Anchoring Your Right Hand On Guitar

There are lots of different right hand techniques on guitar

. And most players develop a style that works for them even though others may not do it exactly the same way. One technique that I've used to great success is anchoring.

Anchoring your right hand involves a couple of things. When playing on the bottom few strings, your pinkie, and sometimes your 3rd finger, will be either hanging onto the top string or placed on the pick guard. This keeps you in contact with the instrument at all times so that you always know where you are and are less likely to get lost in the strings. It will also keep the amount of movement in your hand to a minimum. You always want to conserve movement.

When playing on the higher strings, there are two part to the anchor. The pinkie anchors on the pick guard and the palm of your hand will lay on the bottom couple of strings. This provides the same benefits as above. It also adds the benefit of muting the lower strings to keep them from vibrating sympathetically. This is very important on electric guitar because the feedback can quickly get out of hand. But you'll find it also goes a long way to cleaning up your acoustic playing too.

When strumming chords, you'll obviously have to let the anchor go since you'll need a larger range of movement than you would for single note playing. However, I generally still keep my pinkie extended (but not in a frou-frou tea-and-crumpets way!) so that I brush with the pickguard on each down strum. Again, it so you know where you are on the instrument by touch instead of visually. Instead of looking at the guitar you'll be able to look at the thousands of people in the audience watching you play!

These techniques of course aren't the be all, end all. They work for me, but you may prefer something different. The other guitarist in my group doesn't touch the strings at all with his right hand, except the pick. And he's fantastic. Finger picking has it's own guidelines as well. They key is consistency. The more you do something with whatever technique you like, the more you'll get comfortable with it. If you run into a problem, then find a solution just to that little hitch and work it in until it feels natural. A good instructor can help you solve those kinds of problems.

Anchoring Your Right Hand On Guitar

By: Phil Johnson

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