Picking Hand Positioning For Guitar

12 Responses

01.31.10

I just wanted to say thank you for this site! It’s really helpful and I look forward to more lessons (I’m also glad you don’t plaster on distortion like a lot of instructional videos. It really allows the student to hear what’s going on )

Carl Brown

01.31.10

Thanks a lot Dave for checking out my site. Just let me know if you have any questions at all and I will respond as quickly as possible.
Carl..

Barney Wenograd

01.31.10

Hi Carl,

Based on your detailed analysis of Eric johnson’s picking style, could you demonstrate his picking motion and “bouncing”. It was not clear from his video.

He also mentioned the use of “Circle picking”. Does he actullay use it in his general playing? Can you demonstrate it?

Thanks,

Barney

Carl Brown

01.31.10

Hey Barney, I agree that his description of those two techniques are kinda vague in his instructional videos.

I think part of the reason is that both of those techiques are actually more difficult to feel when playing slow. But yes, I do think he uses lots of circular picking in very virtually every fast picking run he does. I will see if I can work something up that will help show the two techniques better.

Cheers!! Carl..

Aviral

01.31.10

Hi!!!This is an awesom site and the instructional videos are really helpful . However, could you please explain in some video how to mute and get around in fast legato runs or piking coz when i do them(try to them rather),i produce a lot of unwanted noise from string,particularly when handling different string..
It would really be aprpeciated…
Great work,keep it up!!

Caleb

01.31.10

My hand is really big and I started playing the guitar with just my pinky anchored down. I am the most comfortable with my pinky muscle muting the strings, but my pinky muscle seems to be muting all of the strings so I don’t know exactly where to put it and if my anchored pinky is pulling the pinky muscle down on the strings.

Carl Brown

01.31.10

Hey Caleb, I use the same technique. My pinky muscle takes care of most of my muting. However, I am able to create kind of a tunnel with the underpart of my pinky muscle that allows any string that I don’t want muted to ring freely just by slightly lifting my pinky knuckle.

If you watch that part of my picking hand during solos and stuff you can see what is going on. It also creates a lot of stability in my right hand which allows for more speed without tension. Hope this help!!

Carl..

Caleb

01.31.10

Thanks! You really know your stuff

Max

01.31.10

Hi Carl, i find that you are doing a terrific job, and of course i like your lessons, i would like to see some advice to keep in shape the hands, because it happens sometimes that my hands get tired very quickly, and again gut gemacht!!!

Greetings

Max Moses

Carl Brown

01.31.10

Hey Max, thanks for the feedback on my lessons.

For finger strengthening I usually do some legato exercises using all 24 fingering combinations available with the left hand. You can find those exercises in the either the advanced or intermediate lessons archive, I can’t quite remember. The name of the lesson is fret hand/pick hand synchronization. Take those picking exercises and do them all as pure legato on every fret and every string. They are broken up in groups so maybe do one group a day. After a while you will probably notice a difference in your finger strength and stamina.

Cheers!! Carl..

Troels Andersen

01.31.10

Hi Carl,
thanks for this great site. I’ve only just started playing the electric guitar and your lessons have really been a real help. Thanks a lot.
Tom