[Trespass]

Do you have something weird about your playing style? Could be anything, way you hold your pick, where you pick, hand movement, anything, doesn't particularily have to be unique, but just unusual.

I find when on the treble/thin strings, my picking is just to the right (bridge side) and as the strings get thicker, the pick moves farther to the bridge. I noticed this the other day. It provides warmth for the tremble strings, and definition for bass strings.

Also, I accent notes that don't always make sense to be accented, and I'm not actually sure why . It almost implies odd time signatures sometimes when listening to recordings of myself play, very Shostakovitch at times (I haven't decided whether I'm ironing this out or not).

Anyhow, post!

[All_¥our_Bass]

I have an unusual pinch harmonic technique. Because of the way I hold the pick with my index finger and thumb, I am able to use the pick+nail of index finger to create the harmonics. I know the traditional way is use your thumb, which is (mechanically) strange for me.

[Zepp88]

My arm/wrist stays glued to the body/bridge most/all of the time. Sometimes my pinky is even anchored to the body.

[Kotex]

I pick really close to the fretboard, like right over the neck pick up. Sometimes up to the fretboard.

[JBroll]

I hit things way too hard.

You might have seen the GHS 14-70+90 strings picstory. I broke the 90.

Jeff

[Naren]

Originally Posted by JBroll

I hit things way too hard.

You might have seen the GHS 14-70+90 strings picstory. I broke the 90.

Jeff

If that's an idiosyncracy, you can count me in there too. The first string I ever broke was a 5-string bass guitar's low B string (at around 135-140 gauge I think). I used to break about 3 strings a month, but I've gotten down to about 1 string a month on average, sometimes once every two months, which is a lot better. I used to use sets of 15 gauge flatwound strings until I broke some the very day I put new strings on. And I couldn't afford to pay that much money for heavy gauge flatwounds when I broke them the very day I put them on.

I'm sure I have a lot of weird things about how I play, but since I've always played like that, I don't notice these idiosyncracies. When I play the guitar in a band, I play near the bridge, but when I practice at home, I play near the 24-20th frets. I always correct myself when I notice this and put my hand inbetween the bridge and neck pickups.

[DDDorian]

The majority of my bending technique comes from pulling the strings rather than pushing them... good for faux-pedal steel stuff and for when I'm suffering a bout of Friedman-itis, but I totally fall on my face when I try to play the flashy Hammett/Slash stuff that pretty much every other competent guitarist finds a cinch. I'm only ever really held back when I try to play other peoples' stuff, but that doesn't excuse me for not bothering to to improve. Oh well.

[gaunten]

I hold my pick "upside down", as in instead of angling it towards the neck,
I angle it towards the bridge... if that makes any sense...

neck
/ pick
bridge

instead of
neck
\ pick
bridge
<high E low E>

plus, even if I think I play hard, I must play insanely light, or have optimized strings, because I hardly ever break strings. (unless theyre way to heavy, or way to old)
might have something to do with the fact that I don't sweat much...
the other guitarist in one of my bands break his strings all the time, because
they get rusty after one hour of bandpractice because of all his handsweat. yuk

[s7eve]

Crappy technique.

[Trespass]

Originally Posted by DDDorian

The majority of my bending technique comes from pulling the strings rather than pushing them... good for faux-pedal steel stuff and for when I'm suffering a bout of Friedman-itis, but I totally fall on my face when I try to play the flashy Hammett/Slash stuff that pretty much every other competent guitarist finds a cinch. I'm only ever really held back when I try to play other peoples' stuff, but that doesn't excuse me for not bothering to to improve. Oh well.

I bend both ways, sometimes switching the bend by bending towards the floor then with a offbeat rythmn switching to neutral and then to bend towards the ceiling (like syn-co-pa) when soloing over jazz. Otherwise, I mostly bend towards the floor except for the high e and sometimes b string, which has to be bent towards me.