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Guitar technique question

MrCam	Date: November 15, 2005 @ 10:59 PM I have been playing guitar now for about 8 months and just recently noticed that I have a tendancy to plant my pinky finger just below the e string to give the rest of my hand a bering when finger picking or picking individual strings. Is this ok or should I try not to do it? Thanx for any advice you can offer.
GeneHilbert	Date: November 15, 2005 @ 11:37 PM Doing that will restrict muscle movements - training them incorrectly. Anchor with you forearm not you hand. A little harder at first and you will weave and bob a little but you'll get use to it. Eventually you'll be moving around because of tonal differences in where you strike, stroke, pluck or pull the strings. Hand and finger anchors will hinder this development. Also a big improvement in posture, range, and breathing is achieved by placing the instruments body between you legs not on the side of your leg and twisting your upper body to it. This is a classical technique and will yield far superior results.
Bhairava	Date: November 16, 2005 @ 3:53 AM If you just play up a scale with your pinky rested on the guitar you'll notice that at a certain point playing up a scale you wont be able to play some notes as good as others. This is because resting your pinky on the guitar makes you play unevenly which isn't a good thing. Like GeneHilbert said take it off and just generally make sure you have enough space to move around without feeling constricted in anyway. The placement of the thumb behind the neck is important too. I have noticed that some people still rest their pinky across the top E string lightly I think I saw Petrucci do it. But I think this is more to do with muting it for a particular technique and he doesn't rest the weight of his hand on it.
chrismacmanus	Date: November 17, 2005 @ 5:52 AM I don't really see anything wrong with resting the little finger of your right hand on the high e string. Gene does have a point though - it is restrictive for certain styles of playing such as classical and more some more complicated folk picking patterns. However, you will find that most players will infact rest their little finger (and even their ring finger) on the estring when not picking it, or just below the sound hole. I had the chance to speak with one of my favourite blues and folk pickers Kelly Joe Phelps about his finger picking after a gig in Belfast and said he primarily uses his thumb, index and middle finger whilst anchoring the other two. However, I'm sure that for him to have reached his level of playing, he has most probably trained each finger on his right hand before settling with his current technique. Maybe you might like to learn a bit of classical to train your right hand, strengthening each finger as necessary. You can then use this to build on other finger picking styles and so long as you've got both nailed, you'll be fine. Personally, I generally do rest my little (and to a lesser extent my ring finger) on the guitar, but I find they're generally free to come into use when necessary. Keep at it and you'll find your style soon enough!
uk3220	Date: November 17, 2005 @ 10:27 AM DONT DO IT. BAD HABIT. There is a risk that u may also strike the string by accident. (Bum Note). Try resting it on the sound board for balance. This works well for most forms of music. But this technique is a no no in the classical circles. Check out Homespun Tapes or The Guitar Workshop websited for mor infor on this technique Good luck
Bhairava	Date: November 17, 2005 @ 11:52 AM I do think its just a bad habbit rather then a preference thing. It doesn't really help your playing much. My guitar teacher is really particular on hand posture and stuff and it took me a good month to be able to change over fully to the way he taught me. But I could play much better for it. I think people that teach themselves or have non-technical minded teachers probably do it. I've seen some people with what I'd call a dodgy technique that are pro players but I realised there are ways of getting around things. For instance with playing fast picking I saw Michael Angelo Batio do it and I thought no thats not right it looks awkward but he is blatantly an amazing player. Then when I saw him get to playing faster he just tightened up his hand and it was perfect and he played incredibly quickly. Then my teacher also said he saw someone sweep picking with moving their wrist following behind in kind of a tilted way and said it looked really awkward and unnecesary but they were playing just as quickly and accurately.
MrCam	Date: November 17, 2005 @ 5:52 PM Thanks to all of you for your advice. I have been trying not to plant the pinky so much, but i find if im trying to pick fast the finger just plants itself with out my consent or permission! Anyways thanks again for all your comments they are appreciated.
chrismacmanus	Date: November 17, 2005 @ 5:56 PM I would have to argue that it's not just a bad habit. I have learned to play classical using all fingers and am comfortable with resting my fingers on the guitar. Let's face it, classical isn't the be all and end all of guitar playing anyway. I've seen some of the greatest acoustic fingerstyle guitarists use an 'anchored' right hand technique, such as John Renbourn, Bert Jansch and as I've already mentioned, Kelly Joe Phelps do it. So unless your teacher is more technically proficient than any of those players, I would perhaps question them on that. It certainly does my playing no harm...
Bhairava	Date: November 18, 2005 @ 11:51 AM Its more for the picking hand that it matter I think. If you're picking quickly up and down the fretboard you can't do it.
chrismacmanus	Date: November 18, 2005 @ 1:42 PM The fingering hand?
edg	Date: December 15, 2005 @ 11:52 PM For picking with a pick, anchoring is BAD! HORRIBLE. That is, if you use it as a crutch. You MUST learn to pick with a floating hand. Its hard but worth the effort. After that rest to your hearts content, as the music calls for. You'll have a choice -- and for muting. Anchoring will kill your fluidity.
Bhairava	Date: December 16, 2005 @ 2:40 PM You sound like my guitar teacher.
Bhairava	Date: December 16, 2005 @ 2:43 PM My god I read your artists profile and you sound even more like my teacher. It took me around 2 months to stop anchoring my hand in everything I do. At first I found it difficult for about a month and after that I found it took another month to get used to playing my old stuff with it.
Bhairava	Date: December 16, 2005 @ 2:49 PM My god I'm at 7 mins into you're voodo chile cover. How on earth did you keep its so fresh all this time. I take my hat off to you sir. I think its a pretty extradinary cover I have to say.
edg	Date: December 18, 2005 @ 7:27 PM Hehe. Thanks. Not one of my better versions but it still came out decent I think. It's all 1 take. All in all, I think the Little Wing stuff I just posted is a bit better. I don't try and sound like a nagging teacher, but when I see posts saying its ok to anchor your hand, I just can't let that go... I used to play like that too. It wasn't until I learned how to do it right, that I really started making a lot of progress...
Bhairava	Date: December 19, 2005 @ 3:54 AM I'd agree with you. I keep my hand tight to stop myself anchoring it. Well I do it automatically now and its a method of stopping me anchoring that I kind of kept on. The thing is for some things anchoring doesn't matter as much mainly slow things however its still good practice not to do it. I was really strict on it until I saw pro's do it and I realised that they just tighten up when they play fast and play amazingly anyway.
pog	Date: December 19, 2005 @ 6:06 AM I think a lot of the finger exercises I learnt when starting out and to keep my fingers nimble tended to nip a lot of these habits at the bud. I suggest concentrating on finger exercises and warm up techniques are far more important than techniques when you are "cutting sick". Thats not to say that technique isn't important when you are practicing.
edg	Date: December 19, 2005 @ 7:31 AM The reason they play "amazingly fast anyway" is because they damn well know how to play without thier hand anchored. Playing vs practice. Entirely different things. It's not always a good idea to try and get technique tips from pros you see playing. When playing anything goes to get the note you want. Also, it's not exactly clear from watching which muscles they're using. There's a BIG difference between HAVING to anchor and CHOOSING to anchor.