is something I wrote about the subject:


I think the problem is if you have a "hard" anchor, where it interferes with your playing...I tend to loosely brush the front of the guitar when I am playing quicker, and play with my hand loosely tucked for the rest of it....I think the important this is what works best for a given situation and not to be inflexible with your technique....

 

 

 

Agree. It's hard to do a hard anchor when you're doing funk style rhythm or riffs.

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Posted

Second, is anchoring really
that
bad? I've been doing it forever, but if it truly is bad practice, I'll work on it.


:)

 

I don't know... Personally I haven't been anchoring at all on the electric guitar (but I think in very early days I used to), while I still sometimes anchor on the classical depending on the song.

 

I find that the anchoring posture is not the most relaxed for me (because of the pinky that moves away from the other fingers), and that when the speed goes up the anchor gets in the way. I also find that it doesn't add much stability at all for me, since my right hand is normally quite able to stand in place without it (although I often mute the lower strings with the palm, which gives some stability already). However I am VERY still when playing, to the point of looking embalmed on stage (I've seen flies landing on my guitar neck during a solo and not moving away... :rolleyes: ), so I guess that maybe if I performed in a more flashy fashion then I might need some anchoring indeed.

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