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Title: Right and Left Hand Technique - IV
Level: Beginner
Style: Techniq
Instructor: Tim Fullerton
PART IV -- Right hand position
This series is the approach that I use to teach pick-style
technique to all of my students. For best results, take these
articles to an educated and experienced teacher who is stylistically
broad based and who knows this approach, so that (s)he may coach you.
**Disclaimer**
This approach is to attain the maximum possible cleanliness and
articulateness in ones tone. Also, it will give, ultimately, the
greatest speed with the least health risk. I am careful never to say
that it is the CORRECT way to play. There is no such thing, and many
people do great things with really sloppy technique. Wherever
possible, though, I will indicate the exact benefits of each
technique.
If you are left handed, please excuse my right-handed bias, and
reverse all of the relevant direction and hand indications.
F) Overall position
If you have set up the guitar position as in lesson I, your right
forearm should be making an angle of about 160 degrees with the strings.
That is as it should be. Furthermore, one could even position one's
forearm so that it is parallel to those strings, extending from them.
The thing to avoid is having the guitar low, with your right forearm
perpendicular to the strings.
This enables one to the pick set up as follows.
G) The Pick
Only a very small portion of the pick should extend -- a millimeter
or less. The flat of the pick should be parallel to the strings, and the
pick itself should be perpendicular to the guitar.
One common mistake...people usually try to adjust this by angling
differently at their wrist. That is unnecessary. The wrist should stay
straight. All pick adjustments can be made by placing it at a different
point on the fingertip.
BENEFITS:
This reduces pick noise. Many people are inclined to have the pick
angled because it produces less friction, and seems faster. The
problem, though, is that any angle increases the noise produced as
the pick scrapes across the string. If one does play fast with this
angle, the scraping noise buries the actual tones.
EXCEPTIONS:
Sometimes the noise sounds cool. For example, the beginning of
_Hoardes of Locusts_ by Satriani, or an accented blues articulation...
H) Alternate Picking
Alternate picking is the alternation of downstrokes with upstrokes.
Use it!
Do that exercise presented in previous lessons like this:
d = Downstroke, u = upstroke
Ascending:
d u d u d u d u d u d u d u d u d u d u d u d u
E|-----------------------------------------1-2-3-4--|
B|---------------------------------1-2-3-4----------|
G|-------------------------1-2-3-4------------------|
D|-----------------1-2-3-4--------------------------|
A|---------1-2-3-4----------------------------------|
E|-1-2-3-4------------------------------------------|...etc
Descending:
d u d u d u d u d u d u d u d u d u d u
E|-5-4-3-2-----------------------------------------|
B|---------5-4-3-2---------------------------------|
G|-----------------5-4-3-2-------------------------|
D|-------------------------5-4-3-2-----------------|
A|---------------------------------5-4-3-2---------|
E|-----------------------------------------5-4-3-2-|
Be very careful descending. People who are uncomfortable with
alternate picking generally reverse their picking pattern to:
d u d u u d u d u d u d u d u d u d u etc...
E|-5-4-3-2-----------------------------------------|
B|---------5-4-3-2---------------------------------|
G|-----------------5-4-3-2-------------------------|
D|-------------------------5-4-3-2-----------------|
A|---------------------------------5-4-3-2---------|
E|-----------------------------------------5-4-3-2-|
because an upstroke to a lower string requires traveling less distance.
Avoid this!
BENEFITS:
The most obvious -- one has the potential for playing twice as fast
with alternate picking than one does with just downstrokes.
The reason to be rigorous about the pattern is to produce a
more musical pattern of accents. A downstroke naturally produces a
little heavier accent than an upstroke. You CAN modify this
deliberately, so that your upstrokes are heavier, but this is not what
will come out naturally.
Now, there is a pretty predictable pattern of accents in the
rhythms of just about everything you will play. Take something in
4/4 time. The BEATS 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 in any measure will take the accents
HARD - SOFT - MEDIUM - SOFT respectively. That would be efficiently
executed with Down - up - down - up.
Imagine subdividing that measure into eighth notes....
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
is accented HARD SOFT MEDIUM SOFT HARD SOFT MEDIUM SOFT
and picked down up down up down up down up
sixteenth notes?...
1 a & a 2 a & a
HARD SOFT MEDIUM SOFT HARD SOFT MEDIUM SOFT
down up down up down up down up
triplets?
1 & a 2 & a
HARD SOFT SOFT MED SOFT SOFT
down up down up down up or...
down up down down up down
EXCEPTIONS:
Since downstrokes and upstrokes sound different, sometimes one
will want that sound. Fifties Rock, for example, is most
convincingly executed with downstrokes only.
In some Rock and Fusion styles, "economy" or "sweep" picking is
appropriate. This is where one always downstrokes to a higher string,
or upstrokes to a lower string. It is easier to develop speed this
way. Unfortunately, the accents flatten out, and the passage just
sounds fast and picked. Time permitting, I will go into sweep picking
in greater detail in other lessons.
Class Assignment:
Do the pseudo-chromatic exercise from Lesson II with the following
criteria:
A) Guitar Position (see part I)
B)1. Left Hand Thumb Position and range of motion (midline [G
string] to edge... see lesson II)
2. Left Hand Thumb Pressure (NONE! PERIOD! again, see lesson II)
C) Left hand wrist. (straight as a ruler, palm away from the neck...
again, lesson II)
D) Left hand wrist. (parallel to the underside of the neck... lesson III)
E) Finger placement. (close to the neck... lesson III)
F) Overall position of right forearm.
G) The pick, angled for the least noise
H) Alternate Pick
RELAX RELAX RELAX
more to come...
copyright 1993 by Tim Fullerton. Used by permission.
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FUTURE LESSONS
--------------
No Name Style Level Instructor
16 Major Triad - Part 2 Theory I Roger Brotherhood
17 Good Right and Left Hand Techn Technique I Tim Fullerton
18 The Modes part II Theory I David Good
19 Good Right and Left hand Techn Technique I Tim Fullerton
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