Do you pinky anchor, yes or no?

thomasross20

I've always anchored my pinky on the guitar body. I feel it gives a great stability and reference point for your hand. It's good enough for Tommy Emmanuel... But other great players like Paco don't. 

I do it both on electric and acoustic. 

Lately however, I've developed "trigger finger" through excessive playing, heavy gardening and truly excessive computer usage at work. I've noticed my pinky definitely feels strained when it's extended and "resting" on the guitar body... Especially on acoustic, I'm wondering if the vibrations through that little finger can cause it damage. 



I'm 99% certain the cause of this is due to work. I'm at the end of a project which has seen me working past midnight for months. Hand feels like a vulture's claw. It's not worth damaging your hand if you're a guitarist

Actually while I'm on the subject, I used to do pushups with palms to ground, arms at 90 degrees to the ground. Big mistake. For years now I've never been able to put weight on my right hand. It's time I see a physio about all this. This trigger finger is the worst, though.

So do you anchor your pinky?

neilg

I used to but it was more curled around the bridge pickup than straight out, it took me about a year of concerted effort to stop doing it as I felt it was restricting my ability to mute the higher strings.

viz

When not hybrid picking, yes; though anchor is a much stronger word to describe what it’s doing. Resting lightly would be more accurate. 

Lebarque

yes

FarleyUK

Yep - mainly use it to rest on the pickup ring on my Les Pauls. Feels really odd when I play Strats, as my hand feels 'lost' with no relatable place to anchor to!

octatonic

No, never.
You can play around it (ie you get good at what you practice) but it is sub optimal in terms of mechanics.

Stuckfast

No, never, though not for any scientific reason, I just never got into the habit.

wizbit81

I've been through phases. For the first few years no, then when I was trying to pick quicker yes, then no as I went into more strummy metal stuff. When I decided to learn some tough picking stuff to sort my right hand out I tried a lot of positions, and settled on no, just gradually developed a certain hand position for speed picking like in the below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJqz3aXdN2M

What's interesting for me now about watching that video is that you see me just before the fast picking do a quick change of grip and position to get into that perfect shape for me (23 seconds on the vid). It's not my standard hand shape as I get less articulation with it, sounds a bit deader to me when playing normally, so I don't usually use it and whenever I learn something fast I have to work out what that hand position is again and almost re-learn to pick that fast. I'm currently learning something fast for the first time in about 5 years and I'm having to remember my tenets that I had:
1. rigid ok sign, don't let the circle flatten
2. break at the wrist more than normal
3. do not allow finger flexion

Basically, it's not essential, and I don't personally find it helpful anymore. Some of the great pickers do, some don't, guess it's what works for you.

stratman3142

viz said:

When not hybrid picking, yes; though anchor is a much stronger word to describe what it’s doing. Resting lightly would be more accurate. 

Same here. In fact, when picking on the higher strings, my 3rd finger is resting on the pickguard as well but it lifts off as I move to the lower strings. But they're not rigidly in position, just lightly resting and slide about and lift off the pickguard depending on what I'm playing.

I'm quite comfortable with fingers lightly curled in (not resting) for picking and often practice that way, but prefer fingers out (flailing about) for funk style rhythm, so that becomes my default.

Rocker

Yes.  I tend to play partial chords and chord linking runs so that method keeps my picking hand in the right place.  Well most of the time anyway.

axisus

Nope. I think I mostly rest my forearm on the guitar, but I'm not quite sure without a guitar to hand (at work right now - I do keep a guitar at work but it's locked away in the other room)

Branshen

Nope. I'm still shit though, so nothing to brag about. 

stickyfiddle

I'm a "sometimes". I'm more likely to when fingerpicking, but perfectly capable without as well. 

Kilgore

I'm 99% acoustic and 90% Fingerpicking.

It depends on the song. If it's a country blues, Freight Train, something like that or anything with a fairly simple and repetitious picking pattern (Dust in the Wind) I lightly anchor.

Anything that needs greater dynamics or more "feel" I find it restrictive. I don't appear to make a conscious decision about it. Some songs I anchor, some I don't. 

tekbow

It's worked for me so far, but it less an anchor than a guide if that makes sense? I kind of flex the finger as I move across the strings allowing me to keep consistent muting etc

hollywoodrox

No I tend more to float, I can see how when tremolo picking very fast it could feel good 

HAL9000

wizbit81 said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJqz3aXdN2M

The burning question, and what everyone who’s watched that clip wants to know, is...


Did you just eat your breakfast straight from the pan? Or was there a plate and cutlery involved along the way?

The public deserves to know.

Barnezy

I did but my teacher at the time told me it is ultimately limiting. Didn't take long to correct/change. 

stratman3142

Barnezy said:

I did but my teacher at the time told me it is ultimately limiting...

He needs to tell ...

Teemu Mantysaari

Guthrie Govan

John Petrucci

Martin Miller

Troy Grady

etc...

Vibetronic

I do anchor most of the time...to be honest I don't (or didn't!) think there's a right/wrong way of doing it, but I'm leaning towards thinking not anchoring will (eventually) give you more control/speed/better mechanical action. I'm taking lessons from Martin Goulding at the moment whose method involves not anchoring when picking - it takes a bit of getting used to, but is all based around mechanics, pick angle, how the pick escapes the strings etc - and it makes complete sense. On the other hand I've spent the last 3.5 years working to improve my picking on my own, and have my own technique - including altering plectrum grip/angle - which works really well for me, but there is still the odd glitch, which results in it not sounding quite as super-controlled and precise as his method. It's all really interesting stuff. 

Stuckfast

stickyfiddle said:

I'm a "sometimes". I'm more likely to when fingerpicking, but perfectly capable without as well. 

Do you not use the little finger when picking, then? I tend to use all four.