Chords for RIght Hand Technique for the Acoustic Guitar

_ _ _ _ Hi, my name is Brad Davis.
My good friend Dan Miller and I have created this book,
Guitar Player's Guide for Developing Speed, Accuracy, and Tone.
This video is a reference to better help you understand right hand mechanics and technique described in this book.
_ First thing we want to talk [Bb] about is pick grip.
I hold my pick like this.
I also hold it very relaxed so the pick can be removed easily.
A lot of people hold their pick
with their first finger pointed down.
Some will also hold it with two fingers on the front and the thumb on the back.
I like to hold the pick
like this with my
thumb and first finger crossed and the pick placed here [N] with a medium extension.
Let's talk about that.
I suggest a medium extension.
However, some people use a larger pick extension and then some people use a smaller pick extension.
Whichever one is best for your balance, but I prefer a medium pick extension on the pick grip.
_ _ _ Let's talk about the right hand position.
We're going to talk about floating, we're going to talk about posting, and we're going to talk about gliding.
Let's talk about floating first.
The advantage to floating is you have the opportunity to have consistent attack on the strings as you play over the string field.
The disadvantage is the hand is floating and so you have less balance and control,
making it a little bit more difficult.
Let's talk about posting.
You can post with your fingers,
ring finger or pinky, or you can also post with the palm of your hand on the
pins.
This offers an advantage of a lot of control.
You have a lot of control this way and that way to play basically with good strength.
The only problem is that you have to stretch out and it's going to diminish the accuracy of
your pressure on each string and change it slightly.
Same here.
You have to reach further and
your pick direction will change so your accuracy is diminished, but your control is increased.
Let's talk about gliding.
Gliding is a combination of the two and
gliding is what I like to do.
Gliding allows you to leave your hand lightly posted with the fingers,
sliding this post back and forth, creating a good sense of balance,
but allowing you the ability to grab each string with almost the same accuracy every single time.
_ Let's talk about the right hand position in relation to the bridge.
We've got three choices here.
We've got a harsher [G] sound back here
at the back of the bridge.
In the middle, what I call the sweet spot,
we've got a little bit more of a mellower tone,
but not as mellow as the mellow spot up here towards the front of the sound hole.
I would use the mellow
spot here for something sweet and quiet with long sustaining notes.
Here in the sweet spot,
you can pretty much play [Fm] about anything in this.
It's a great place to stay, a great home base.
[C] Back here at the bridge, I would use maybe [G] for something harsher or something that would [Eb] be more of an attack,
possibly a blues number,
but to get [N] more volume and more attack, I would stay back here.
So you've got three choices, harsh, sweet, and mellow.
_ _ _ _ Okay, let's talk about the natural arc of the hand.
The natural arc is to do this
based on where your elbow is
and adjacent to the guitar body.
The best way [G] to do this is to get an even tone in the sweet spot by strumming through your rhythm and
basically creating an even
tone all the way down in the sweet spot as we talked about earlier.
If you're going to play at an arc
according to the natural arc of your hand as you're strumming, [D] you need to [G] lighten up on these last three strings instead of
what sounds very harsh.
So I would make that arc lighten to where that is very light and that's even lighter as I go this way.
So if you'd like to strum through, you'll get that even sweet tone and
on the sweet spot.
And if you want to arc, you need to lighten up as you bring the strings into the final end of the
strum.
_ [N] _ _ _ Let's talk about the pick angle.
This involves volume, speed, and tone.
_ The front angle,
which is the way I prefer to hold it,
_ gives you more speed and a mellower tone because there's less surface area of the pick hitting [C] the string.
_ _ _ It's easier to push through.
Same thing on the back [B] angle.
A lot of double jointed guitar players use the back angle and it's the same thing that I get on
[C] the front angle, but it's only on the back side.
It's easier to push through and gives you a mellower tone.
[G] Those players that hold it flat on the string, [C] you get a brighter tone,
_ but you have a lot more drag, less control. _
[N] _ _ _ _ Let's talk about pick extension or the depth that you play with the strings with your pick.
A small pick extension basically gives you a little more ease of [C] control,
but less volume because you had less pick to push through.
If you play with more pick, medium or large, you get more volume,
and less control.
[E] So I [A] prefer to use [Fm] a medium pick extension and [C] the front edge of the pick. _ _ _ _ _
[N] _ _ _ Pick articulation.
We need the elbow, the wrist, and the forefinger all to be involved in this to provide the best balanced tone and control.
I'm going to play you something that will show you how my right hand acts as I play and then I'll [D] describe it.
[G] _ [G] _ _ _ So basically I've got my thumb pushing here on this knuckle,
and I'm pushing down as my first finger pulls up on my upstrokes, and these two things are working together [N] as my wrist
slightly rotates back and forth.
Many players do their wrists this way and keep a more rigid first finger and thumb,
but I tend to like to roll the wrist and allow the first finger and the thumb to move freely like this,
holding the pick [G] very relaxed.
_ _ [D] _ [G] _ _
This gives me the best control and the best tone. _ _ _ _