# Anchoring picking hand



## gnoll (May 30, 2021)

What do you guys think about anchoring the picking hand, either with palm on lower strings/bridge (when playing higher strings) or with the fingers, like the pinky, on the guitar? Or do you think it's better to keep it floating?


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## MaxOfMetal (May 30, 2021)

Different strokes for different folks. 

Years of playing all kinds of stuff and typically with a trem has left me with a "floating" picking hand about 90% of the time.


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## budda (May 30, 2021)

Do whatever is most comfortable. I anchor my pinky.


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## odibrom (May 30, 2021)

... do both, depending on the situation...


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## DudeManBrother (May 30, 2021)

I *think* it’s better to float or only anchor on the palm side when necessary. You put a lot of stress in the base of the thumb and synovium when a finger is extended as an anchor. You can feel the tension increase just by holding your pick and then extending another finger. It pulls the index and thumb into each other and activates more tendons. It seems to contribute to what I think they call a repetitive stress injury. It’s not as noticeable at slower playing speed but it really amplifies at higher speed when the whole hand tends to tense up a bit. 

This is really anecdotal, and not encompassing by any means; but I grew up playing a strat, which forced my hand to float, or else I’d catch the volume pot. My other guitarist played an SG and anchored with his ring finger; and nearly 30 years later: I’m still completely pain free while he has spent 10 years in and out of doctors visits trying to correct his thumb pain and numbness. He’s been tested for carpal tunnel multiple times and has always come back neg, and rest from guitar playing seems to be the only thing that provides relief; so it’s not a stretch to assume that his anchoring is a major contributor in the thumb pain. YMMV


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## gnoll (May 30, 2021)

Hm yeah I have my palm on the bridge mostly it seems, but I have to have the fingers flared way out in the air or they hit the vol knob. If the knob wasn't where it is I would be able to relax my picking hand much more and have the fingers loosely curled towards my palm. But that just doesn't work as is. I need to remove all the pots on my guitars I guess, but I'm just not good with electricity and soldering.


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## budda (May 30, 2021)

gnoll said:


> Hm yeah I have my palm on the bridge mostly it seems, but I have to have the fingers flared way out in the air or they hit the vol knob. If the knob wasn't where it is I would be able to relax my picking hand much more and have the fingers loosely curled towards my palm. But that just doesn't work as is. I need to remove all the pots on my guitars I guess, but I'm just not good with electricity and soldering.



Find someone who is? Or practice?


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## Robslalaina (May 30, 2021)

We all have different hands and wrists and forearms and tendons and whatever. What works for somebody may not work for you and vice versa. Jason Becker used to anchor. Petrucci and Guthrie anchor too.


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## gnoll (May 30, 2021)

Yeye I am just lazy lol, I will do it...



budda said:


> Find someone who is? Or practice?


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## Randy (May 30, 2021)

I used to anchor but not much these days.

The problem I noticed mechanically was that if your hand is anchored and you're doing leads that range across all the strings, the geometry of your pick approach changes and your hand is now picking at different angles across the range. For fast lines that can get funky, especially if you're doing one of those two strings up, one string down ascending/descending lines.

You kind of have one set of strings that are in your core comfortable picking angle and then the remaining 2, 3 or 4 strings that you're locking with your wrist cocked or fingers stretched.

I've found floating to be more diverse and comfortable, with maybe potentially anchoring your wrist or maybe the blade of your hand but you'd need to be cognizant of moving depending on what strings you're on.

I haven't practiced that in a long time but essentially you 'anchor' in two to three positions so your picking angle stays consistent in every string grouping. Either group E,A, then D,G then B, E or E, A, D and G, B, E. Your wrist angle changes a bit picking within a group but not as much as it does trying to play anchored and going all the way from top to bottom in the same position.


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## Lorcan Ward (May 30, 2021)

Forcing myself to stop anchoring and play with a floating hand made a huge difference to my playing, definitely the single best thing I’ve done to improve. My alternate & tremelo picking is less precise as a result but my downpicking, string skipping and sweep picking is much better.

With guitar there is no right or wrong technique but in my opinion anchoring is the limiter for a lot of people. You can make the argument that Petrucci anchors and has amazing technique but for players that have poor technique it is often anchoring that is preventing them from improving.


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## Santuzzo (Feb 20, 2022)

I don't really anchor but my fingers are relaxed and loosely curled in. And yes, the volume pot on an RG7 does get in the way of my picking hand, which is why I removed the tone pot and put the volume pot in the tone position on some of my RG7s. It's very easy to do, only minimal soldering needed to extend the wires of the volume pot in case they are too short to reach to the tone pot position.
On a JP7 the pots are in a great position as they don't get in the way of my picking hand.
To me it's much easier to do the little mod than to change my right hand posture due to a volume pot being in the way. But it's usually only an issue when I play on the high e or high b strings. As I move to the lower strings my fingers kind of lightly touch the higher strings. My palm is also lightly resting on the bridge.


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## Hollowway (Feb 21, 2022)

Lorcan Ward said:


> Forcing myself to stop anchoring and play with a floating hand made a huge difference to my playing, definitely the single best thing I’ve done to improve. My alternate & tremelo picking is less precise as a result but my downpicking, string skipping and sweep picking is much better.
> 
> With guitar there is no right or wrong technique but in my opinion anchoring is the limiter for a lot of people. You can make the argument that Petrucci anchors and has amazing technique but for players that have poor technique it is often anchoring that is preventing them from improving.


Do you have your 3 fingers curled in to a loose fist position or relaxed outward into more of an open position? I usually have my fingers relaxed outward, and that generally means my pinky is going to touch the guitar, but it’s not “anchored” in one position. But I ask because the picking videos I’ve usually seen showed the fingers all curled in, and that just doesn’t feel natural to me. But I’m periodically trying to get better at it, because it forces me to NOT circle pick. (I want to be a strict wrist picker, not circle picker. I converted years ago, and am much faster because of it.)


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## Lorcan Ward (Feb 21, 2022)

Hollowway said:


> Do you have your 3 fingers curled in to a loose fist position or relaxed outward into more of an open position? I usually have my fingers relaxed outward, and that generally means my pinky is going to touch the guitar, but it’s not “anchored” in one position. But I ask because the picking videos I’ve usually seen showed the fingers all curled in, and that just doesn’t feel natural to me. But I’m periodically trying to get better at it, because it forces me to NOT circle pick. (I want to be a strict wrist picker, not circle picker. I converted years ago, and am much faster because of it.)



I have a few different ways but most I play with my 3 fingertips touching the base of each finger like this when I'm palm muting:







But if I'm not palm muting I relax those fingers so they are no longer touching.





Then if I'm tremolo picking, alternate picking fast I'll move the middle two fingers out even further. No picture but you can get an idea of how all these shapes work in these videos.




I don't agree with curling all the fingers in. My technique means I don't have tension when I'm playing. For down picking I am gently holding my fingers against my palm. Then when I'm shredding my fingers are lifted away which will reduce the tension in my picking hand. If I played with fingers all curled in I would prone to squeezing my hand when I play something that will cause tension. Your thumb, wrist, forearm, elbow and shoulder are all involved too with tension and technique but with that involve going into Troy Grady levels of detail. 

With electric guitar there are so many techniques that you need to adopt different hand positions depending on what it is. Find the most comfortable and stick to it. Finger memory will take over so you do it naturally and you don't have to think about it anymore. 

Look how many subtle changes Jason's picking hand makes in this clip:


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## bostjan (Feb 21, 2022)

I tend to anchor my pinky. Except when I don't.

I play classical guitar as well, which tends to inform that. But I'm generally of the mindset that it doesn't matter as long as you are able to make the guitar make the noises you want it to make and are not hurting yourself in the process.


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## Empryrean (Feb 22, 2022)

I’ve only recently began anchoring my pinky and it’s let me loosen my grip a bit on my pick and hold it differently than I have been most of my life. I still hold the pick a lot of ways but I’m finding more than ever that switching it up has helped me lower the tension I put on my forearm and wrist while trying to build speed


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## wheresthefbomb (Feb 22, 2022)

Interesting to see how many radically different things are "right" for different people's bodies.

I try to avoid anchoring because it puts weird strain on my thumb, I mostly like to keep all four fingers gently curled in and neatly stacked under the pick to support my thumb flexor tendon, but sometimes anchoring is just what needs to be done.

Trem picking I anchor my forearm on the guitar body and pick from the wrist. This gives me a good fulcrum for changing positions subtly. I know others have different/completely opposite approaches but for me personally this strains my body the least and vastly improves my playing and stamina.


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## Santuzzo (Feb 23, 2022)

Like I mentioned in my earlier post that I don't anchor but my fingers still lightly 'rest' on/touch the body or the upper strings (when playing on the lower strings). To me that is the most relaxed right hand position. If I try to keep my fingers off without any contact it puts extra strain on my hand/arm. When I play a run from higher strings to lower strings the only difficulty I run into is when I get to the 3rd or 4th string as my fingers (mostly ringfinger and little finger) then move from the guitar body to the 1st and 2nd string. That's a transition I need to work on so it doesn't mess up the run.


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## ian540s (Mar 7, 2022)

I read a lot of specific things for specific people, but zooming out I would say anchoring is necessary depending on what technique you're using. 
Someone above said they've switched to playing with floating picking hand which sounds like a very bad idea for any type of picking accuracy or cleanliness. 
Whether you're anchoring with your pinky below the strings or have your palm on the bridge, you should still be muting the strings you're not playing with both the playing and picking hands, which results in always anchoring. 
Anchoring also gives you a base point for picking/string skipping. If the hand is hovering, there is no "base coordinate" if you will to gauge which string is how far away. 
I agree everyone has their own system that works for them, but some are making it more complicated for themselves.


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## NazVonGates (Apr 2, 2022)

I strap high, probably look like tom morellos height. Then I use everything from palm mute, semi palm mute on fast alternate picking passages for the most part. Slight palm mute on sweep picking as well. I used to practice anchoring middle, ring and pinky on the body like Micheal angelo batio when I was going through his speed kills lesson. I found it to be extreme for my liking so I adopted it to fit my body and hands, slight finger anchoring sometimes. I'm finally getting away from using my forearm and elbow movement for alternate picking. I focus on all of my movement from wrist and fingers only. I can feel tendonitis if I tense up and using more arm movement trying to pick as fast as possible. I probably mirror john petruccis positioning for picking technique. 


Also malmsteen in this lesson, I watched his picking technique and his elbow barely moves so I'm assuming I'm on the right track. No pain in the elbows. 



Two styles of picks I use. The beveled edges let me focus on how much of the material I use to strike the string when I want to play fast. Different shapes and sizes are always been experimented with me when I'm using different techniques. But overall the big pizza slice pick is my main one. It makes me feel like I can destroy the lower strings if I wanted, and at the same time lighten up and play fast with more wrist movement.


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## 8stringalchemy (May 24, 2022)

Palm mutes the strings you're not playing. Never anchor your pinky.


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## tian (May 26, 2022)

FWIW, this video about holding an extra pick with the bottom fingers finally allowed to comfortably playing without anchoring. Do whatever works for you but I much prefer not anchoring not that I've worked some of the initial awkwardness.


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## HungryGuitarStudent (May 26, 2022)

gnoll said:


> What do you guys think about anchoring the picking hand, either with palm on lower strings/bridge (when playing higher strings) or with the fingers, like the pinky, on the guitar? Or do you think it's better


Whatever feels natural and doesn't hamper your technique. Anchoring isn't necessarily a limiting factor for picking speed or fluidity. Example: Michael Angelo Batio.

Cracking the Code may help you run some tests to figure out what works for you.


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## c7spheres (May 28, 2022)

Put your hand on top the desk relaxed (not flat), pinch index and thumb together and your hand should basically be exactly how it should be. other fingers fall in line automatically. Not straight, not anchoring etc. If you rotate wrist counter clockwise (for right handers) you'll notice your pinky starts to flare out. Right where it starts to flare out is a good spot to avoid volume knob. 
- Use palm chug position and finger anchoring as required for specific riffs and control, not as an all the time standard. Use left hand mute pressure in combination with right hand pressure for mutes. Most the time pretty much ignore your hand and go by feel and response, imo. Keep hand relaxed as much as possible and dig in when required. 
- Anchoring and digging in more will let you know when to use them when you keep dropping picks, choking up on fast runs etc. Try those if you have trouble naling a riff in 'ignore mode' and it'll probably fix it. If you happen to develope into a player that requires it a lot then so be it. - Anchoring and curling fingers inward can hurt fingers bad if you got arthritis etc. but there's really no best way, only the best way for you, but you gotta try everything over a course of time to know or sure. If you're talking about speed chops and pick technique there's plenty in other threads already if you search many of us have chimed in depth on too. Uncle Ben's above video is perfect example, He's got chops and does if different than me and others. He talks about different ways around 5 min.


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## BornToLooze (May 28, 2022)

I've been working on picking like he does around 5 minutes and it's been helping me a lot


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