Anchoring hand to the bridge? Bad thing?

[6_string_master]

i just now realized ultimate guitar.com is a joke.

Yeah, I became a member there a while back, but after seeing the immaturity of the people there(mostly 13 year old kids swearing or talking about sex), I stopped posting on those forums. JCF Online is awesome, though!

@MichaelLitvak: whatever feels and works well for you is great. I have never heard of that technique before. I might try it out. I like to be open to new techniques on guitar and at least give em' a shot.

[JACKSONFREAK]

I rest my hand on the bridge but more over the studs end of the saddles area than on the bridge itself. I also anchor my pinku to the body and use that as a pivot point depending on what im doing.
Gil

[demeyes]

I tend to play with both my palm resting lightly on the bridge and my pinky touching the body near the volume knob. I've just messed around with playing without any anchoring and it feels really unnatural for me.

[Super_shredder]

i rest my hand on the low strings and anchor my pinky on my rr's scratch plate this helps me keep my 3 string sweeps nice and clean

[omwdc]

i anchor my pinky between the 2 pickups - i've seen zappa anchor one of his fingers at the bottom of the fretboard of his sg

[KennyF]

I'm a "pinky on the body" type, but it's not really anchored there. It's more like a very lightly placed, stabilizing monopod. WHAAAAAT??? :ROTF:

[tanpsi]

I'm a "pinky on the body" type, but it's not really anchored there. It's more like a very lightly placed, stabilizing monopod. WHAAAAAT??? :ROTF:

Me too pretty much, sometimes I try to float

[mantis]

Crazy thing is I anchor my pinky as well. I use the bottom side of the bridge pickup. Wierd but I noticed myself doing this just lately. I also rest my hand on the bridge when playing just about all the time unless I'm strumming open cords and what have you.
I palm mute my ass off, just about everything I do it based around it. I also do mad harmonics even with full cords. I use lighter strings(9's) so they are slinky.

Good luck with your new found style technics.

Dan

[KennyF]

Me too pretty much, sometimes I try to float

Me too, although I don't know if I'm tryin' to float, or it just works out that way. In fact, with me, it might be the other way around. I think my hand is floating most of the time and the pinky thing occurs when needed for technical stuff.

Maybe.

[The Magic Hoof]

I've heard that anchoring is wrong from some, but I see a lot of people do it.

I have one question which boggles my mind: if you're not supposed to anchor, anywhere, ever, nothing at all, then how is your hand supposed to be stable? Someone once told me that your hand shouldn't be on the bridge, your pinky shouldn't be anywhere (by the middle/bridge pups) and your arm shouldn't touch the guitar either. If this is the case, how is it possible to play guitar at all? I see pop-punk bands strumming with a huge range of motion and their hand/arm never touches the guitar, but to play fast, you HAVE to have some kind of anchor. Your entire arm as well as your hand not touching anything seems impossible since there's so much weight in your limbs (unless you're an alien and keep the pick on a string for anchorage or something...)


I might have been told wrong, but as far as I remember, your entire arm isn't supposed to touch the guitar -- even the part of your elbow that touches the body beyond the bridge.

For example, if you took a long stick and wanted to stick it into a hole that was very small, wouldn't it be a lot easier to go to the end of it (your hand) and 'put' it in instead of using the entire thing (your arm)? Surely it's harder to use the entire thing (arm) because you'd be jiggling the damned thing around trying to get it in there because of the weight -- kind of like construction/carpentry where you stick a nail into a hole from the pointy part and not the part that you hit (because there's more stabilty.)


I'll always play the way that feels most comfortable, but I seriously have no idea what my old friend and some other people I've heard from are talking about when they say this.


I just realized this thread is becoming subtly perverted

[El_Kabong]

If you aren't a pro touring musician, there is no need. As many of us have seen the dorky fret board studying pics of ourselves when we are playing solos, if you know where your hands are, you can look at the crowd, interact and provide a show for those that fill your tank and buy you your next extra value meal that you can't stomach to eat because the drummer couldn't wait and now is letting sulphur laced taco hell farts loose on his snare drum in the back of the old Econoline, for extra effect.

Take a look at Led Zep's, "How the West was Won", and see how Page's right hand climbs around the guitar body to know where he is. In addition, the U2 video for,"I will Follow", has the Edge's hand glued to the bridge of his explorer as he dances around the stage.

I have never anchored my picking hand and patterned it after SRV's style. It may explain though, why I sound like a drunken Ace Frehley coming off a coke bender.

[Special-K]

I always hold my hand with the little finger(of my right hand of course) on the side of the bridge pickup...

[Brick]

hand on the bridge is a great little trick i have no idea how it could be a bad thing
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