TSJMajesty
Rock Star
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- 5,794
Thought I'd share my 'technique progress', for anyone who may be interested.
Back when I was in bands, I never really focused much on my technique, or trying to improve upon aspects of it that were holding me back.
But when I got serious about guitar about 5 years ago, and bought some new gear to help inspire me (or was it the other way around?), and decided I wanted to be able to play music I'd never been able to, I started looking at my technique, and ways to improve it.
I learned about pick slanting, I watched Ben Eller and Bernth videos, and gradually I tried some of the ideas that I found in them. Not sure what came first, so in no particular order...
I found this to be very uncomfortable, so I made this change gradually. But I could see, ergonomically, that I did indeed need to move the pick further from the tip of my finger, so it could then naturally sit at a 90 degree angle to the plane of the strings (but still at a ~45 degree angle to the neck.) This way, I could just rotate my grip either way, very slightly, in order to get a downward or an upward slant, depending on which was needed, to give myself the best chance of doing string changes cleanly.
I've moved the pick away from my fingertip a little bit at a time, each time allowing myself to get comfortable with the new position, and it has definitely helped with string changes! Outside ones still give some trouble, but I'm very comfortable with inside changes.
This one was also hard to adapt to, but when I would just do a tremolo pick on 1 string, I did find it freed my wrist. I'd let my palm rest on the bridge, and that be my "pivot" so to speak.
It was like, 1 step forward, 2 steps back. It slowed me down at first, but eventually I was able to pick more accurately at faster tempos.
Plus, my fingers aren't fast like some people, so simple physics says the closer my fingers are to the string, the less they have to travel. So that helps me with not having super-fast muscles.
Another muting technique that I've adopted I picked up while watching Petrucci- placing my thumb and an available finger onto strings that I'm not playing. I use this in a riff in Muse's The Handler, (all hammer-ons/pull-offs to open, on the D string), or anything else involving a single string (lots of JP stuff!)
And I'd have to say I got every bit of this from the internet! Maybe, if I had this available to me when I was a teen, it wouldn't have taken me so long to get where I am.
Back when I was in bands, I never really focused much on my technique, or trying to improve upon aspects of it that were holding me back.
But when I got serious about guitar about 5 years ago, and bought some new gear to help inspire me (or was it the other way around?), and decided I wanted to be able to play music I'd never been able to, I started looking at my technique, and ways to improve it.
I learned about pick slanting, I watched Ben Eller and Bernth videos, and gradually I tried some of the ideas that I found in them. Not sure what came first, so in no particular order...
- My pick grip:
I found this to be very uncomfortable, so I made this change gradually. But I could see, ergonomically, that I did indeed need to move the pick further from the tip of my finger, so it could then naturally sit at a 90 degree angle to the plane of the strings (but still at a ~45 degree angle to the neck.) This way, I could just rotate my grip either way, very slightly, in order to get a downward or an upward slant, depending on which was needed, to give myself the best chance of doing string changes cleanly.
I've moved the pick away from my fingertip a little bit at a time, each time allowing myself to get comfortable with the new position, and it has definitely helped with string changes! Outside ones still give some trouble, but I'm very comfortable with inside changes.
- Closing my hand:
This one was also hard to adapt to, but when I would just do a tremolo pick on 1 string, I did find it freed my wrist. I'd let my palm rest on the bridge, and that be my "pivot" so to speak.
It was like, 1 step forward, 2 steps back. It slowed me down at first, but eventually I was able to pick more accurately at faster tempos.
- Breaking the pinky/ring finger dependence.
- Building pinky strength
- Keeping fingers close to the fretboard
Plus, my fingers aren't fast like some people, so simple physics says the closer my fingers are to the string, the less they have to travel. So that helps me with not having super-fast muscles.
- Muting in general
Another muting technique that I've adopted I picked up while watching Petrucci- placing my thumb and an available finger onto strings that I'm not playing. I use this in a riff in Muse's The Handler, (all hammer-ons/pull-offs to open, on the D string), or anything else involving a single string (lots of JP stuff!)
- Pivoting at the wrist
And I'd have to say I got every bit of this from the internet! Maybe, if I had this available to me when I was a teen, it wouldn't have taken me so long to get where I am.