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Guitar Right hand technique help.


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I have been playing like this over many years, so much so that this feels comfortable and when i try to correct it my right hand starts to pain. 
I really just came to know that i was playing wrong when I was having a hard time muting strings. How do i correct this. As you can see my whole hand rests on the bottom and then it curves up and I extend my fingers to play. 
any help appreciated

Thanks!

DB77ACB5-7B3A-4BAB-8F0E-62097FBCB223.jpeg

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Try extending your pinky and ring finger to rest on the body rather than the knuckles of your right hand. That should help to flatten out your wrist.

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About that:

1. The nails doesn’t let it stay and hand keeps on slipping and eventually gets tense. 
 

2. I’ve been playing 2+ years like this so how do I “unlearn” and learn again efficiently 

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Your wrist seems to be bent too much. My wrist is almost straight when playing with most movement coming from my arm; not my wrist. I noticed my pinky and ring finger glide over the top of the guitar when my strumming is smoothest. I palm mute a lot and I don't think it is possible with your wrist bent at an angle. Steve Krenz has some tips in one of the early lessons.  

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As suggested to use your pinky to touch the top of the guitar (or it hooks on the High E, pinky moves to body as you get to High E and back to string when you get near Low E)

This is good for single note picking and you'll know where your pick is.

But not much help in strumming , but as Randy said strumming comes from arm not wrist

"Nails keep slipping and hand gets tense "

Remember you're picking/strumming hand moves alot, you're not anchoring the hand still, that it can't move.

The anchored pinky is for single notes and knowing where the pick is on which string.

As Steve says, "strumming is like flicking water off your hand"

Edited by Eracer_Team-DougH
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First off, that's an ingenious adaptation twisting your hand like that. :-)

With any change in a motor skill, incremental change often proves most effective. When I started learning with L & M (as a total beginner) my pinky was sore due to how much I was leaning on the guitar. I relieved this by using the next finger as well. I gradually began using the fingers on the guitar as a reference rather than a place to rest my hand, so now the pinky is fine.

Try resting the pad of your pinkie on the guitar rather than the tip to avoid slippage.

When I'm learning one of these positions I constantly return to watching Steve playing in the videos. The most challenging and most watched positions so far are the barre chord lessons. Hand and finger positioning is so subtle and important to avoiding hand and arm strain. Steve obviously had a great teacher and his technique is the best I've seen so far. It just makes sense.

Good Luck!

 

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Thanks everyone!

i have no problem with strumming, only with picking. I will try out your suggestions and see how it goes!

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Check out the Flatpicking Guitar website, they have several books, especially by Brad Davis and Tim May.  

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AK0693

I got to the soloing lesson in GL&M and felt like my right hand technique was getting smoother but I was still stumbling with string jumping, palm muting, pull offs, etc.  I bought a book that I really like that talks about fundamentals and gives lots of exercises to help with right hand technique...Amazon "The Serious Guitarist - Right Hand Picking:  A Technique-Building Approach for the Dedicated Guitarist.  He (Mark Burgess) speaks to economy of motion, alternate picking, string jumping, holding the pick, not supporting the hand, etc.  The exercises force you to develop memory of where the strings are and the economy of motion keeps you where you need for picking specific strings...I like it, not a gimme, lots of practice to get there but I believe it has made me much faster, much more fluid, etc.  A secondary benefit has been my fast strumming, with all the work on holding and using the pick, I've gained a lot more control of the pick when strumming fast, ability to keep the pick where I want it when strumming, and recognizing some of the concepts Steve gave in GL&M that I didn't get when learning strumming...like holding the pick firmly without tensing up.  I've almost got Touch of Gray dialed in for the looper, and I intend to go after Mark's Left Hand technique book next.  

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