A few quick questions?

Forums Guitars, Gear, Software & Education A few quick questions?

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    I have encountered a few issues while practicing lately and made a video asking about it on youtube. My basic questions include: how do you relax while doing a closed handed picking grip like Paul Gilbert? I always get cramps in my pinkey finger while I play, I try to relax but it hasn’t improved. I’m also having issues with the volume knob on Strats. I love my strats and do not want to move the knob, so how does one adapt their technique to slove this issue? Finally, I have been doing picking workouts and working on my right hand alternate picking for about 4 hours each day, but I do not see any improvement….What am I not doing right and how can I improve? Here is the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EJ9-fYNH2g

    Any and all help or comments are appreciated. Thanks so much guys!

    Blayze

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    Ronnie Bush
    Member

    hey man, first and foremost, anytime you are practicing a new technique you should have a metronome. It keeps you honest with timing as well as giving you goals for speed and efficiency. 2 For Paul gilbert style speed and articulation, the right hand is going to need to be stationary. He actually does a tutorial on proper setup/ergos for speed mechanics. His ideal setup is basically to do a karate chop across the point wher the strings meet the saddles and then lay your hand over the bridge pickup. You descend strings by bending the thumb knuckle and ascend by extending the thumb knuckle. Relaxed in this position the pick should fall between the D and G strings, but where your hand touches the bridge should never move.3 I would probably steer clear of the thumb picks as they will take away from a lot of dynamic possibilities, just get a big stubbie 3mm and rip,as I can see no advantage of the bumblebee.4 The stationary hand trick will eliminate the volume knob issue, and you can go a step further by anchoring your pinky on the pickguard just in front of the knob.
    Hope that helps Ronnie

    Ronnies points are all excellent. Another thing I notice in your video is that you do not mute strings particularly with your right hand, rather you seem to let your hand float freely above the bridge, and that movement is then enlarged when moving toward the higher string. This position would definitely not help in relaxing you hand, or getting a clean, exact technique. If you check Gilbert a bit closer, you will see that his palm is always resting on the string he is not playing, only allowing a string at the time to ring out (the strings above the string being played is muted by the index finger of the left hand, as you play). One thing that I find that SO many guitar players do is that they practice a lot with a clean tone, since they are under the illusion that this help them get a “cleaner” tech, The opposite is true, although you will have to play a bit harder, and have a stringer left hand tech when playing with a clean tone, you will never learn to mute unwanted strings properly this way. Anything that is ultimately supposed to be played at hi-gain should be practiced thusly. Then and only then will your technique be geared towards, and honed to perfection for this use.
    EDIT: I should add that this is even more true for practicing for example tapping and stringskipping stuff where muting unplayed strings are of key importance.

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