Starting to fingerpick - anchor pinky or palm heel?

[Beakybird]

The heel of your hand on the bridge will adversely affect, maybe slightly, but still - the resonance of the guitar. You also want to be able to explore the sounds while picking over the sound hole and then closer to the bridge. Don't anchor.

[TBman]

I can't remember ever anchoring with the pinky, but I may have when playing faster things. I'll float my hand or Palm mute depending on what I'm playing.

[Beakybird]

I ended my last post with, "Don't anchor." That was kind of ignorant of me to say.

I don't anchor. I'm sure there are some incredible guitarists who do anchor.

As far as the heel of your palm, however, you have a fantastic guitar that has a top that's designed to vibrate freely, and keeping the heel of your palm resting on the bridge will affect the tone a little, and you bought that great Taylor to sound as good as you can.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by Beakybird

I ended my last post with, "Don't anchor." That was kind of ignorant of me to say.

I don't anchor. I'm sure there are some incredible guitarists who do anchor.

As far as the heel of your palm, however, you have a fantastic guitar that has a top that's designed to vibrate freely, and keeping the heel of your palm resting on the bridge will affect the tone a little, and you bought that great Taylor to sound as good as you can.

Fair point - worth knowing - but there are some styles which need the bass damped, and that over-rides the inhibiting effect on the vibration of the top.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by JackB1

OK, so I have started to delve into finger picking and I can't decide which method is better....anchoring the pinky or resting the heel of the palm near the bridge or as a third option, not anchoring at all. They all seem to have pros and cons, but I feel like I need to pick one or I am impeding my progress.

Hi JackB1

Watch Tommy Emmanuel - he does all of those you listed, and several other hand adjustments as well. Whatever the situation calls for.

There is no 'right' answer, and I use the pinky as my home-row-of-keys (if you get the analogy) to set my picking/plucking hand position, but it's never (NEVER NEVER NEVER) anchored.

If you put weight on it, then you have to compensate elsewhere.

I play with superb players who anchor, drop the pinkie, don't use a pinkie at all, play thumb-n-three, thumb-n-two, or thumb-n-one fingers.

I think you need to explore and then settle on what suits the song.

The most flexible fingerstyle is thumb-n-three fingers (some say thumb-n-four) because you can pluck more complex chord positions. And you can always scale down.

Same family members don't play the same. Merle Travis played Thumb-n-one, whereas his son (Thom Bresh) is a dedicated Thumb-n-three. He can play his daddy's tunes quite nicely both ways. He also plays a hundred times faster than his daddy.

Since I don't know you, I cannot answer whether you should focus on one at a time, or take on several. Some folks multi-task just fine, whereas others focus on one thing at a time. This is about you, not about US!

Have fun exploring.

[fazool]

you are asking advice from strangers on the Internet.

50% of the people will say, with intense conviction, that you absolutely must anchor.

The other 50% of the people will say, with intense conviction, that you absolutely must not anchor.

Do what feels right to you and ignore everyone else.

[JackB1]

Originally Posted by fazool

you are asking advice from strangers on the Internet.

50% of the people will say, with intense conviction, that you absolutely must anchor.

The other 50% of the people will say, with intense conviction, that you absolutely must not anchor.

Do what feels right to you and ignore everyone else.

Of course I'm going to do what feels right to me, but it's always interesting to here different takes on things.

[Pitar]

Originally Posted by JackB1

OK, so I have started to delve into finger picking and I can't decide which method is better....anchoring the pinky or resting the heel of the palm near the bridge or as a third option, not anchoring at all. They all seem to have pros and cons, but I feel like I need to pick one or I am impeding my progress.

When I use the pinky anchor, my finger tips get a nice straight on attack on the strings, but my ring finger has trouble picking the high E string due to my pinky kind of being in the way.

When I use the palm resting on the bridge method, my picking seems to be easier and flow better, but I have a weird angle now of attacking the strings with my fingertips that doesn't get a nice full sound like the pinky anchor method does. This is because you fingers are now slightly angled dues to you palm resting on the bridge.

When I don't anchor at all, I get a nice sound with a nice straight on attack of the strings and I don't have issues with the high E string like I mentioned above, but I feel like I am not as smooth and flowing as I am with the other two methods. With practice maybe I could get there?

So do I pick one and stick with it or keep messing around until one method organically chooses itself? Thanks

I have one piece of advice. Don't anchor any part of the picking hand. The thought that one has to anchor that hand is not valid and at best a very bad habit to acquire.

[M Hayden]

Teachers have told me that anchoring is ergonomically bad. I don’t know whether it’s demonstrably true, but I don’t anchor and my hands don’t hurt unless I spend too much time on a non-musical keyboard, and my playing doesn’t seem to suffer much.

[frankhond]

Do what feels natural without locking up your hands or creating tension. If you try something and notice tension or discomfort, it’s likely a good indication you should try something different.

For a beginner almost everything feels weird. So try lots of approaches and change it up. You will start noticing certain things work better with certain music.

People who make a career out of a particular style will recommend a certain approach which works for them.

Merle Travis didn’t play classical music. If he would try to play Bach, his technique would have to change.

TE is such a brilliant guitarist because he uses all techniques as needed. There is your answer.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by Pitar

I have one piece of advice. Don't anchor any part of the picking hand. The thought that one has to anchor that hand is not valid and at best a very bad habit to acquire.

Tell that to countless successful and famous fingerpickers.

You'd be right for classical guitar. Not for blues, country, folk, etc.

I don't think anyone is saying you "have" to anchor the hand anyway - certainly not all the time. It's useful for some styles, some techniques, some tunes. Not for others.