Arpeggiating chords

Playing Technique
#1

Hello all,

I have some issues with simply arpeggiating chords. What I had beed doing, was resting my picking hands little finger on the pickup or body of the guitar as a sort of reference point. But I have noticed that when i do this, the ring finger will often hit strings and stop them ringing out. It seems to me to be very difficult to keep the ring finger from muting strings.
So, I was wondering would it be best to try practice arpeggiating chords while floating the picking hand, so that only the arm in in contact with the guitar and the pick hitting the strings. I was trying this today and it’s going to take some getting used to.
Arpeggiating chords quickly is something I do a lot in my own music so it’s important for me to find a good way to do this.
Any advice greatly appreciated as always!

1 Like
#2

Hey @jptk, I can think of three relevant players that Troy has interviewed.

Carl Miner uses a pinky anchor and closes the remaining fingers:

David Grier picks pretty close to the bridge, also with a closed fist:

And also Molly Tuttle does something similar:

#3

Hey thanks for the response and links to the videos.
I find that anchoring the pinky for me may not be the best option although clearly it can be done.
Maybe I should try what David Grier is doing. I can’t tell if he is resting on the bridge or not but I can’t rest on the bridge on my main guitar as it floats. So what I would be trying to do essentially would be similar to what he is doing, with the closed fist, but not resting on the bridge. Is this something that is doable or should I try something else? Thanks again!

#4

To be honest I don’t know because I never tried to play like this! But why not give it a shot and let us know if it works! We’re all still learning as we go along :slight_smile:

#5

Thanks for the response again.
I may give it a try, but having looked at those videos, perhaps resting on the bridge may be the way to go. I don’t actually use my tremolo arm at all so can set it up so that it doesn’t move and my other guitars bridges don’t float so I might just make life a little easier on myself and try copy these guys! Molly’s right hand is terrifying lol, she’s a monster!