Comments

• jimvence Austin, TX✭✭

  May 2011 Posts: 73

  IMO, the 45-50 degree angle sounds about right.
  
  Though I've never really measured it, I did notice a change in my picking angle as I acclimated to
  proper rest stroke on downward movement, maybe less so on upward movement.
  
  The reason I post is that often you will hear "picking hand off the guitar" when playing GJ.
  But, you can see some accomplished players with good technique slightly brushing the top with
  their pinky. So touching the top is not a problem, it is anchoring your pick hand on the guitar
  that is the thing to avoid.
• stubla Prodigy Godefroy Maruejouls

  May 2011 Posts: 386

  jimvence wrote:

  
  Though I've never really measured it, I did notice a change in my picking angle as I acclimated to
  proper rest stroke on downward movement, maybe less so on upward movement.
  
  The reason I post is that often you will hear "picking hand off the guitar" when playing GJ.
  But, you can see some accomplished players with good technique slightly brushing the top with
  their pinky. So touching the top is not a problem, it is anchoring your pick hand on the guitar
  that is the thing to avoid.

  
  
  I couldn't agree more--you can clearly see in many photos Djangos right hand fingers,particularly the pinkie, naturally hovering over the soundboard--Stochelo too.
  Two of the biggest mistakes people make when changing or learning gypsy picking is exaggerating the arching of the wrist too much--look at the majority of photos of Django and you just don't see him doing that--the wrist is relatively flat--the other big mistake is people thinking the hand has to be clenched in a fist like grip--as far as i can tell only Raphael Fays and Yourgui Loeffler do this--in my own personal experience this closed hand limits the freedom of the right hand to move freely across the strings and can also cause tension in the hand that results in timing issues when executing your impro.
  As you say the biggest thing to avoid is anchoring the hand on the guitar--everything else should feel natural--its just common sense really.
  Stu

  http://soundcloud.com/stublag62
• Steveareno ✭✭✭

  May 2011 Posts: 349

  I have found the whole European broken wrist pick angle thing very helpful for rythym playing and getting the la pompe vibe going. Paul Mehling explains it really well on his DVD. For single note stuff people end up doing what comes naturally (which is probably as it should be), although I do try to incorporate the downard angle technique a little and don't anchor my hand as much as I used to. Anchoring occasionally does seem give me a sense of stablility and fall back into it as needed...although I kind of curl my little finger under the high E string and lightly touch it to the soundboard. I notice Jimmy Rosenberg always has his right hand sort of splayed out on the soundboard. Unusual technique, but seems to work well for him.
  Swang on,
• Jazzaferri Victoria B.C.Moderator Dunn Ultrafox, DuPont MDC20 Gretsch Chet Atkins CG

  May 2011 Posts: 3,707

  IMO one needs a broken wrist to do the rhythm thing but a relaxed flatter wrist to rest stroke pick
  
  Tension slows me down.

  The Magic really starts to happen when you can play it with your eyes closed