With all those chord shapes, pull offs and slides, its easy to overlook the importance of good pick hand technique.
When I started playing guitar I spent hours running fret hand drills and scales. This is essential practice and I encourage my students to include it in their schedule, but its only half the story. After all, the picking hand is where the sound is generated once the note is selected.
This bias is further underpinned by our use of TAB rather than music score. There is a fair bit of snobbery on this issue but personally, I love TAB and would far rather use it over staves and semi-quavers. The trouble is it really only tells us what to do with our fretting hand. It can imply some timing, yes and it tells us which string to use, but its real home is with your fretting hand.
So here are some tips to get the noise maker honed, too.
Keep things relaxed
Its quite typical to see guitarists at all levels tense up as we approach a tricky phrase. I've been working on a well known solo recently and every time I move to the fast bit in the middle, I have to work really hard to keep my hand relaxed. It just seems to want to become brittle. A tense hand is not in control. Your attack might be too firm or you could miss the string altogether. Often the more we try to get it right, the less relaxed it becomes. If this rings true for you, notice when it happens, smile and relax. You will become much more accurate.
Get a grip
There are more ways to hold a pick then there are songs in the world (ok, maybe that's a stretch) and many great guitarists have invented their own. Thing is, many of these methods are often bad habits that have been otherwise compensated for or are good for a particular style. When starting out, keep things simple. The guitarist in the photo above has a good basic grip. The hand is relaxed (no white thumb nail) with a small amount of tip showing, and it protrudes from beyond the last joint of the index finger. Try not to pinch it like your going for a wall shadow of a bird or curve your wrist into an unnatural position. Smooth lines and a firm but relaxed grip is what you are after.
Timing is everything
Its less about the sound and more about the rhythm. Don't tell the drummer, or worse still the bassist but folk just don't dance to a tune. Its the pulse that drives the moves. Once again, your picking hand is where the action is. Most people have a reasonably good internal clock but it drifts. Try recording yourself playing and listen back. If you find your timing and rhythm aren't quite as tight as you thought they were - get a metronome. There are loads of great apps for your smart phone and it will make a huge difference, trust me. In fact, use one anyway.
So, there you have it. Three reasons to put your other hand in the spot light for a bit. For more practice tips and articles on other guitar related themes, sign up and get notifications as posts are published, regularly. Whilst you're there, check out the rest of the site to see what we can offer.
Happy Riffing!
Chris
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