- We've covered some aspects of the posture,
which basically opens the idea,
opens the discussion, if you will,
of how we actually engage with the instrument.
We will always want to know that we're
creating good ways to move, creating good habits
that allow the body to move naturally.
So we're going to dive into some specifics here,
with both arms and how we actually hold the pick here.
All in the interest of creating good habits.
As we develop here, a lot of this is where a lot of people
will have to maybe relearn some things,
or think about developing a way to move.
And part of that development process
is sort of starting out a little conscious.
Some of this may feel conscious,
you may be over-aware of this.
But that's all part of the process,
and part of the good things about,
or, one of the good things about video exchange
is that I can watch you play,
we can watch each other develop, basically,
and we can notice and be aware of those steps along the way,
where these concepts of movement become
a little more unconscious, that's ultimately the goal here.
That helps us define and hear
exactly what we're listening for,
and reach those goals of flow,
which is making the most consistent tone,
in the most consistent way possible.
Literally looking at movement
of the first note of a song, to the last note of the song,
and how to carry the picking all through that
in a consistent, settled manner, so.
We'll first start with the right arm.
Most of us are right handed, so we start,
you know, we call this, you know, right arm technique.
Picking arm technique is a little more generalized,
if you're left handed.
And just, again, with this discussion of terminology,
most people will refer to this
as simply right hand technique.
That's what we hear this referred to most of the time.
Trying to think a little more about
how our own bodies are engaged naturally.
I really like this idea of arm technique,
because it really starts as, you know,
our arms leave our shoulders.
Shoulders are involved, we talked about posture
with the core and settled shoulders.
That really sets up the best possible opportunity
for the arm to move in a good, consistent way.
And it's also, the arm is really where we make
our initial connection with the guitar.
A lot of us really think, maybe even think
too much about what we're doing with the pick,
and where the pick is, and all this kind of thing like that.
If the arm is in a good position,
the pick has more of a chance to be in a good position,
and mainly, in the interest of flow,
stay in a good position.
And so let's look at, we got a relaxed shoulder here.
We don't want to be aware of
too much tension there, and trying to hold.
We talked about where the elbow is, and this is where
we make our first connection with the instrument.
And so if our core is settled, if our shoulder is settled,
we recognize some good opportunities for the elbow here.
And I should also say here as well,
that we listen, or we allow for,
you know, different size guitars,
different size arms, different size people.
And so these are, you know, more or less,
look at these as guidelines, these are consistent guidelines
that can work for you.
But what looks and feels the most natural to me
may look and feel slightly different to you,
so we try to allow for that.
But the thing about the elbow on the guitar
is that we want to be aware that, again,
we're not too slouched, and not leaning too much
one way or the other,
that the elbow, mainly the underside of the elbow here,
is resting on this, this bout of the guitar,
that we're not too far back to sort of slide this way,
or too far forward to slide this way.
And we also want to feel like we're gripping the guitar.
We want to find this natural, and hopefully
sort of just right amount of balance
that allows this hinge to happen.
This is one of the first components
of solid arm technique here,
is allowing things to move naturally.
And we want to allow that hinge to be part.
If you notice, if you just sort of engage
in a little strum action here,
not even connecting with the strings yet,
just look at how that elbow moves.
And also look, how the upper arm moves as part of that.
We want to allow that movement to happen,
and one of the reasons for not gripping,
and not hugging the guitar too much
is that it removes that natural feel
of the elbow hinging, and creates that tension.
You can kind of experiment with that back and forth.
But again, the key sort of guideline here
is that we're allowing that hinge, okay.
When we get into faster flatpicking, especially,
we don't need that full range of motion.
But we also don't want to shut that down.
Shutting it down is tension, all right.
So that leads from the elbow down
into some concepts of the forearm, here.
The forearm is what's going to move the most
based on the elbow hinge.
But another natural opportunity for the forearm
is this idea of rotation, okay, the twist of the forearm.
When you're putting a key into a door,
that rotation in those muscles that are used
to sort of, you know, turn the key,
those are important muscles, and an important movement
to allow as we play.
One of the key things about rotation of the forearm
is that's really where a lot
of our accuracy comes with the strings.
You can see the hinge sort of moves the pick up and down,
over the strings, the rotation is what we use
to actually sort of drive the pick into the strings.
And that's the, concerning the muscles and the movement
of that opportunity, that's where we get a lot of tone.
I promise you, as we get into how the pick
actually engages with the string,
just the fact that we're allowing that to happen
is going to ensure great fundamental tone here, okay.
So, forearm is part of that hinge,
but also allows that rotation, as we move.
That carries us up to the wrist.
Wrist is sort of where a lot of these ideas
sort of, you know, basically meet here.
A lot of this energy, and the ideas,
and these guidelines for the wrist and elbow
are sort of made manifest in the wrist.
We create a lot of tension in the wrist, a lot of times.
Again, with this idea, the bad habit of holding the guitar,
thinking we've got to hug this instrument,
a lot of times creates this negative habit
of keeping the wrist flat, or even touching the bridge pins.
And notice what that does to our ability
to hinge at the elbow.
I can hinge at the wrist, but if I'm hugging the guitar,
pushing on the bridge pins, I remove that ability
for the elbow to hinge as naturally as it can
when I'm not touching the guitar like that.
So that's a big deal, it's a big,
it's a bad habit that I see a lot.
And it's, you know, generally sort of conventional thought
to keep the pick closer to the strings.
A lot of times when we think we want to play faster,
we want to think a little too much about the pick,
and get a little close, and so we create that tension.
And part of this fundamental chat here
is just to get this conversation started,
to look at these guidelines of how to engage in this way,
to think about arm technique, and allowing
the most and best possible movement for the arm.
So again, if we can keep this wrist moving,
one of the things we notice as we hinge at the elbow,
if we, if we're not hugging the guitar,
the wrist is going to more or less break a little bit.
That angle of the wrist is a big deal.
Imagine now, we've got the rotation,
and the hinge working at the wrist,
the rotation of the forearm, and so, that leads to the hand.
We're going to get a little more specific
in, you know, the hand and the fingers of the hand
when we talk about the actual pick grip.
But just thinking, as these guidelines here for the arm,
once that angle is established at the wrist,
and this again, where what I see may be slightly different
than what you see from my perspective here,
but we always want to look down.
One of the things we notice is
how the forearm is engaged now.
And we start, you know, moving our awareness
down towards the strings here.
Keeping that elbow hinged and moving,
we know we need to allow for some angle at the wrist here,
to get the pick towards the strings.
That angle is a very important part of this.
If I continue to try to hug the guitar,
notice how that prevents my elbow from hinging naturally.
Okay, this is one of the first steps
where we can see how tension can get in the way
where we prevent certain movement,
and we want to allow that movement.
We want to allow for that space underneath the wrist,
that space between the bridge pins and the wrist.
If I'm hugging, one of the things we'll notice
when we start actually making notes
and thinking more about the pick grip and the hand,
this actually decreases your tone.
You'll always hear a difference and a betterment in tone
when there's a little space underneath the bridge,
because that not only provides
more opportunity for the elbow to hinge,
when these bigger muscles are involved,
that more or less drives the pick through the strings
in a better way, where this angle of the wrist
encourages, as I move and involve this rotation,
that I'm driving with the arm,
driving the pick through the strings.
I'm using bigger muscles, you know,
involved here with the main picking technique.
So again, a great example of arm technique
versus just hand technique, okay.
The more we can think about that, the more we can develop
with those kind of guidelines in mind,
the more we're apt to create the best tone possible.
And when the movement is more settled and natural,
we create this more opportunity for flow,
which is being able to maintain that tone
as we play a song.
A big component here is that space underneath the wrist,
that angle at the wrist.
We look at a lot of sort of strums and scale exercises here,
which is basically rhythm and single note,
and understanding this idea of adapting
what we feel about that full arm movement,
adapting more of that into our flatpicking.
And the bottom line here is,
the more we can adapt that into flatpicking,
the more we do create the best possible sound we can make,
and also create more opportunity for ourselves
to maintain that tone.
Again, this idea of flow is all about
establishing the best move and the best sound,
and maintaining that sound as we play,
as we travel through these songs,
as we learn to challenge this movement
with speed, with different sort of, you know,
embellishments and things like that.
String changing, cross picking,
whatever it might be, whatever the challenge is,
we're always looking to be aware
of what that essential movement feels like.
And so as we develop that, again, like I said earlier,
some of this is going to feel real conscious at first,
and that's okay, that's part of development.
As the more you work on this, and again,
with video submissions, we can sort of make sure
it doesn't get, you know,
you don't revert back to some bad habits,
and we keep these good habits developing.
You'll hear your sound better, I promise you.
This is a way to make everything
that's already in your repertoire just sound better.
And again, we're looking at a way to move around the guitar
that's natural, that allows the arm to be engaged,
where we learn to negotiate tension, and you know,
and increase, give us the best opportunity
for the best sound possible.