Does anyone really pick without some sort of contact on the body or bridge for reference? I’m not sure I’ve seen it.
Often people who I’ve seen say you shouldn’t anchor, are in fact resting either on the bridge or using fingers to touch the body.
I don’t think think so. Not for precise lead playing anyway. It would be way too hard to have any kind of precision or control fully up in the air like that.
I don’t listen to any of those people who talk about not anchoring, because your right most of them are using some form of it.
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Here’s a perfect example of not always anchoring.
In my own playing I anchor a lot, but not always. Someone like Marty Friedman is another example of a fast player who doesn’t anchor much. His is mostly just feeling the high E and body with his pinky.
Troy explained this before in talks about how you don’t need small movements to play fast.
I think an anchor is mostly a reference point to keep your picking relatively on target.
Something like using the palm on the bridge I guess would be a leverage point and anchor combined. Though you still can’t just hold the palm there all the time, it needs to move around to be effective.
Probably we don’t have enough words to describe it, as anchor can be used to describe someone almost totally floating as well as someone superglued to the guitar.
If you look hard enough, you can find an example of anything. You can find someone I’m sure, shredding with their feet.
Whether or not it’s applicable to the general guitar playing population, or the best route to take… well… that’s up to your discretion.
Different strokes, different blokes 
I do think developing your picking with a good ammount of floating makes your picking more dynamic tho. @SlyVai is already there, n I think just needs a comfortable anchor and he’ll have best of both worlds.
You can be dynamic anchoring as well. It doesn’t really inhibit much unless you absolutely have to play using your elbow and shoulder like you are sawing through a piece of wood.
@Fossegrim When you anchor, do you push into the guitar? Or just feel it, or both?
I often am just feeling the anchor point, with intermittent force for more tight forceful picking. And often I’ll only have the pinky touching the guitar. So a kind of semi floating technique.
When doing what? For fast picking I’m just lightly resting a curled slack finger on the guitar or even strings somewhere and using my palm to mute the strings at the bridge.
Wouldn’t that be logical to class it as semi floating/anchoring?
As you’re basically brushing the body n strings. Vs the common use of “anchor” as a solid connection to the guitar.
Some call the ocean what some call the sea, call it what you want.
I thought It would be useful too get some common language
Hi @Fossegrim,
I’m making some progress I think. I’ve been concentrating on my picking 100% over the past couple of days. I’m anchoring more solidly with my pinky and trying to use my thumb but that’s just not sticking, as usual. Unless I stare at my thumb and watch it I find it hard to keep it going especially when I speed up.
It’s a bit like Schrodingers cat, I need to look at it to confirm if I’m doing it or not. How do I know I’m doing it or not if I’m not looking, well I could be and could not be I guess 
but it feels like I’m not.
Anyway thats not the point really it’s the fact that I have to concentrate to do it that is the problem currently.
I think I have the thumb movement right but I’m not completly convinced. Also I wanted to improve my EJ/YJM down sweep motion by using my thumb more but that’s not happening, just can’t seem to make my thumb move correctly for that.
So, I was wondering if, when you have the time, maybe you could do a quick video for me please, showing exactly what the thumb movement should look like, just to give me a bit of reassurance that I’m on the right track.
I can’t remember if you told me before that you have transitioned to the down sweep method or not but if you do use it would be good to see how your thumb plays a part in it. For me I can’t get out of the habit of moving my wrist to do the sweep.
I can use my thumb quite accurately on a single string but as soon as I change strings I really have to concentrate to get it moving on the new string. I’m also getting some deja vu here, I’ve been here before for sure and someone was trying to teach it to me, although I can’t remember who that was or when, likely a long time ago though.
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Are you using the thumb to pick? Or to change the orientation?
@SlyVai ill see if I can get something up for you. It may not be exactly what you think.
For sweeping, I’m not sure I really do it as a matter of movement more than I’m not really gripping the pick as tightly so the string tension has some influence in the joint maybe or maybe not, I’ll have to look at that. I also use distinct two way slanting for that too, where the downwards part of sweeping is one of the few times I’m using USX, and the upward descending is somewhat DSX.
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Cool thanks @Fossegrim I would be interested to see what youre doing no matter what.
@WhammyStarScream I’m using my thumb to pick by slightly bending it in and out in combination with my regular wrist motion. It’s quite hard to describe it’s like I’m sewing or drawing a small long thin circle with it. Certainly it produces smaller motions and it’s more accurate than my wrist flailing around back and forth but my escape motions are still using the wrist.
A big problem I identified again is my outside picking is so dodgy sometimes. Playing the Paul Gilbert lick is a good example of this in any format like:
:----------10------
:-10-11-13----13-11
And inside picking is my nemesis for repeating licks like this, I just can’t get that to work. It just seems counter intuitive picking away from the direction of the next note.
My outside picking problem is the jerky escape motions changing from a down escape to up escape where I actually jerk my shoulder to assist the angle change sometimes, which is very inefficient and weird.
Normally outside picking is my forte, but when there are quick changes like this it’s a struggle. Although I do seem to be better at it somedays than others so on those good days I must be doing something right. I just can’t work out what.
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When I speed up my thumb motion becomes more of an orientation thing, to kind of position the pick for the forces of the wrist/forearm. Less about actual picking. And as I slow down I use the thumb more in a picking way as it feels more efficient at slow speeds.
I have an excersice you might like? It’s alternate, alternate picking. So two versions of alternate picking in one.
I didn’t notate it too well but you can hear the notes. This is the best alternate picking pattern for practice that I know of. Because it’s changing from inside to outside every rep. Maybe you’ll like it?
I look at it as a coiling up, or loading up for the downstroke slap. Like how you bring your arm back to throw without even thinking. I don’t even feel it, it’s just part of the motion, perhaps as you get used to it you’ll also feel it just happen without thinking
Also I think those “good days” are our body chemistry being more conducive to physical movement. From my experience with various drugs, I can play very well with just the right ammount of some substances, with no mechanical changes. I think my nervous system is just better some days than others. Dopamine is probably the mediator of this.
How is the “anchoring” going for you?
From what you’re discribing I’m imagining it being largely from your floating type nature atm. If I let my picking float, I feel a lot of what you’re describing
And I’d love your input on that picking excersice 
Is it bad? Good? Do you get a feel for anything using it? It’s the back n fourth slow rocking feeling that you also get from sweeping that creates good alternate picking angles.
Thanks for the exercise it’s one of those I find hard for sure, but that pattern is actually one I practice now and then because it’s very Vai, he uses the 10, 12, 13 on one string and 12,10 on the next quite often for fast runs. I’ll try and drill it later and see how it goes I’ll let you know.
My anchoring has progressed as in I’m consciously anchoring more solidly with my pinky, I’m not 100% convinced it’s making a difference but it’s very likely. If I forget the thumb thing and revert to my normal wrist motion I can go pretty fast now on descending USX runs, if my left hand can keep up that is, so I think the anchoring is bringing consistency to that.
I also theorise that my body chemistry affects whether I have a good or bad day playing. I’m finding that after changing my diet to eat more nutritional stuff and taking supplements like the Krill Oil I seem to have more good days but the bad days are still there and I think my playing can be affected by stress and worry too. There seems to be an imbalance in my hand sync and general coordination if I’m worrying or stressed about something.
Whether, umm, recreational substances, have an impact or not, well for sure yes in my experience, but if you were to ask me how wide that experience is I could not possibly comment in this public forum sir.
Ah okay. I’ll use this lick as an example when I get around to making that vid for you. It can actually be a trickier lick to execute than it seems or looks. My suspicion is that you are overthinking the escape, or escapes in general.
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It certainly can. If you don’t feel well, or generally feel that your physical health is in decline, your body will react accordingly. Staying active, regardless of how small that activity seems, helps too. Easier said than done I know. The good news is that diet alone is 60-80% of this, and just staying away from anything processed, and full of anything rapidly converts to glucose or provokes a huge insulin response is a step in the right direction. It’s one of the most accessible things to immediately change, but still hard all the same.
Recreational substances can make you think you are playing better when your on them. Whether or not they actually do objectively is a different story.
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