How you talked about the arm being different lengths causing different people to play differently. I think that is the future of understanding guitar. One day we will measure different arm lengths and different shaped hands and finally get to the real reasons why certain guitars have certain behaviours. Ive thought about it for years. Im glad someone is finally talking about it. cheers
So Tim Miller’s new signature Kiesel has an extended body to it all the way up the forearm - not sure if he’s experimenting with this at the moment but there’s definitely something to it. I hate gibsons for this reason - too short in the body and can’t play them for shit!
lol yeah right thanks. I've never played one so I can't say. But thanks for your work man. Alot of your ideas are spot on I think getting to the real cause of issues. @@Kerriben
Ben, the point you're making about forearm lenght is really eye-opening. I've never thought about it this way, but you're perfectly right. My right hand has always looked a little weird and too big on the bridge and covered much more of the pick guard than other guitarrists' hands playing the same guitar model ;-) What youre saying makes perfect sense and I do feel extremely tense mimicking the hand position and pick grip of guys with shorter forearms like, say, Troy Grady. Thanks, this is really valuable!
A good point. Troy Grady is smaller. On the other hand, he also uses small scale guitars. They are vintage student edition Mustangs and Duo Sonics with a 22.5” scale and overall smaller body and lighter. So it might be a bit hard to tell using his guitar a a reference point, because his guitar might be proportionally smaller to match him, leaving him with similar arm resting points as a larger person on a full scale guitar
Wow, didn't realize fixing my wrist position was that easy. I've always played with a real flat hand, and it's limited my progression. Going to focus on the forearm pressure, and see if I can break through some sticking points.
How are you muting the lower strings of you wrist is floating off the bridge ?, I notice if I float my hand I can move my wrist as if I’m turning a key, and can tremlo extrneley fast , but I start to lose accuracy when playing anything else and can’t mute string because my hand is now off the bridge. But if I anchor my hand to the bridge I become super slow but have more accuracy , so I’m kinda lost
I noticed recently that my short arm length forces me to slightly adjust arm positioning and contact points as im going through scale runs, otherwise i can not comfortably reach the lowest or highest string. Almost like a bit of a sweeping motion, but it makes it way harder and less consistent to alternate pick. It very often makes me mess up the very end of a lick cause im out of position or im struggling to maintain consistent picking while the arm is shifting. Havent really found a fix to it yet besides practice that inconvinient adjustment more.
I guess i Kinda Just realized that Its Just 2 different contacts points with my wrist. Im usually resting on the Strings cause its the Most comfortable, but when i reach the lower 2 Strings i Kind of have to Rest my wrist on the Body so it doesnt float. Its hard tbh but i guess now that i know i Just have to practice it .
Had a bunch of feedback issues after I moved house due to old electronics- would have been pretty nasty! Also got nothing to prove, wouldn’t attempt to teach it otherwise!
So basically your contact point is your forearm and the right hand is totally floating? Or you place your fingers on the pickguard for more stability? I have this contact point 5:26 like Andy Wood and I try to free my wrist but I notice less accuracy and speed picking. I don't know if because I have this bad habit to have my right wrist flat on the guitar and now this is totally new for me. You think is a months practice to master this habit (contact point)?
If you’ve come from a background of having a flat wrist on the instrument there’s a decent chance you are using a completely different set of muscles to get the speed. I’ll do another video on this as it is difficult to explain but most good alternate pickers use a doorknob twisting motion not a side to side wrist one. Side to side wrist motion can be insanely fast (Shawn Lane does this) but it requires economy picking to work. You basically pick your poison here - get really good at economy picking with a motion that’s familiar to you or spend a fair chunk of time relearning the right mechanics.
@@Kerriben Thank you so much for your reply, you're very kind. Wow I'm very impressed for Shawn Lane right hand technique, I have the same motion/contact point of the wrist. Lately I'm obsessed with Nuno Bettencourt style of playing, and I noticed his contact point is something between Andy wood and what you showed in this video, free wrist motion with fingers on pickguard, but often he use massively palm muting so is difficult to understand when and how he place his wrist. Do you think, for archive songs like Midnight Express (or Extreme albums) is possible to use side to side wrist motion or I need to work on free wrist? Thank you for your patience, is so beautiful talk about technique!!
@@Kerriben This I’m sure is my problem. I get most of my speed from a flat hand and picking outwards with my thumb pretty much touching the strings and no videos show how to fix this. It feels extremely foreign to me to get the downward picking motion going into the strings. Separately, was wondering if you had any advice on spread fingers and touching body of the guitar vs a closed hand. I’ve been trying to not anchor as much but it is hard and I can not pick with a closed hand.
I feel it's much easier to pick the higher strings, but when I'm moving on lower strings, I guess I loose the contact points. And when I'm palm muting, it feels impossible to keep the hand relaxed. Sometimes I can do it, and sometimes I feel I'm starting from zero once again :( Edit. Sometimes placing the pinky on pickguard helps, but then my palm is not that relaxed.
Likely because you are pushing the inside of the forearm in and not the outside - if you anchor with the thumb side of the forearm ( or more centrally) you tend to make certain string changes difficult.
I mean for TH-cam free lesson its ok and I wish you luck. But you by no means seem to be qualified for this. That being said I still wish you luck and maybe you help someone 👍
You sir are a hater of which not many can match. I normally wouldn't get involved as it's none of mine, however I could not in good conscience not say something to push back on that crap your key strokes put on this man's personal space. 1. The man is qualified to do what he is doing, namely discussing guitar technique. Your referring to his camera genic/ charisma / presentation style I take it. You still are off as his style and presentation swag is sufficient for what he's doing and for whom he does it for. He's doing something positive that people benefit from, something haters like yourself wouldn't know anything about. The fact that you find it appropriate to criticize this man when you came to his place, uninvited no less is pretty shitty. If you don't dig it, You don't have to watch it. What would compel you to try and tear him down and for what purpose? To make a lame A.F. , SIMP HATER from the the jump looking a*s dude feel better about himself. For shame.💯🫵
How you talked about the arm being different lengths causing different people to play differently. I think that is the future of understanding guitar. One day we will measure different arm lengths and different shaped hands and finally get to the real reasons why certain guitars have certain behaviours. Ive thought about it for years. Im glad someone is finally talking about it. cheers
So Tim Miller’s new signature Kiesel has an extended body to it all the way up the forearm - not sure if he’s experimenting with this at the moment but there’s definitely something to it. I hate gibsons for this reason - too short in the body and can’t play them for shit!
lol yeah right thanks. I've never played one so I can't say. But thanks for your work man. Alot of your ideas are spot on I think getting to the real cause of issues. @@Kerriben
Great stuff Ben.
I always struggle with anchor points 🎸🎸🎸🎶🎶🎶
Ben, the point you're making about forearm lenght is really eye-opening. I've never thought about it this way, but you're perfectly right. My right hand has always looked a little weird and too big on the bridge and covered much more of the pick guard than other guitarrists' hands playing the same guitar model ;-) What youre saying makes perfect sense and I do feel extremely tense mimicking the hand position and pick grip of guys with shorter forearms like, say, Troy Grady. Thanks, this is really valuable!
A good point. Troy Grady is smaller. On the other hand, he also uses small scale guitars. They are vintage student edition Mustangs and Duo Sonics with a 22.5” scale and overall smaller body and lighter. So it might be a bit hard to tell using his guitar a a reference point, because his guitar might be proportionally smaller to match him, leaving him with similar arm resting points as a larger person on a full scale guitar
Wow, didn't realize fixing my wrist position was that easy. I've always played with a real flat hand, and it's limited my progression. Going to focus on the forearm pressure, and see if I can break through some sticking points.
How are you muting the lower strings of you wrist is floating off the bridge ?, I notice if I float my hand I can move my wrist as if I’m turning a key, and can tremlo extrneley fast , but I start to lose accuracy when playing anything else and can’t mute string because my hand is now off the bridge. But if I anchor my hand to the bridge I become super slow but have more accuracy , so I’m kinda lost
Thanks I tried this and it’s really working!
I noticed recently that my short arm length forces me to slightly adjust arm positioning and contact points as im going through scale runs, otherwise i can not comfortably reach the lowest or highest string. Almost like a bit of a sweeping motion, but it makes it way harder and less consistent to alternate pick. It very often makes me mess up the very end of a lick cause im out of position or im struggling to maintain consistent picking while the arm is shifting. Havent really found a fix to it yet besides practice that inconvinient adjustment more.
I guess i Kinda Just realized that Its Just 2 different contacts points with my wrist. Im usually resting on the Strings cause its the Most comfortable, but when i reach the lower 2 Strings i Kind of have to Rest my wrist on the Body so it doesnt float. Its hard tbh but i guess now that i know i Just have to practice it .
Brilliant!
Why don’t you turn up the volume? With such a super low volume it’s impossible to hear if things are played clean
Had a bunch of feedback issues after I moved house due to old electronics- would have been pretty nasty!
Also got nothing to prove, wouldn’t attempt to teach it otherwise!
So basically your contact point is your forearm and the right hand is totally floating? Or you place your fingers on the pickguard for more stability? I have this contact point 5:26 like Andy Wood and I try to free my wrist but I notice less accuracy and speed picking. I don't know if because I have this bad habit to have my right wrist flat on the guitar and now this is totally new for me. You think is a months practice to master this habit (contact point)?
If you’ve come from a background of having a flat wrist on the instrument there’s a decent chance you are using a completely different set of muscles to get the speed. I’ll do another video on this as it is difficult to explain but most good alternate pickers use a doorknob twisting motion not a side to side wrist one.
Side to side wrist motion can be insanely fast (Shawn Lane does this) but it requires economy picking to work. You basically pick your poison here - get really good at economy picking with a motion that’s familiar to you or spend a fair chunk of time relearning the right mechanics.
@@Kerriben Thank you so much for your reply, you're very kind. Wow I'm very impressed for Shawn Lane right hand technique, I have the same motion/contact point of the wrist.
Lately I'm obsessed with Nuno Bettencourt style of playing, and I noticed his contact point is something between Andy wood and what you showed in this video, free wrist motion with fingers on pickguard, but often he use massively palm muting so is difficult to understand when and how he place his wrist. Do you think, for archive songs like Midnight Express (or Extreme albums) is possible to use side to side wrist motion or I need to work on free wrist?
Thank you for your patience, is so beautiful talk about technique!!
@@Kerriben This I’m sure is my problem. I get most of my speed from a flat hand and picking outwards with my thumb pretty much touching the strings and no videos show how to fix this. It feels extremely foreign to me to get the downward picking motion going into the strings. Separately, was wondering if you had any advice on spread fingers and touching body of the guitar vs a closed hand. I’ve been trying to not anchor as much but it is hard and I can not pick with a closed hand.
I feel it's much easier to pick the higher strings, but when I'm moving on lower strings, I guess I loose the contact points. And when I'm palm muting, it feels impossible to keep the hand relaxed. Sometimes I can do it, and sometimes I feel I'm starting from zero once again :( Edit. Sometimes placing the pinky on pickguard helps, but then my palm is not that relaxed.
Likely because you are pushing the inside of the forearm in and not the outside - if you anchor with the thumb side of the forearm ( or more centrally) you tend to make certain string changes difficult.
Who gave you a mic and a cam 😢
I mean for TH-cam free lesson its ok and I wish you luck. But you by no means seem to be qualified for this. That being said I still wish you luck and maybe you help someone 👍
Imagine needing high production quality to understand someone talking
@@Kerriben no it wasnt a comment on a bad mic or cam..
You sir are a hater of which not many can match. I normally wouldn't get involved as it's none of mine, however I could not in good conscience not say something to push back on that crap your key strokes put on this man's personal space. 1. The man is qualified to do what he is doing, namely discussing guitar technique. Your referring to his camera genic/ charisma / presentation style I take it. You still are off as his style and presentation swag is sufficient for what he's doing and for whom he does it for. He's doing something positive that people benefit from, something haters like yourself wouldn't know anything about. The fact that you find it appropriate to criticize this man when you came to his place, uninvited no less is pretty shitty. If you don't dig it, You don't have to watch it. What would compel you to try and tear him down and for what purpose? To make a lame A.F. , SIMP HATER from the the jump looking a*s dude feel better about himself. For shame.💯🫵