Is this a common technique that I just never realized?

Playing Technique
#1

So since using CTC I’ve been experimenting with a lot of new approaches. My DWPS has improved a ton for example.

But one thing though that I never thought about is how to anchor my hand vs moving the arm when DWPS. I suppose this could work for UWPS as well.

Basically I always struggled with the low 5th and 6th string as I would have no reference point. So I’d always anchor my pinky on the pick guard.

Can’t remember if it was the frank gambale interview or on this message board, but basically for the top 4 strings I use the inner part of my thumb resting on the lower strings. Now I’ve been experimenting with when using the lower 5th and 6th strings to anchor on the higher strings (e b g , sometimes d) with the side of my hand below. This way, I always have a reference point against the strings themselves, as opposed to bringing the arm higher and either hoping for the best or sometimes anchording with my pinky on the pick guard.

Still feels uncomfortable but I think if I can make it intiluitive at some point it will give me soooo much more control. Do any well know players use this, or is this more common than I thought?

Also, I believe I can do this supinated, although from audience perspective may look pronated. Is this true and possible?

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#2

It seems to me Andy Wood talks about something similar, but I’m not 100% sure. I’m sure I’ve heard people talk about that general idea of resting on the low strings while playing high strings and resting on the high strings while playing low strings. I think Rusty Cooley talks about this too.

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#3

Not totally following but are you asking about whether you should have two different anchor points depending on the strings you’re playing on? In general that doesn’t sound familiar and shouldn’t really be necessary.

In general, you can have the same or very similar hand position across all six strings. If you play with your fingers out, and you’re using dwps, here’s a representative example that covers all six strings:

You can see my hand rests on the bridge the entire time, and the position / orientation doesn’t really change much at all. The arm slides a small amount and that’s really all there is. There’s a lot less movement and change here than you would think considering the distance that is being covered.

If you’re a fingers up type player, same story. Here’s Andy Wood playing a uwps phrase but the form is similar:

You can see Andy rests on the bridge the entire time and most of the tracking is coming from the wrist along with the picking motion. You could also do less wrist tracking and more arm tracking but the result would be similar - you could rest on the bridge the entire time and get all six strings with just a little arm movement.