Hi guitarfreaks, when is started playing guitar i learned to fingerpick chords, wich was great then, but like 7months ago i decided to re learn my chordpicking aproach as i wanted to use my pick instead of my fingers. At first i made great progress and reached a level where i could pick single tones out of chords at a very poor level, thing is, ive been trying to improve this technique for almost 6 moths now, and i am hardly noticing any progress att all!
I've read 1000ands of tips on how to hold the pick, and only advice i can find is the basic ones like "hold the pick the way it feels comfertable for you" "dont hold to tight, not to loose" "angle the pick so its not parallel with the stings etc". I do not experince any problems when playing scales up and down, nor do i have problems playing solos and skipping strings, problem comes when i try to pick something like this:
e|---12-------12-------------------------------------|
b|------12-------12----13----13-------13-------13-|
d|---------12-------12----12----12-------12--------|
g|14---------------------------------14-------14-----|
a|------------------------------------------------------|
e|------------------------------------------------------|
This is one bar of an picking exercise ivebeen woring with for serveral months, just a simple line of 16th notes, played somewhere around 75bpm.
I just cant figure out a good way to hold the pick, how to pick the notes in order to get a good rythm.
One of the main problems is that i have not found a comfertable and good way of anchoring my hand, while i am playing this i am anchoring my right hand pinky and ring finger on the fretboard as long as the part of the bar i am currently in contains notes from the high E string, but when i am moving up and playing the B,D and G string i kind of auto anchor my sparefingers on the high Estring.
Nor do i really know where to position my hand, (right on the bridge, slightly over the bridge, further away from the bridge) I feel that my hand is best anchored if i get to rest my palm on the bridge, but on the other hand, if i rest my hand on the bridge i have a hard time reaching down to the high E string, and i hit the srings with different pick angels, wich make it feel wrong.
If i put my palm more in the middle of the bridge, there is a volume knob where i would naturally want to anchor my fingers.
Dont know if any of this makes any sense to anyone, but im looking for a way to exercise this kind of "bared chord" picking, and i want to improve ! (of course i pick this with pure ups-and-downs)
Any one who could share there oppinion on this matter?
On chordal stuff for single/double note I don't anchor my hand at all but leave it floating and pivot from the elbow. (TBH I don't tend to use a plectrum on rhythm.) Realise this goes against what we do for soloing but anchoring from the elbow for rhythm seems to work for me as it allows me to get back to chordal strumming without alerting my right hand hand position too much.
Cheers,
Tony
Powered by Invision Power Board (http://www.invisionboard.com)
© Invision Power Services (http://www.invisionpower.com)