Hey guys, I just wanted to share some very cool things that have helped me lately. I’ve alwsys heard people say the picking hand should be relaxed but have never truly processed this idea. I recently have been videoing my picking technique and it occurs to me that my right hand looks really tense. So I really concentrated on relaxing. Now on some of my inside picking riffs that come naturally I can totally relax and it feels really good. Then on other riffs I have to tense up to get though them. These riffs are usually sloppy and forced. So I have endeavored to stay relaxed all the time. What I have learned is I can really feel when there is a problem. So now instead of tensing up and powering through it with slop I slow down, stay relaxed, and try to feel what I am doing wrong. Troy has given us the tools to analyze our problems and this relax state of mind is really helping me feel my way through the problem areas. Instead of just repeating riffs for hours now it feels like a mental challenge to figure out how to smooth out my problem areas. Anyway, I’m not sure why this never occurred to me before but hopefully this will help someone.
I am starting to think that, in order to be relaxed, your hands have to be strong / well trained! Or in other words, you can be relaxed only if you are working well below your maximum possible effort.
Example with random numbers: if my maximum speed in a certain lick is about 200bpm (with all muscles working at their max), I can perhaps hope to play it relaxed at 170/180 bpm.
I’ve recently experienced that my picking hand really works better when they’ve been doing some kind of physically demanding activity before playing. It’s like the strings have less tension and the pick strokes slice through the strings really easily. I guess the contrast makes it less of an effort for the hand.
I’m not sure if I agree that you need to play below your maximum speed to be relaxed. But I guess it as to do with how you perceive your picking motion. For me, my maximum speed comes when doing EVH style rotation and that is totally effortless and relaxed, even when adding the left hand to the equation.
Nice, on the epiphany! Congrats, and thanks for sharing.
The transition between tension and release is where I’ve been encouraged to put my focus. I think that’s in keeping with what you said, and what Tommo might be bringing up too, about strength and training. Just the right amount of force, etc., rightly applied and then release. Easier to be on the tense side, so progressive relaxation and analysis of the tension points seems like the shortest path to the happy medium, at least for folks that have been “trying hard” for ages. Cheers.
It may be that trying to stay super relaxed all the time is not realistic. It does really help as a learning tool though. If I try a pattern I am struggling to get smooth, using a relaxed state I can really feel where the pick is catching on unintended strings. I’m thinking once I correct my movement I should be able to eventually stay relaxed on the pattern. Anyway, I think another part of this is I had a really good day on guitar yesterday and this understanding came to me as a result. Will be interesting to see if it helps with more time.