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Old 12-11-2016, 06:37 AM
JonPR JonPR is online now
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Pitar View Post
I don't think the finger can physically move the string in a perpendicular direction to the top, nor do I think the author of the technique is an authority if that is his claim.

The initial release of the string places it in its greatest travel displacement which could contact a fret wire if released perpendicularly to the top. After the initial release the string sets up its vibration in a revolving manner much like a jump rope. There are two perpendicular vectors with each rotation, as well as two parallel vectors. But, the initial release is always parallel because that is the only motion the fingertip travels through. The proper pluck is a rest stroke which means the finger displaces and releases the object string, and then comes to rest against the adjacent string. To attempt a perpendicular release of the object string would require hooking and lifting it with the fingernail before release. This is physically impossible to do in regular play.
In regular play, maybe! But I know at least one player who occasionally picked by digging a thumb(pick) or finger(nail) beneath the string, pulling upwards and letting it thwack back against the frets. It's a pretty common technique in slap bass too.

The motion may not be exactly perpendicular to the surface of the guitar, but (like the rest stroke) it's close. The usual rest stroke in fact picks at about 45 degrees, between parallel with the guitar top and perpendicular. The fingernail begins above the string (away from the guitar) and ends up beneath the string, so obviously the first movement of the string is in the opposite direction - away from the surface, and then back down. But at an oblique angle. The string could be made to move in a (mostly) perpendicular fashion, but the fingernail would then end up beneath the string itself, and inhibit its vibration.

The rest stroke moves the string in a more parallel direction (in the plane of the strings).

Of course the string ends up vibrating in what you call a revolving manner, although probably in a kind of rotating ellipse; mainly back and forth, but in different directions about the centre. Its natural tendency would always be to pull back to the centre and back out, not to rotate like a jump rope (whose motion is dictated by the person holding it).
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