palm anchoring

[Homebake]

i was taught to kind of rest my palm on the bridge for support a bit when picking and using my pinky as support too. i don't know why people think its such sacrilege.

it's the best and most efficient way for me to pick. i guess as long as you don't keep accidentally muting strings or pushing the bridge down it doesn't matter.

[jemsite]

Originally Posted by Homebake

i was taught to kind of rest my palm on the bridge for support a bit when picking and using my pinky as support too. i don't know why people think its such sacrilege.

it's the best and most efficient way for me to pick. i guess as long as you don't keep accidentally muting strings or pushing the bridge down it doesn't matter.

i think it's frowned upon in general (especially for beginners) because it makes you a bit stiff and non-dynamic with the pick hand (robotic) where you lose all fluidity in the attack.

w/ floating trems you also have intonation issues from sharpening notes.

imho you shouldn't really have to rest your pinky or palm to play, if you do it really is a crutch that can be weaned off... glen

[bhuard75]

i've never met a guitarist that doesnt palm mute. or not use this technique. it was one of the first things i learned in guitar lessons. jesh, a bad habit?! i'd say quite essential to keeping your playing sounding clean.

[redaxe]

This topic is pretty close to me as I spent a year changing my picking arm from Yngwie to Gilbert style, and I will tell you, I don't know how Yngwie does it because Gilbert style is simply so much easier and more comfortable to play. It lets to switch effortlessly between elbow-picking and wrist-picking for the fast stuff and just gives you a lot more control over pick attack and muting opportunities. I think people confuse anchoring with merely "touching" the bridge. If you are playing an instrument you should be touching it. I find that my floating technique is similar to Gilbert in that my forearm is parallel to the shape of my RG's curve and the little bit of my hand under my thumb is always parallel to the first two saddles on my floating trem. This way I can move it slightly down to mute without sacrificing picking facility and still have a good reach for string skipping and sweeping. But really, I agree with Ayrton- it took me a good 8 months of practicing everyday to switch picking techniques. It will feel INCREDIBLY awkward at first, but begin running scales and playing simple pentatonic licks and you'll get used to it. Good luck.

[JungleFender]

Originally Posted by redaxe

This topic is pretty close to me as I spent a year changing my picking arm from Yngwie to Gilbert style, and I will tell you, I don't know how Yngwie does it because Gilbert style is simply so much easier and more comfortable to play. It lets to switch effortlessly between elbow-picking and wrist-picking for the fast stuff and just gives you a lot more control over pick attack and muting opportunities. I think people confuse anchoring with merely "touching" the bridge. If you are playing an instrument you should be touching it. I find that my floating technique is similar to Gilbert in that my forearm is parallel to the shape of my RG's curve and the little bit of my hand under my thumb is always parallel to the first two saddles on my floating trem. This way I can move it slightly down to mute without sacrificing picking facility and still have a good reach for string skipping and sweeping. But really, I agree with Ayrton- it took me a good 8 months of practicing everyday to switch picking techniques. It will feel INCREDIBLY awkward at first, but begin running scales and playing simple pentatonic licks and you'll get used to it. Good luck.

Yeah, I agree, the Paul Gilbert style is really easy and helps a lot in your picking techniques. I used to only do down stroke, but after watching a few videos of him playing, I effortlessly (well, almost) mastered the art of alternate picking after just 1 week, no kidding. But i also got used to resting my palm on the trem now because of him

[callen3615]

im so confused... I dont have my pinky touching the guitar at all. my palm slides up and down the bridge as i play. thats it. so should i just float my hand over the guitar and touch nothing???

[Homebake]

i think if you can develop a style that works for you (doesn't hurt you and allows you to play what you want to play) it doesn't matter. copying gilbert and malmsteen is fine but, especially in malmsteen's case, he's got his own definitive style.

[Ayrton]

Originally Posted by Homebake

i think if you can develop a style that works for you (doesn't hurt you and allows you to play what you want to play) it doesn't matter.

Exactly...

If it works for you, then it works.

I wanted to break myself of having to anchor my picking hand, and to keep a floating bridge from going sharp.

[callen3615]

thanks for the input guy, its much appreciated.

[HumanFuseBen]

how in the world are you supposed to keep all your unused strings from ringing out if you don't keep a little palm on the bridge? the vibrations you will cause from alt. picking will make your unused strings ring out uncontrollably.

if i'm playing a fast lick on my b string, i've got the meaty edge of my hand resting lightly on all the strings above the b (E, A, D, G). i've never had any problems with that and as near as i can tell thats the method every other shredder out there uses.

[callen3615]

Originally Posted by HumanFuseBen

how in the world are you supposed to keep all your unused strings from ringing out if you don't keep a little palm on the bridge? the vibrations you will cause from alt. picking will make your unused strings ring out uncontrollably.

if i'm playing a fast lick on my b string, i've got the meaty edge of my hand resting lightly on all the strings above the b (E, A, D, G). i've never had any problems with that and as near as i can tell thats the method every other shredder out there uses.

Yup, thats what i do. If i dont it sounds terrible.

[Homebake]

i keep trying the difference between playing fast, gilbert-ish licks with my hand on the bridge and using pinky as support and then with no support whatsoever and there is a big difference. the second method makes me play sloppier and slower.

i don't understand how it's physically possible NOT to rest your palm somewhere on the guitar when picking fast. pinky i can understand.

i've analysed gilbert's picking a lot. it seems to me, when he's picking on the lower strings he usually has a very slight rest of his pinky on the pickguard, and he seems to almost always have a part of his hand on the bridge and he's said that himself.

with my current style, i haven't run into any type of picking or string skipping or anything that i've had to stop and think and readjust my style/position, so i think i have it pretty good at the moment. i can go from loud/hard dynamics to palm mute etc very easily and all the movement comes from just the wrist only.

meh, whatever!

[cjem]

Palm anchoring can't be too bad seeing as steve vai designed and distributed via ibanez a small amount of handrests that you sreww into the guitar and sit above the floating trem so you can rest your hand and not pull any strings sharp. The only reason it got discontinued was because of some lawsuit pretaining to copyright infringement?

[Magical Muffin]

Callen, you forgot someone VERY important



(Another person that virtually always has his palm on the bridge is Alexi Laiho)

I used to pick right on the neck pick up, but when I started playing faster (Especially on the thinner strings), the strings would flop everywhere when I picked and so it would be quite sloppy and strings would ring out and stuff. At first I thought I was just picking too hard (I wasn't, I only pick hard enough so that the notes sound clean through the amp), but then I started to notice guitarists would put their palm very close, if not on, the bridge and their pick would usually be somewhere over the middle pickup. In a few sweeping lessons I came across the guitarist would slightly palm mute the note being played, even though the string is unwound. I was more or less like, "huh"

I recently came across this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tY5n...eature=related
(The first part is just him shredding for 6 mins, lol)

And he explains (at 5:40) that when he picks faster, he goes closer to the bridge because the string tension is higher. Something immediately snapped in my brain and now I but my more or less put my palm on the bridge, and it has helped my playing in general immensely compared to floating my hand just next to the neck (Though I pick closer to the neck when sweeping, and even moreso when tapping + sweeping, but thats fine because you are more or less gliding over the string with your pick, rather than repeatedly raping the string with alternate picking..

So, resting your palm on the bridge is less of an 'anchoring' technique, and more of a necessity of playing fast/cleanly.