Should I stick with it?

[Pablo Gilberto]

Alright, I read most of Eric Vandenberg's great articles about picking and he always wrote that you should try to find your own path and try to find the way it works best for you.... But if something works, stick with it. Now at the moment I can play sixteenth notes ( a pattern , different strings) at about 160 and sixtuplets at about 120 bpm. Now my question is: should I trie some new stuff, like floating , or should I just stick with the technique I'm using at the moment??

(I know it all sounds a bit weird , it's actually quite hard to explain..)

Thanks

[Pablo Gilberto]

Also, when you guys use the floating technique do you palm mute with your right hand?? Because I read that floating means you're not putting your palm on the guitar .....

[Los Boleros]

I always believed that a varied approach would help the over-all coordination. I practice many times with my hand and arm floating and not supported in any way. Although I never perform like this, I believe that the isolation helps to improve the wrist technique. Like wise, I have also practiced with a stiff wrist and moving just the forearm. These are merely my observations and have not been laboratory tested.:cool:

[Asperjames II]

i think if it works with you, then stick with it, although some techniques can give you better results. as long as you're not hurting yourself it's ok

[Thorsten]

Well, of course you should definitely try! If you never tried how would you know the difference?

Try out everything and stick to what works for you! You should never stop learning and experimenting with your playing, there´s always new things you can learn, technically, musically, mentally...

As far as I understood this, floating just means not anchoring. You sure need to rest your palm on the bridge cause muting is essential for some techniques, e.g. fast AP...

[EricV]

Indeed, floating basically means no anchoring, and usually "floaters" use a picking motion from the wrist
You know, I agree... stiuck to what works for you. Try different things, but in the end, don´t let anyone tell you what is right or wrong. I never meant to say that floating or whatever is the only correct way.
I hear people go "picking from the elbow is wrong, unefficient, doesnt work". Well, tell that to Vinnie Moore =)
Eric

[Death (Chuck)]

I guess picking is the only technic i had never problems with and never cared what people told me about it.
I have read manny articles in a good guitar magazine ("Guitar") about this topic. One famous person tells u white, the next guitar hero tells u black ... and so on. I ll bet i could give u ten great examples off it, if i would look it up. So i guess everyone is just playing what fells comfortable for him, what feels right. I have done it since beginning ( and it was hard to play that annihilator jeff "i am the fastest right hand in the dam world" waters killer riffs :D )

[Pablo Gilberto]

Does anchoring means you should'nt spread your fingers and shouldn't put your pinky on the guitar????

[Pablo Gilberto]

If that's so, it's quite strange because JP always puts his pinky on the guitar and Michael Angelo even puts more than one finger on the guitar...

[EricV]

Once again, there is no ONE CORRECT WAY. Yes, Petrucci, Malmsteen and Angelo do anchor. Yet, guys like Paul Gilbert do not. It´s silly to count who is and who is not, and it once again proves that different players can get great results with different techniques.
Just because Gilbert "floats" ( not resting any finger onto the guitar ( anchoring )) doesn´t mean it will work for you. Likewise, just because Petrucci and Angelo do anchor, it doesn´t mean it will work for you.
It doesn´t matter who does what. Those are all options you can try before you decide what works best for YOU, not for Michael Angelo or Paul Gilbert or Vinnie Moore or Steve Morse or Petrucci or...

[asdf]

I believe guys who "float" rest the palm on the bridge a bit for added support or for muting. Otherwise I couldn't imagine how they succeed to hit a single note when they're moving around on the stage.

[Barking Pumpkin]

Seeing people with different methods of picking is always pretty interesting....makes you think "I could never do that."

One thing was......I was talking about picking methods and this guy said he used the picking with just your pick fingers, basically just moving thumb and index. Well....he posted a video of him doing this, and it really weirded me out. I almost couldn't tell he was moving at all, it was the most efficent looking thing ever.........quite interesting.

[delicious]

i think friedman gets most of his picking motion from his thumb and index finger, but his got a really strange wrist position, curled back the other way almost as if his resting on the side of his pinky :|

[EricV]

One thing was......I was talking about picking methods and this guy said he used the picking with just your pick fingers, basically just moving thumb and index. Well....he posted a video of him doing this, and it really weirded me out. I almost couldn't tell he was moving at all, it was the most efficent looking thing ever.........quite interesting.

Just a guess... was that Danny Joe Carter ? :)
Oh, and German Schauss is amazing when it comes to that, too... I had a chance to hang out with him at the Jemfest, and he has a very efficient right hand technique. Great guy, too
Eric

[Barking Pumpkin]

Just a guess... was that Danny Joe Carter ? :)
Oh, and German Schauss is amazing when it comes to that, too... I had a chance to hang out with him at the Jemfest, and he has a very efficient right hand technique. Great guy, too
Eric

Nope.....someone on the Spastic Ink/Ron Jarzombeck board. I don't know if there's a policy here against linking to topics on other forums....so I'll just link the the video the guy posted for now.

http://www.websamba.com/neoplasia/DSCI0002.avi

(it doesn't work for me in Firefox, so try Internet Explorer)

[itzfast]

160bpm is pretty fast and percentile wise you're faster than most guitar players but if you are anything like me it isn't good enough. so now onto the topic at hand. for me i prefer to anchor my my pinky on the pickguard rather than float. furthermore it is important to me that the up and down strokes are being executed by my wrist and not my fingers. biomechanically your wrist can move way faster than your fingers ever could. holding the the pick between the inside nuckle of the thumb and the tip of the index is also important. why you may ask? because it restricts you from involving your fingers in alternate motion. obviously your up and down strokes should be narrow and not wide almost to the point that the pick is always touching the string your striking. this brings me to my problem my attack or lack of. i find that when i am sredding real fast my picking is very concise, clean but too light as if the pick is barely touching the string, this frustrates me. also is it bizarre that i pick fast going from string to string but when trilling on one string i get hung up this really pisses me off. could it be that i use the corner of the pick to strike the string and not the point? btw, i apologize for the long post.

[nicosanchez]

Actually there's no right way or wrong way, if it's comfortable for you and you can go as fast as you like, then it's fine.

[Barking Pumpkin]

Coincidentally, you have the same username as the guy I was talking to who used the picking from the thumb technique. ^_^

[nicosanchez]

Coincidentally, you have the same username as the guy I was talking to who used the picking from the thumb technique. ^_^

That may be because i'm the same guy :D .

[Barking Pumpkin]

That may be because i'm the same guy :D .

^_^

[nicosanchez]

biomechanically your wrist can move way faster than your fingers ever could.

Probably, but if you play with your fingers, your right hand doesn't get tired. Actually, the problem now is with my left hand, that's the one which gets tired when shredding for long periods.

i find that when i am sredding real fast my picking is very concise, clean but too light as if the pick is barely touching the string, this frustrates me.

If you're playing an acoustic, that can be a problem, but with electric guitar, you don't want to pick too hard, or you'll get a very loud pick-screeching sound (chckchckchck as is was described in another forum). Always remember, light playing = faster playing.