Keeping the picking arm still

On some days, days like today, I have real trouble keeping my arm still, which obviously creates consistency issues. By this I mean that the arm adds an unwarranted rotation movement, and also jiggles around a bit. Has anyone had this problem, and solved it, or at least found ways to minimise extraneous arm movement?

1 Like

I don’t know if it’s the same issue I have.

I had to overcome string muting issues, for example playing two string arpeggios on the E & B strings, I had to train myself to be conscious of muting the other strings all the way to the low E string.

This involved properly resting and posing my hand on the bridge, maybe this will help you if you’re not already resting or lightly anchoring it.

I have thick fleshy palms, not sure if that’s a good thing or not, but I guess I got em’ work for me now.

I had the same issue and I solved it by practising a three string roll on the fourth, third, and second strings, down, up, down, up, down with cross picking on opening strings. I watched my hand and arm in a mirror and by staring at the top of my arm where it meets the wrist I could see every time it rotated and could then stop doing it. Then I moved onto single escape picking with the stable wrist across three strings.

Ok I tried that - unfortunately, it didn’t work. I’ve also tried

  • anchoring the hand on the bridge
  • anchoring the arm on the body
  • tensing up my arm

Nothing seems to be working. Here’s a vid to illustrate what I mean. It’s hard to see in the vid but when I do the chuggy stuff, it causes my whole guitar to shake