I had seen in a vid where you said having your fingers curled like that was the @Troy recommended grip.
Did he mean permanently or was it just for demonstration purposes.
Without a doubt that this looks and sounds like the smoothest and fastest that you have played. It even looks a lot more relaxed…
@qwertygitarr is completely right on this… i’m quite excited to see what you can do with this mechanic
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Here is me playing a 16th not single string lick on the G string and again on the D string.
Getting the picking hand flattened is the challenge. Internal forearm rotation gets the hand flatter but pops the elbow out, causing pain in my R shoulder.
My knuckles hit the strings, volume knob, and base of the bar. This makes RH muting possible only by moving the hand towards the neck but that results in a bad muting sound, more like a sizzle. I desire to have the blade of the hand where the strings meet the saddles.
Does the picking hand need to be flattened??
I’m not sure why you would want the guitar way out in front - surely your arm would be at an impossible angle and your shoulder would pop out even more? Also, rotating my forearm seems to have no noticable effect on my shoulder, are you sure that you are not moving/tensing it?
I’m going against Troy’s wisdom on the whole curled and flat fingers - I don’t think that this is a 100% requirement- more a guidline. I slightly curl and touch (but not anchor in my opinion) the guitar body - the fingers just hang. That being said, the volume knob on my guitar is not near the string - No. 1 reason for not owning a strat and not playing my Ibanez RG
If I have the guitar more out in front of me, wouldnt that cause my shoulder to pop out eve more? Yes, but only because the guitar body will be in the way. If that can be redesigned, it should allow my shoulder to rest comfortably as my hand is flattened.
Here’s how that works, along with some ideas of how I would like to redesign the guitar.
Have you thought about getting something like a Flying V?
Interestingly enough, I’ve had the same experience and been thinking the same thing as you’re describing in the video. The last few days where I’ve been playing that silly ass acoustic in the video above, I realised that the angle of the arm really changes the feel for the better.
Interesting video. I can’t say that I totally get where you are coming from as you are talking about a drastic redesign that is hard to imagine and obviously I can’t feel what you feel. I don’t understand how the you plan to solve the shoulder issue by creating a guitar that would possibly make that a bigger problem?
Have you thought about getting a guitar stand to test different guitar angles/heights? Like the one Clause Levin uses?
Anyway, my most important question is about your wrist. You say that you want your wrist to be flat - can you play well with a flat wrist? Is that your most effective picking mechanic? If not, then pursuing it may not be worth it…
The knuckles tucked in with the palm flat feels weird. However, I actually think its a more effective picking mechanic, allowing me to play faster. It’s rough now, but I think in time, I’ll get it.
The main problems are
- my fingertips & knuckles hit the strings, causing errors and occasional noise
- controls are in the way (volume knob and pickup switch and whammy bar base)
Uploading a video…
Thanks for the video, I can understand shaving the top part of the guitar will probably help (more than pushing the guitar forward). I play a Musicman JP6 which has a contoured cut-away at that fulcrum point. Maybe you could try getting a cheap/secondhand ibanez and go to town cutting and sanding that sort of shape. Or if your local guitar shops sell a jp6, go and try it out- it will give an indication of potential benefit…
That armrest looks like it gives you maybe 2 cm – probably more than my Ibanez but not more than an extra 1cm.
But how do you curl your knuckles in and hit the strings when playing?
Two per string, each played twice, makes four notes per string.
In this short clip, I double pick A-minor pentatonic. I’m trying to get comfortable without the knuckles hitting the strings.
CORRECTION: C minor pentatonic with a flat root, useful for G7 altered.
Separate into two-string licks, then four string licks, then all six strings, up and down.
I’m going to have the tone knob moved to the volume pot soon!
I don’t curl them in, I just relax them and let them naturally curl so that they fall against the body below the strings- not a fixed anchor. If I curl them in, it feels a awkward, but not terrible. I’m not sure of the benefit of me switching to the totally curl finger, Maybe should experiment a bit to find out
From this video, it looks like you almost flex your wrist around the guitar, since you don’t seem to be using forearm rotation, is this of any benefit? Or adding extra tension? Or is it to minimise the shpulder pop? I’m thinking that if there was less guitar there, you would be forcing yourself to flex the wrist even more to get the pick to the strings which would change your mechanic (for better or worse)…
Hmm… when I try your curled finger approach I also hit the strings. It seem like that’s what’s gonna happen if you don’t move them somewhere else. So, I guess you’ll have to live with it if you insist on haveing your fingers there.
But guess what, I thought more about the arm angle thing you’re talking about and actually tried it out on one of my cheap guitars. It being a telecaster model with really rough edges, it made this uncomfortable guitar one of my most comfortable ones. I don’t know if you can see but the arm cut is significantly deeper than normal strat cuts.
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How do you guys not have the fingers and knuckles hit the strings?!
The grinding shoulder sensation is very slightly less with the volume knob gone. I think simply by not fighting that knob, I’m looser, maybe with less tension in the pec minor, etc.
Move VOLUME knob to lower hole & removed TONE knob.
Hard to maintain DWPS because I keep scraping my fingernails and knuckles.
When I play riffs, I want to switch to palm muting.
How can I mute with the knuckles curled under?
I’m not playing it any faster or cleaner than I was last week.
Here is a closer look, I think its a considerable amount
I think this is right - if your fingers can’t lift up enough then its kind of a non-starter. Its not necessarily the end of the world if they do a little. As I have said before, what is the need to do it? Is there any point in trying to do something for the sake of doing it? I shot a couple of vids this morning before work ( no warm-up 
) about it. Would be interested in what you guys think?
Lol, on the second video, I forgot what my index finger and thumb were called!!
This looks really good and relaxed! This is the same way I do. I think the benefit is that you keep the fingers totally relaxed and still get som kind of referens tactile anchor. Put the benefit of curling your fingers is that the index finger and thumb get more support. I can see why one would want to do that. I get some kind of momentum in the hand when I curl up compared to more flimsy feel of getting the fingers out of the way.
I was actually surprised at how the curled fingers worked out - I thought it was going to complete mess. I couldn’t go any faster with it though - I started to elbow it a bit. I wonder what it would be like if I was warmed-up (I literally slung the guitar on and pressed record). I think it is worth experimenting.
I agree and an added benefit for me personally is that I wonder whether the tactile anchor is causing me difficulty with high speeds on the 2 lowest strings - I don’t think I’m maintaining a centralised position/ulner offset as I do on the higher strings.
My hands are big and feels like the strings are so far down close to the body that it’s hard to get at them. Am I string hopping? It feels bouncier.
I play G# minor pentatonic up to the 14th fret. I don’t have much reach for the left hand after that. The more I raise the guitar strap, the more my R shoulder hurts.