Sometimes social media can actually be good. I saw an item on Facebook about the Molly Tuttle video and clicked through. I was instantly impressed.
I’ve been playing music for 20+ years, primarily a bass player (fingers, not pick) so when I started playing guitar I wasn’t much more than a strum bum. It’s only in the past 2-3 years that I’ve really started to develop my guitar playing. I recently moved from Denver to Durham, NC and I’ve started really working at the six-string with my primary efforts being on my right hand. I started guitar lessons and I’ve made some progress, and I’ve always been very interested/concerned with the right hand mechanics, but it’s been a slower go than I’d hoped.
I feel like my right hand is really holding me back in a lot of ways and I’m hoping to change that. My primary concern has been on accuracy (followed by fluidity). I always tend to hit more strings, or the wrong string, with my right hand than I what I want (or meant) to play. Speed would be nice, but really accuracy is my priority. I figure that speed will come once the mechanics are down.
A former bandmate recounted an interaction he had with the great Tony Rice years ago where he asked Rice about his right hand. Apparently, Rice told him that the pick should be held at a 30 degree angle (and to use a tortoise shell pick). I’ve thought a lot about this angle thing in the past year or so and just couldn’t wrap my head around the mechanics behind it. I’m hoping that this site will help with that!
Full disclosure, I’m not a shredder at all. I’m a Dead Head, primarily, and love jam bands, among a wide array of other styles (bluegrass, Americana, folk, country, rock, Celtic, blues, etc.). I play acoustic guitar; I have a Martin DRS-2, strung with extra light Martin SP strings (.10-.47). My current music project is called Squirrel Lever, and I’ve been on the look out for a lead player to cover for my limitations. But if I can get my right hand, well… right, then maybe I won’t need to. We’ll see how things go.