how important do you think it is to have a straight or straighter thumb? in relation to AO’s pick holding video
maybe @guitarenthusiast can chime in on straight vs bent thumb from AO’s perspective?
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Again, if your talking about the get out of my yard instructional, what he shows and what he does at high speeds are two different things. He doesn’t have nearly as steep of an angle as he shows in practice. Especially during that era when he used standard round Dunlop .60’s. If he did, you wouldn’t hear a distinct picked note, it would just sound like a scratch.
I’m not too familiar with AO to be honest, but if you take a look at Paul especially if you look at the second freeze of the video Joe posted, his thumb is in a neutral relaxed position. It’s not purposely bent. The angle of his arm and hand to the guitar body is what is causing his pick angle. I would suspect AO does similar. I think it’s important to have a relaxed thumb, and not something you are purposely squeezing or bending rigidly to get an angle, or trying to contort in some way. At least that’s my .02
this is the video
Yeah at the end of the video, he appears to have a very aggressive pick attack with a rigid grip.
Also in this
I’ll check them out later tonight after work. But is this how you think he always plays non stop or is this just an over exaggeration like PG does in GOOMY to highlight his point and general idea he’s trying to make? I would be willing to bet both are much more nuanced in practice and he’s really trying to convey what he sees as a sort of Goldie locks zone. I saw that one video he posted about comparing his escape to the PG swipe, playing the famous pg lick, and in that he certainly didn’t look that ridged playing at faster tempos. So I’m willing to bet it’s also very contextual.
Also if you look at the still, he doesn’t have a super steep pick angle either, and his thumb isn’t super cocked.
thats what ive been trying to experiment with is does it matter with a straight thumb vs bent because for me it is easier to have a bent thumb like Andy Wood.
I’m not sure Andy is purposely bending his thumb back either or putting it in any fixed position other than neutral, that may be just what it naturally does or looks like - the geometry of his hands. I think for him that may be neutral where as some of us would have a natural bend at the knuckle joint as a neutral point and would look closer to Paul’s or Anton’s.
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thats great news if that’s the case!
If I were to sum this all up, I would be very cautious about relying solely on certain visual queues for any of this. There are very important tactile references that simply cannot be conveyed this way, and are equally as important.
Important tactile references Like what?
Any subtle or not so subtle thing that influences how hitting the strings actually feels when you do it. Going by looks alone cannot convey this or how the individual you are trying to copy experiences it. It’s a multi dimensional issue than just making sure you have it looking right and it’s personal.
Idk about that. There are some experienced members here who used imitations as a means of producing similar results with success. Obviously trying to
Mirror a YouTube video can only take you so far but i think it helps alot
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I think the thing to be careful with is, trying to keep in mind the movement you’re looking at mirroring may not work because of missing information - so don’t dwell on it too much. Try adding it in, if it doesn’t work, unless you can think of a logical reason why you might need to develop it anyway, it might not be that important.
With Anton, I think he’s pretty clear, the grip is important because it limits how much the pick is wiggling, but there can be more than one way to do that. The middle finger reenforcing the index finger is important because it gives more stability to the picking motion. Those are the key points.
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Not sure if this is helpful information, but I’ve found that with different pick types, sharp ones, rounded flexible ones etc, will affect whether my thumb is bent or more neutral.
As mentioned already, it’ll be a case of just trying and feeling/hearing/seeing what the difference is.
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That’s the point exactly. It may help to get the general idea, but there’s a lot of other information you are not going to get from it. There’s also a lot of nuances you can’t hear from a yt vid either.
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The vibe I got from him was, “how do I keep it as stable as I want it, without having to use a lot of pressure and grip strength/tension to do it”. To a degree this is somewhat of a personal preference as well, and like you said not the only way to hold the pick to get a pretty hefty attack, which honestly can be pretty nuanced too.
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Kind of interesting - this video is cool because you get some shots that show the palm anchoring position pretty clearly and I think his technique is pretty close to Paul’s. You have to ignore some of the explanation, I’m not sure the finger movement is really much benefit (could be wrong), definitely not required for the runs.
What I found interesting was - I try to anchor on the bony part of the pinky side of the palm, almost on a pivot, but he’s pulling the side of the hand way up past that. Playing around with it, kind feels like leaning the body of the guitar back a bit and keeping the forearm resting on the top/front of the body to pull some away from the hand/palm so it’s resting a bit more loosely allows me to do that, not totally sure yet.
Go to about 1:55 to see a great right hand close up ! @cmcgee11235 you can hear he kind of flubs the low E notes but it’s barely noticeable
That’s the exact place in the video I linked to in the OP. I’m wondering if there’s a video of him playing scarified or technical difficulties since he’s played live with Paul.
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