right hand little finger

[plop]

harlo

i lean my right hand's little finger alot while playing, perhaps for every figure or motif, except for strumming. Is this a bad habiit?

I've seen other guitarists lean their little finger on the guitar too whiel playing runs, difference after practise my little finger grows tired, so again does this mean it's a REALLY bad habit?

I've seen some guitarists not leaning their little fingers at all. so is this an issue of preference?

Thank you very much!

 

[Santa]

go to ultimate-guitar.com forums and search anchoring

should have a lot

well they say that it builds a lot of tension thus ur more likely to develop problems

 

[fenderrules]

personally i also utillize anchoring my pinky on the pickguard or near the pickup whenever i do licks or note plucking.

its about personal preference. i dont think its a bad habit. my pinky finger acts as support, but of course, i make sure that my hand is still at the right distance from the strings so it doesnt really supress my pinky until it tires out.


cheers

 

[plop]

oh sry i didn't even noe it was called anchoring in the first place hehe :lol:

anyway i play the piano and take it rather seriously, classical guitar is my 2nd instrument and i do not anchor while finger-picking so i find it rather strange that i anchor while picking on the electric guitar.

anyway, i would like to eradicate the anchoring habit, because i've read up about the tension part and i'm afraid it might affect my piano. any tips of how to start practising without anchoring? or issit just hardcore practise?

thanks a lot once again

:wink:

 

[Santa]

well it shld be not much diff la

i did anchoring when i started... then i trained myself to not anchor

just stop anchoring when ur habit kicks in, shld take 1/2 days to not anchor, might still feel weird tho.

go for it!

 

[tany]

why ur pinkie become tired one? haha

actually most ppl find anchoring easier and more control. i find it better and easier as compared to a floating hand. i know paul gilbert using the float hand, joe satriani too. but others use the anchoring method, like steve vai, eric johnson. and some ppl point middle finger (kirk hammett) :lol:

personal choice. dont force urself to do something opposite if u are already used to the anchoring method.

 

[Santa]

aiyah not forcing him!!

theres an endless debate on this on ultimate-guitar.com forums anyway..

as long as u dun devlop problems any way u play is fine

 

[plop]

haha thanks everyone but actually i only like played one year of electric guitar, so i think i dun mind being corrected now, if anchoring is considered "bad" haha.

hmm well generally i tried not anchoring but these are the problems

-> i seem to rest on my palm on the lower strings/sometimes bridge all the time, it's also now then i realise i always rest on it, is that okay?

-> with that, some of the pieces i play, which consists of the top 4 strings, the notes that i play on the D string, sometimes the G string seems to be (paritally, sometimes fully) muted. When i anchor, the bridge/strings are not covered by my palm so i can play those strings freely. the ntoes on the E and B strings are fine, how do i solve this?

-> lastly, how to not anchor? do u curl ur fingers or allow the fingers to be straight out? coz i feel letting our fingers relax tends to make my hand heavier, fingers are like heavy burden to the motion, but curling the fingers if i practise for 1 hour it feels tired.. again help please!

thanks to all a million, you guys are great

 

[bin4christ]

normally i dont juz anchor my pinky..i anchor my pinky,ring n sometimes mid fingers on my right hand..i think it's due to how ur hand was shaped rather than preference..my fren cant play with his fingers anchord at all..

 

[daryl]

haha thanks everyone but actually i only like played one year of electric guitar, so i think i dun mind being corrected now, if anchoring is considered "bad" haha.

hmm well generally i tried not anchoring but these are the problems

-> i seem to rest on my palm on the lower strings/sometimes bridge all the time, it's also now then i realise i always rest on it, is that okay? i do that all the time too, it's alright. but you gotta learn how to unmute certain strings when you're playing them if you get what i mean.

-> with that, some of the pieces i play, which consists of the top 4 strings, the notes that i play on the D string, sometimes the G string seems to be (paritally, sometimes fully) muted. When i anchor, the bridge/strings are not covered by my palm so i can play those strings freely. the ntoes on the E and B strings are fine, how do i solve this? you gotta learn how to lift your picking hand from the d/g string so that it's not muted.. it comes with practise!

-> lastly, how to not anchor? do u curl ur fingers or allow the fingers to be straight out? coz i feel letting our fingers relax tends to make my hand heavier, fingers are like heavy burden to the motion, but curling the fingers if i practise for 1 hour it feels tired.. again help please! i used to anchor. my guitar teacher pointed that out to me and scolded me. so i stopped. and now i'm so used to not anchoring. your picking hand should be relaxed with your middle, ring and little finger curled naturally.
thanks to all a million, you guys are great

 

[Everdying]

like so many others have said, there is nothing wrong with anchoring.
even eric johnson does it for certain runs, but when the fast alternate picking stuff comes in, you see him stop anchoring.
similarly with guys like john petrucci.

so again, nothing wrong with anchoring, but it can reduce your speed on fast runs.
so try to work out a balance somewhere.

 

[Crawldaddy]

Hmm.

The "RIGHT" way is to do it the way you feel most comfortably.

People can quote you all kinds of examples of who does it and who does not anchor their hand whilst solo-ing but does it contribute to YOUR technique?

I've been using both the 'pinkie' and 'palm-edge' kind of anchoring for ages. I'm still playing just fine. And I'm sure you will too.

 

[plop]

like so many others have said, there is nothing wrong with anchoring.
even eric johnson does it for certain runs, but when the fast alternate picking stuff comes in, you see him stop anchoring.
similarly with guys like john petrucci.

yea i personally love anchoring but i think i shud really really stop anchoring, coz my little pinky got tired after practises like 1hr and thanks to the knowledgable net, i'm very afraid of building too much tension in my little finger, so i rather change my whole technique den to break my pinky and then worse, cannot play coz too used to anchoring hehe.

you gotta learn how to lift your picking hand from the d/g string so that it's not muted.. it comes with practise!

i was about to ask a similar qn. did u feel awkward when doing that? i do! so i somehow feel this is the wrong technique because there's somehow no support at all for playing runs without anchorin (at least for b/e string runs i can rest my palm on the birdge). again issit just practise practise practise?

anyway just asking those who converted from the anchoring to the non-anchoring picking style: how long did u guys take?

Edit:

just stop anchoring when ur habit kicks in, shld take 1/2 days to not anchor, might still feel weird tho.

go for it!

waa sibei fast!

 

[ShredCow]

Question...

Why would anchoring be tiring?

You don't need to exert a lot of pressure on the pinky anchor. The only time i think you need to exert pressure is when palm muting. There should be minimal pressure on the anchor. The pinky merely touches the guitar body.

 

[tany]

i dunno how paul gilbert does it.

 

[gsonique]

like this...

 

[daryl]

^ahahahahahaha i recognise that from somewhere!

Plop, when i said lift the picking hand, i meant lift it only from the particular string you do not want muted. let's say when you're picking the g string, your e, a and d strings would be muted by your picking hand. when you move down to the d string, you have to angle your picking hand such that you're only muting the e and a strings. and when you're playing the a string, position your pickinghand such that you're only muting the e string. and so on. that's what i do lah, and it's very natural for me.

 

[Santa]

not fast la cause that time (and now) so lousy anchor dun anchor still sound bad

 

[plop]

Question...

Why would anchoring be tiring?

guess it's just me... wrong technique i suppose. hmm come to think of that, i realise i do not exert SO much force to the extent of feeling tired but i actually feel a slight sting, like a slightly weighted pinky... anyway whatever the case is i really want to remove this (bad) habit.

angle your picking hand such that you're only muting the e and a strings

thanks! more or less got ur point now. what about the bottom e string? no choice? must anchor? or any solutions


sorry for so many qns! haha sry i really n00b, as i see everyone of u seem to have no problems with anchoring/not anchoring haha

 

[daryl]

move your picking hand over to the bridge. or just lift up. most of the time i just mute unless it really has to be unmuted. well no la i used to have a big problem with anchoring/not anchoring and i guess some people used to too.

whatever method you use, if you don't learn how to relax that picking hand, you'll encounter problems.