I've noticed, both among my students and some players I know, a poor technique that really inhibits their right hand strumming ability (for righties, left for lefties). What results is the player's hand gets fatigued very easily and quickly loses timing, especially with faster tempo songs. Unfortunately, most surf music is rather fast, so this can be very limiting.

After a little more observation, I've isolated the bad habit. Fortunately it is easily rectified with a little effort. I've found that they're resting the forearm on the body of the guitar, usually flat against the front. This locks the elbow, and only allows for flexibility at the wrist, which is what leads to the fatigue. The correction is to not lean against the guitar, but keep your arm completely away from the body. This way you can use the elbow in conjunction with the wrist and have far more freedom, as well as build up real momentum with your strumming.

Try a little air guitar to see, holding your arm against your stomach, pretend to strum, then hold it away and try. It's especially pronounced when you try to play a gallop rhythm.

One more tip, which I actually learned on this forum and has proven invaluable. Don't grip your pick too hard, you should hold it almost loose enough to drop it, almost! This really loosens up the muscles in your forearm and gives you further flexibility.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask further questions if you like.

Danny Snyder

"With great reverb comes great responsibility" - Uncle Leo

Playing keys and guitar with Combo Tezeta

Formerly a guitarist in The TomorrowMen and Meshugga Beach Party

Latest surf project - Now That's What I Call SURF

Last edited: May 02, 2013 19:45:53

My technique might be kinda sloppy. I wasn't even sure what I was doing until I thought about it, but I seem to alternate between resting my forearm on the body, my wrist on the bridge, or my middle and ring fingers on the pick guard. I guess this is done subconsciously to relieve fatigue when needed.

Mike
http://www.youtube.com/morphballio

Damn straight Danny. A lot of people hold the guitar with their forearm, they try to keep the guitar stationary with their arm. It just takes some practice at playing while standing and perhaps getting the strap in the right place.

I don't grip a pick hard, I don't chord hard, I don't make an effort to play aggresively(expect when I should) but damn do I ever get a ton of sound out of a guitar. It is something that comes eventually, just a very lax amount of tension in all of your muscles that creates a real efficiency and allows you to get a ton of strength into your playing but without the muscle fatigue.

Danny's points are well-taken and the argument for a relaxed pick grip makes sense. The only problem is that if I hold the pick "almost loose enough to drop it," I find that the pick has a tendency to move out of position in my hand - the pick rotates it seems. The only way I have found to keep that from happening is grip a bit harder. I am a lifelong finger style player so my pick skills are a work in progress and I have read everything I can find on the mechanics of using a pick. While a looser grip does seem to help with strumming (as long as I can keep the pick straight), I am still finding a tighter grip to help with tremolo picking. I also tend to make contact (while tremolo picking) with unplayed strings - either with my palm, the fingers on picking hand, or the edge of my hand - depending on which string I am playing. I'm using EJ Jazz III's and are pretty much set on them because I play a lot of hybrid style stuff. So that might be adding to strumming woes - but I feel that I need to learn to work with the eccentricities of using a small pick as a normal-sized pick feels unmanageable for much of what I play. Too bad Danny is on the other side of the country as I wonder if a few sessions with a teacher might help me gets the bugs out.

Regards
Ken

Last edited: May 03, 2013 09:57:03

Well, I wasn't planning on getting into trem picking here, as it's been covered countless times elsewhere, but I won't ignore your questions.

Noel, I think the arm on the guitar limits you no matter what you're trying to do. I use my pinky and/or ring finger as an anchor below the pickups. This also orients your hand in a better position.

Ken, all I can say is find the happy medium that works for you. Just be aware of the tension on your arm muscles, relaxed is better.

This excellent post by Ryan (aka Ruhar) perfectly illustrates good right hand positioning (the lower picture)

Ruhar wrote:

I also don't prefer super heavy picks for trem picking. For me, an ergo friendly way of holding the pick (some call it the 'jazz' grip) has helped my trem picking immensely. I used to have a very ham-fisted self-taught grip. I basically re-taught myself how to hold a pick a few years ago because I was getting such incredible hand pain from trem picking. Now, I can pretty much trem pick endlessly. It's the best thing I've ever done for my guitar playing...

I went from holding a pick kinda like this:
image

To something more like this:

While he appears to be holding his arm against the guitar, I think that he's just holding it really close but not anchoring it. Big difference. Look at his pick grip, his index finger forms an almost perfect half circle, that's what you want. Then by angling the pick almost perpendicular to the strings and anchoring your pinky to space your hand away from the guitar a bit, your arm naturally moves out from the guitar. Your thumb should be parallel with the strings or angled out a bit at this point. Angled out meaning the tip of the thumb is closer to the strings than the heel.

Hope this helps...

Danny Snyder

"With great reverb comes great responsibility" - Uncle Leo

Playing keys and guitar with Combo Tezeta

Formerly a guitarist in The TomorrowMen and Meshugga Beach Party

Latest surf project - Now That's What I Call SURF

Thanks, Danny. I think that part of my problem is that, over the past years, on the rare occasions I did use a pick, I tended to grip it with both my index and middle finger when strumming (obviously, I changed for hybrid stuff). So, I'm trying to break that habit as well. It's coming along. After reading your response, I would say that what I am doing is closer to "lightly touching" rather than "resting" my hand on the guitar. So maybe I'm on the right track and it's a matter of refinement.

thanks
Ken

Great tips Danny, thank you!

Paul

One of the most important lessons for me was "Don't strum and pick so hard!". Let your pickups and amp do the work. It really helps with "Popeye arm" when double picking.

I can't play this thing! It's got no whammy bar!

Noel wrote:

I also suffer from pick slip. I've given some thought to following Nokie Edwards and trying a thumb pick. I can grip it like a real pick when necessary or use it for open-handed strumming, and it leaves an extra finger free for finger-picking.

noel, i used to suffer from run away pick syndrome but it's not been an issue for years now. i don't hold the pick tightly and i also play with a light touch, probably to a fault.

www.surfintheeye.com

Danny, thanks for this - I knew the SG101 search engine would yield.

I'm just having a blast playing notes, making echo'y noises in the house (wife's terminology), focusing more on guitar than gear, BUT...

One of the things I've always wanted to work on was this aspect; your ability to recognize this & post it is much appreciated. After watching your clinic at the last convention during the Atlantics tribute I'm determined to get better. I figure if Jim Skiathitis and Ivan, Sr. can still truck along like that I should just take my old CO's advice and "Shut Up & Train!".

Thanks!

Wes
SoCal ex-pat with a snow shovel

DISCLAIMER: The above is opinion/suggestion only & should not be used for mission planning/navigation, tweaking of instruments, beverage selection, or wardrobe choices.

Last edited: Sep 07, 2014 08:00:29