rhythm playing-pick size

rafapak

hi guys

I learn to play rhythm gj parts but after I play rhythm for a couple of measures my pick starts to fall from my right hand. I use standard dunlop 1 mm pick and I like it for soloing but for rhythm there is something wrong. Does my pick fall from my hand because it is too small or there is something wrong with my technique ?

Jazzaferri

watch yourself in a mirror and make sure your stroke is perpendicular to the strings. Watch the way your pick contacts the strings

Petrov

Could be technique. But if you are just starting out, this is normal. After some practice, the pick will stay in your hand. Just make sure to play relaxed with proper technique.

Buco

Use a rounded end of the pick or get a pick with a more rounded edge. If you have a pick that's already beveled, look at the bevel and position your hand so that the middle of the bevel runs across the strings.
In other words, the very tip of the pick isn't what's making direct contact when playing rhythm, your hand wrist is bent slightly ( you can read in several threads how much and at what angle) so that the pick against the strings isn't at 90 deg, more like 70-80 degrees.

rafapak

thanks for replies

lewischang88

My gj teacher told me that pick falling (flying) off right hand is not a bad thing It means you are relaxed. Much better than pinching the pick hard to prevent falling which would tense up the whole right hand.

NylonDave

rafapak wrote: »

hi guys

I learn to play rhythm gj parts but after I play rhythm for a couple of measures my pick starts to fall from my right hand. I use standard dunlop 1 mm pick and I like it for soloing but for rhythm there is something wrong. Does my pick fall from my hand because it is too small or there is something wrong with my technique ?

A few things. You start by asking a question and then you indicate that is is a multiple choice with two possible answers.

This is REALLY common on the internet. But try and remember that multiple choice questions are set by people who ALREADY know the answer.

You will think I am being mean and no doubt there will be support for that position amongst our moral giants here. But I urge you to think about what I have said for a few days if you can. You see if you are confused but also insisting that you already know the answer then you aren't going to get too far.

OK having made that clear I am going to give you an answer.

You are not paying enough attention and there is a reason for that. You say that you can only play a few bars. There is your problem. You are playing too much. You are getting way past the point where you should have stopped and reviewed.

Try this instead. Play only the first downstroke of each bar in a two bar sequence, something like G alternating with D7 should be fine. Or maybe choose two chords that you are struggling to move smoothly between.

Play along with a metronome or admit you are just mucking around and don't really want to improve.

On beats two three and four THINK !!!! If you do this you will actually notice things. Having noticed them and having time to think it will be perfectly easy and natural to fix them.

You are not noticing or fixing now because you are trying to play more than you can. More than you should. More than is reasonable. Enough to confuse you, enough to seem insoluble, enough to stop you improving.

You see you won't be able to think and play at the same time until you are skilled. And you won't get skilled until you practice avoiding making mistakes.

So you need to build in thinking time. But more importantly you need to think IN TIME. So you play fewer strokes.

After you can play and feel really comfortable with a single downstroke on one you can add a second downstroke on two. Maybe just the first bar though. Add the second downstroke on the second bar later.

And that is the gist really, just add ONE stroke at a time and in no particular hurry.

If that takes you less than a week then you are being unrealistic.

Last thing. You can apply this to every single two bar phrase in all music and it will DEFINITELY work.

It might seem tedious spending a whole week on a single phrase but the alternative is a lifetime of not improving.

I note with dismay that after nearly thirty years of teaching I see almost no one practice properly unsupervised as much as one percent of the time. Apparently it is more 'fun' that way.

D.

Bones

Try a 2mm Gator (and use the rounded edge like Buco said). And like Petrov said practice and it will improve with time but stay relaxed. Don't tense up your hand. Practice slow and relaxed. Maybe you are trying to play too fast?

steffo

NylonDave wrote: »

I note with dismay that after nearly thirty years of teaching I see almost no one practice properly unsupervised as much as one percent of the time.

Maybe try to teach better?

NylonDave

I promise I will soon. At the moment I am focusing on selling second hand jokes to the tourist market.

AndrewUlle

@NylonDave

If you see them practicing incorrectly, aren't they then being "supervised?"

Not that what I do with my guitar time could under any conditions be called "practice." So I am certainly guilty of terribly incorrect practicing. I could definitely use some supervision, but we suffer a dearth of GJ teachers around here.