Hi Chris - I've been playing for almost 20 years and am noticing that I rotate between three anchoring techniques.1) laying my arm across the soundboard and resting my wrist above the low E string 2) resting my wrist on the bridge and my pinky on the pickguard 3) resting my pinky on the high E. The first one occurs when I play fingerstyle and negatively impacts the tone. The second and third are occurring when I play with a pick and seem to make the playing feel less fluid. With I abandon these techniques, I struggle with accuracy. Any recommendations for breaking these habits after so many years?
I'm going to get a little philosophical here because you are asking about changing deeply ingrained habits and that can be a tricky thing to do. So we're going to go a little outside the box.
I would first point out that there is nothing "right" or "wrong" about those various techniques, or any others. That said, they will each have an impact on the sound that you produce. Whether you are laying your arm across the sound board or resting your wrist on the bridge, these habits will reduce the resonance and power of the guitar because your arm and wrist are dampening the most resonant parts of the top. I think it's important to not think that this is "wrong." Instead I think that it's vitally important that you can take a detached, honest and impersonal assessment of what you are doing and what the results are.** In this way you are empowering your intuitive, unconscious self - the self that figured out how to walk and talk when you were a baby - to become engaged with the process. This is the only part of you that can actually make effective changes of this nature. Your conscious mind can't really direct you to play guitar any more than it can tell you how to walk. If you tried to micromanage and direct the very complex process of walking, you'd fall over in a matter of seconds. So it's important to realize that your conscious mind is not up to the task of making changes to your guitar technique. What it IS good for is shining the attention of your awareness on useful things.
By being detached and impersonal you are also disempowering the part of you that has an emotional stake in whether or not you are accomplishing what you are aiming for.
So with all of that being said, aside from dampening the top, I don’t actually know if those “bad” habits are bad. There’s nothing saying that your technique can’t change from application to application. I know I have certain things I do physically if I’m going for a certain sound versus another sound, even if I were going to play the same sequence of notes.
To wrap all of this up in practical terms, try focusing on what “feels” good rather than what sounds good for a little while. Strive to experience a sense of fluidity at the expense of clarity or timing or tone. Once you have felt that fluid sensation, slowly start considering your timing, cleanliness or tone again. Slowly bring them back in to your consciousness, but don’t forget how it felt to feel fluid. If you trust the process, over time you will begin to integrate them all.
-Chris
**I've talked a lot about cultivating awareness in many videos here at Sonic Junction - this detached assessment is what I'm talking about.
Hi Chris - I've been playing for almost 20 years and am noticing that I rotate between three anchoring techniques.1) laying my arm across the soundboard and resting my wrist above the low E string 2) resting my wrist on the bridge and my pinky on the pickguard 3) resting my pinky on the high E. The first one occurs when I play fingerstyle and negatively impacts the tone. The second and third are occurring when I play with a pick and seem to make the playing feel less fluid. With I abandon these techniques, I struggle with accuracy. Any recommendations for breaking these habits after so many years?
Thanks,
Greg
Hi Greg, good question.
I'm going to get a little philosophical here because you are asking about changing deeply ingrained habits and that can be a tricky thing to do. So we're going to go a little outside the box.
I would first point out that there is nothing "right" or "wrong" about those various techniques, or any others. That said, they will each have an impact on the sound that you produce. Whether you are laying your arm across the sound board or resting your wrist on the bridge, these habits will reduce the resonance and power of the guitar because your arm and wrist are dampening the most resonant parts of the top. I think it's important to not think that this is "wrong." Instead I think that it's vitally important that you can take a detached, honest and impersonal assessment of what you are doing and what the results are.** In this way you are empowering your intuitive, unconscious self - the self that figured out how to walk and talk when you were a baby - to become engaged with the process. This is the only part of you that can actually make effective changes of this nature. Your conscious mind can't really direct you to play guitar any more than it can tell you how to walk. If you tried to micromanage and direct the very complex process of walking, you'd fall over in a matter of seconds. So it's important to realize that your conscious mind is not up to the task of making changes to your guitar technique. What it IS good for is shining the attention of your awareness on useful things.
By being detached and impersonal you are also disempowering the part of you that has an emotional stake in whether or not you are accomplishing what you are aiming for.
So with all of that being said, aside from dampening the top, I don’t actually know if those “bad” habits are bad. There’s nothing saying that your technique can’t change from application to application. I know I have certain things I do physically if I’m going for a certain sound versus another sound, even if I were going to play the same sequence of notes.
To wrap all of this up in practical terms, try focusing on what “feels” good rather than what sounds good for a little while. Strive to experience a sense of fluidity at the expense of clarity or timing or tone. Once you have felt that fluid sensation, slowly start considering your timing, cleanliness or tone again. Slowly bring them back in to your consciousness, but don’t forget how it felt to feel fluid. If you trust the process, over time you will begin to integrate them all.
-Chris
**I've talked a lot about cultivating awareness in many videos here at Sonic Junction - this detached assessment is what I'm talking about.