Mike wrote:
Great work (and post) Bob!
I'm actually also looking at my right hand technique. I'm getting quite sick of picks rotating while I play, and to make matters better, I can't even feel that it's happening.
Well ja, but one of the things I got from the aforementioned friend - who is a very good player - is that the pick rotates for him as well, but he just keeps on pushing it back into place. I also got sent a good instruction clip from a good mandolin playing friend and the same thing came up there: You need to not hold the pick tightly, so it's loose and so it will move around a bit.
So when I realise something like that is going on in the wider world it's no immediate help, but I do know it's not just me and my stupidity / bad habits / lack of mojo.
I spent some time looking at pictures of right hands gripping the pick, and I'm not THAT far away from a good grip. But far enough that I have to make an adjustment and then groove it until it gets as automatic as my dodgy technique does. This is partly about the position of the right index finger, partly down to how much of the pick I allow to show (if you were looking down on my hand from the top of the guitar). I also play with the side of the pick, so that leaves less margin for error. Again I thought "silly old me, playing with the wrong part of the pick" but then I find that said very good player also plays with the side. So it's not so silly, I'm not breaking some sacred rule and at least I can chill about that one.
I plan to overcompensate actually. When I was taking singing lessons the teacher instilled this idea into me - over do it at first, sing like you're a public school boy with a hot potato in his mouth and over enunciate like crazy. Your pitch will be correct, and your voice will be stronger and it WILL sound very forced at first, but you'll start to relax into something more natural but that still maintains all the disciplines you're working to instill. She doesn't teach guitar though :'(
