Well, this thread served its purpose. I feel so much better today because...
I've been playing guitar for 16 years.
For 16 years I've been holding my pick incorrectly. I've always felt like my pick hand wasn't totally correct because when I analyzed my hand in a mirror it didn't look the same as guys like Petrucci or Gilbert. Until yesterday I've never known why this was.
Then I started this thread, which in a roundabout way lead me to a Youtube video where I was able to diagnose exactly what I was doing wrong.
And so last night I got home from work and tried the changed technique and bingo - it
fixed my pick hand.
You cannot understand the overwhelming sense of satisfaction and joy I feel right now. I've had this problem since the first day I picked up a guitar because no one ever pointed out to me that I was doing it wrong. The first guitar instructor I ever had was terrible, but I had no idea at the time because I didn't know any better. So I started off on the wrong foot and I've been screwed up ever since. From that point on, countless people have seen me play, and I've solicited the advice of many people I respect, and like me, no one has noticed the flaw.
So what did I change?
I hold the pick more or less like jw123 shows in his photos above, only I hold it even more with the flat part of my index finger. That, as it turns out, is totally wrong.
Paul Gilbert has a great video on this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YvsOKTPaks&feature=related
The critical part of the video is at 0:59 where he explains quite clearly that he uses the
SIDE of his index finger! The SIDE! Its' so simple (why didn't anyone figure this out 16 years ago! Arg!)
Holding the pick with the side of the index finger changes everything. It immediately allows you to get the 45 degree down angle against the strings for the pick stroke; the flow of the pick over the strings became smoother and instantly my tone improved.
The second thing it does is completely changes the pressure points in the hand and the the fulcrum of your wrist; it changes the very small points in your hand that carry the load of movement and pressure. And that, it seems to me, is the key to speed and accuracy, as far as the pick goes. The hand, overall, feels more balanced, if that makes any sense. The thumb feels like it has more control of the pick action, and since its the strongest finger in your hand it creates a whole lot of stability. The alternate picking action becomes smoother and more stable.
But this is the really cool part - the hand and the picking motion becomes more stable WITHOUT having to rest or anchor the hand in any way against the body of the guitar!
I have always wondered how people could play so fast and so precise without anchoring their hand in some way. How did they get the stability? Because when I tried to play a loose, floating style hand with my bad pick technique, all I got was inaccurate strokes and the feeling of complete chaos in my attack.
Turns out, when you hold the pick with the flat part of your index finger your hand cannot curl correctly toward the guitar. The thumb doesn't have as much control, the index finger has
too much control, and the hand flattens out across the bridge and guitar body. The more you hold the pick with the flat of your index finger the flatter your hand ends up across the guitar. Inevitably you have to anchor something to create stability.
As soon as I changed my grip to use the side of the index finger my hand my hand position immediately changed to a shape like what Gilbert shows in his video. My hand curled a bit more and actually, naturally, found itself further away from the guitar body (except the point of the index finger and thumb, where the pick tip was, of course). My pinky didn't rest on the guitar anymore; it lightly brushed the guitar body with its tip from time to time, but for the most part my fingers were completely removed from contact with the guitar body.
It all seems so simple now. The SIDE of the index finger... But no one ever taught that to me.
I've been at a speed plateau for years. There's so much stuff I want to play and I couldn't, because my technique was all screwed up. I had given up on trying to build speed because I knew something in my technique was broken. Last night I was playing a couple scales and licks at speeds that were difficult before, and they at least felt comfortable now; I felt like I had headroom; like there was room to grow now. Now I know I can break the metronome back out and start working on speed again and I should make progress.
Big sigh of relief.
