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Probably another one of those things, but is there a right or wrong way?
I'm talking about the fingers on your picking hand. I have mine out, and when I'm playing leady stuff I have my middle and ring ring fingers resting on the guitar, next to the strings, like a stabiliser almost. Is this 'bad form'?
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That's cool then. Provided you aren't anchoring onto the body, whether your fingers are tucked in or out isn't really a major issue provided there is some looseness and give there. The white knuckle rigor mortis infused fist of gripping the pick so tightly it could implode is not to be encouraged.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
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I remember Michael Angelo Batio advocating the type of anchoring mentioned in the OP, and it doesn't seem to adversely affected him.
Lately I've been supporting my index finger with the middle finger, which nips out occasionally for some chicken flavoured pickin'. ( I do have a bit of a twist to my index finger, but no pain yet thankfully).
I remember a guitar teacher trying to get me to tuck all my fingers in like a fist and pick entirely from side to side wrist movement, but it never felt comfortable.
I suppose it's an individual player thing. If Marty Friedman isn't crippled yet with his awkward looking technique, I reckon we'll be fine.
I hold the pick (if I'm using one) between thumb and fore-finger, with my fore-finger bent back on itself, below the thumb. This enables the pick to be held pretty much parallel to the strings and leaves the middle and ring fingers free for hydrid picking.
When I'm not using the remaining fingers, they stay tucked in.
Often I don't bother with a pick and use my whole hand (except - usually - my fourth finger).
Below are three videos. The first is Shaun Baxter, the second Dave Kilminster and the third is Guthrie Govan. I was taught for a long time by the first two so had a great opportunity to pick their brains about their methods and reasoning. My reasons for selecting those three particularly is they all know each well, have spent a lot of time comparing techniques and all three are well respected guitar teachers also. Without trawling through hundreds of videos I wanted to find examples where you can see -
Shaun Baxter is obsessive about hand positioning and the fluidity and balanced dynamics of his playing is phenomenal to see. I would struggle to believe there is a better technician on the planet. That said, his ability to play any rhythm or alternate styles is amazingly dwarfed by (as saying lacking sounds too negative) his lead techniques. Dave Kilminster on the other hand is amazingly good a virtually everything. He tries every style, every technique (even those not associated with guitars) in both lead and rhythm disciplines.
With regards to Michael Angelo Batio he is really targeting one thing in speed and certainly could not be considered to have as wide a playing pallet as the three mentioned. Whether his technique causes him any issue we do not really know as it would hardly be good for business for him to come out and say he needs constant physiotherapy. Like Marty Friedman (whose technique I know give most technicians graphic nightmares) if it works for him and his career is built on it then he would be unlikely to change or have the time to and it may just be that their body allows for it without too many ill effects.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6oJlaayeQE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy-kLnLLW50
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2llLs4D5PA
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
But there is almost constant movement and adjustment in the elbow (that not to say the wrist isn't being used extensively) and the elbow is not locked by any means. Obviously they aren't playing big strumming patterns and the balance of wrist to elbow would shift considerably if they were. The main point being that even in tight and fast picking these player's techniques come from the muscularly supported areas of the arm, in the elbow and wrist, and not generated by anchoring and using the cross motion of tendon supported finger. If you watch the Shaun Baxter clip the only time his hand makes solid contact with the guitar body is during a tapping run where the movement of his fingers is a natural back and forth and not sideways, then when he uses a big right hand pull off his hand leaves the guitar and his wrist takes the strain.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Another interesting point about Shaun and his technique is how he taps. He is an obsessive about eradicating unnecessary or harmful movements from his playing. I still hundreds of tutorials explaining tapping as hitting the fret then pulling down - this in itself although incredibly common practice depending on how it is executed can be incredibly straining on the fingers. Watch Shaun's tapping passage and you'll notice he pulls ups. Again his elbow and wrist are doing the heavy lifting whilst his fingers are solid and supported.
Besides his guitar playing Shaun is an incredibly intelligent guy. Everything is approached scientifically - from a music perspective maybe a little too much at points. Shaun as a tutor is one of those guys under which young or opened minded players will feel like they are stepping back to basics then suddenly fly past their standard before working with him. He holds nothing back in pointing out base level floors in your technique. It's not a case of ramming his views down peoples throat, he can genuine back them up, explain them fully and it is said solely for your betterment. This is great for those who want to learn but used to rub some of the more staid mature students up the wrong way. I had a funny relationship with Shaun in the sense that musically I could never get into what he was doing so was not a fanboy in that sense and in many ways Dave K is far more my cup of tea from a musicality perspective. I was strong headed about what I wanted musically but frustrated at some limits I hit. In that sense Shaun was a great tutor for me and I owe him a lot as at a difficult time in my life when my only real motivation was making music he gave me the focus, discipline and skills to do so and better myself both on a playing and personal level.
That's it spot on. It's Guthrie simply angling the pick for both dynamic variation and different techniques.
Most people tend to tilt the pick forward when sweeping for example. This creates a less clean contact but makes the transition across the strings smoother. The less clean contact isn't an issue because you are not looking for the notes to sustain.
Alternatively, when playing legato passage the pick is flatter allowing a really clean contact so the strings sustains cleanly and keeps hammer-ons as dynamically smooth as possible.
My favourite element of playing guitar is how many ways you can play the same note. You can play the same note three time in a row and make it sound incredibly different. I don't really buy the set in stone tutorials (not referring to Justin's) about holding the pick like this for that and that for this. These are all micro-adjustments that comes along when learning different things and in truth the player gets to a point where they are not longer conscious on these inflections. If you asked them to breakdown each stroke they would probably be more confused than you.