Rest my pinky (and sometimes 3rd finger) on the guitar....or not?

[EllaMom]

I naturally rest my pinky finger of my strumming/picking handon the guitar body when I'm playing. But I just watched Pete Huttlinger's DVD "Essential Exercises for Fingerstyle Guitar" (which I really like, by the way), and he said to never do this because the guitar top is what vibrates when strings are played. Therefore, o rest anything on the top deadens the sound.

I'd like your opinion on this. If it's a bad habit, I want to break it now!

Thanks for your thoughts.

[DaBoz]

I rested my pinky for years. After starting playing again after an injury break I bit the bullet and trained myself not to do it.

I believe my right hand picking/strumming is better now without resting. JMHO.....

[gitardude]

Some pros rest and others don't. Some use only thumb and index to play.

[Guit Hacker]

I used to do this and yes it can be considered a bad habit. It wasn't until I started playing "nicer" responsive guitars that I really started noticing the difference. I'm also very aware of how much of my right forearm is resting on the guitar. Both of these factors can contribute to decreased volume and sustain. It was hard to retrain myself , but well worth it in the end.

All that being said, there are many great players that don't follow the "rules" and it works for them.

[ljguitar]

Hi EM...

Too many great players touch-down (rest) fingers on the top to believe that it is a major issue. It doesn't seem to hamper their flexibility, speed, or the output volume of their guitar.

Classical technique teaches floating, while Merle Travis planted three fingers on the top of his guitars (his son claims you could have taped them to the top and it would not have affected his playing).

Whether one chooses to float or rest the pinky/ring finger(s), I don't agree with Pete that resting a finger on the top beneath the strings and between the bridge and soundhole impedes the top from vibrating. That is not a particularly resonant part of the guitar. You'd have to press down pretty hard to even have it affect any part of the volume or tone of the guitar...even very sensitive and lightly built ones.

I love Pete and share that video often with students and friends. People are entitled to our opinions, and I think we should share/present them as opinions and not 'facts'.

[JonPR]

I agree with larry - resting the fingers on the top will have a negligible effect on the sound (maybe if you could feel the vibrations it would), and if it helps guide your picking fingers then that's what matters. (And as he also says, he did Merle Travis no harm )

Personally I'll sometimes play in classical "floating" position, sometimes (for more blues-based style) with the heel of my hand resting on or near the bridge. This has a lot more impact on reducing sound transmission, but I still don't find it's bad enough to stop me doing it. The main disadvantage with resting the hand there is that one is always picking the same part of the string, so the tone is the same. With a finger (or fingers) on the scratchplate, you can still move the hand to different points along the strings, to vary the tone.
However, I never managed to be able to rest the finger in that way; I find I can keep my hand steady enough in the floating position, so I don't need to. (Resting on the bridge is about getting a different attack on the strings, not about helping guide my fingers.)

[Saxman]

If you rest your pinky on the guitar you can't use your pinky to pick the high E string. It may take a bit of practice but if your picking hand "floats" above the strings you can use your thumb and four fingers or use a pick and three fingers. I may be doing it "wrong" but my right pinky has the longest nail and I use it all the time - especially if I want to hit the high E string softly in a chord while hitting the lower strings harder for a meatier sound.

[mr. beaumont]

It's only a bad habit if tension builds up in the hand and it causes discomfort/affects your playing/dexterity.

on classical, it's less about damping the top in my opinion than it is about leading to a hand position that will not allow you the full dynamic range of the instrument. People like to debate this, but hearing someone play even a cheap classical with good technique will prove there is a "right" way to do some stuff.

[rickwaugh]

There are lots of good reasons to not do it. Sound is one. You have to remember with the pros, they are amplifying their instruments for the most part, so it's an even less important piece of their sound. But you get a lot more freedom if you don't anchor your finger. Classical players move their hands to get different tones - it's brighter near the bridge, fatter near the neck. A lot of pick movement comes from the wrist, and some fingerstyle techniques also - you hamper that when you anchor. And as was pointed out above, you can lock your whole hand up, straining to maintain what can be a bit of an awkward position - at least if you are going to do it, make sure you aren't doing that.

I have never done it, and I don't miss it. When I'm flatpicking, (I use a thumbpick, to go back and forth,) I have a bad habit of occasionally resting the heel of my hand on the bridge. But I have been consciously avoiding that.

[rick-slo]

Good comments already given. As far as deadening the sound, many people, classical guitarists and otherwise, rest fingers
of the picking hand on adjacent strings, say thumb resting on the bass string while picking notes on the treble strings. That
would deaden the sound more than a pinky finger on the pickguard, but it turns out not to be an issue.

[JanVigne]

"Classical technique teaches floating, while Merle Travis planted three fingers on the top of his guitars (his son claims you could have taped them to the top and it would not have affected his playing)."




Proposed thread topic; "Just how much better would Merle Travis have been if he hadn't rested his fingers on his guitar's top plate? Please discuss per instrument in Tavis' arsenal."

[EllaMom]

Very interesting and helpful.

Huttlinger, on his DVD, does not ever say to use the pinky finger to pick. However, I've experimented with this and agree with the post, above, that this gives me one more digit with which to do damage! ;-)

One more thing: One of my dreds (Teton) has a satin finish. When I anchor my pinky, if it slides around at all (which it does) as I play, I can hear the brush-like sound that comes from my skin sliding along the top. Try this with your guitar....brush your fingertips on the surface of the top....can you hear any kind of friction? I do on the Teton, and I don't like it. My other guitars..I don't hear it so much.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by Saxman

If you rest your pinky on the guitar you can't use your pinky to pick the high E string. It may take a bit of practice but if your picking hand "floats" above the strings you can use your thumb and four fingers or use a pick and three fingers. I may be doing it "wrong" but my right pinky has the longest nail and I use it all the time - especially if I want to hit the high E string softly in a chord while hitting the lower strings harder for a meatier sound.

You're right of course, but the pinky is not required for picking in classical technique, which only stipulates p-i-m-a (thumb index middle ring). Most folk/blues/country players also make do with those, and some even fewer. (As mentioned, Merle Travis managed with thumb and index alone.)

Of course you can do more with pinky too - especially if you remove your index from consideration by using hybrid picking - but if the entire classical repertoire makes do without it, I'm happy to do without it too.