Just curious to see what type of picking technique(s) folks prefer. There seems to be a lot of people on other online forums who are dead set against resting or anchoring the picking hand in any way, but I do so quite a bit of the time.

In fact, my technique tends to vary depending on what I'm playing. For soloing, I usually rest my palm against the bridge (I find it helps prevent unwanted string noise). When playing arpeggiated chords or 'boom chick' rhythms, I normally place my pinky on the pickguard. And when doing straight ahead strumming, my picking hand doesn't touch the guitar at all.

It depends on what sonic landscape I'm trying to hike through

My hand tends to shift when i play, but usually i rest it half on the guitar body and the other half on the low E, which is a pain because i always put too much pressure on it...and then it breaks!!

My picking hand is usually all over the place to get different tones so i use a combination according to what i'm playing.

Hello Schnepf13,

I anchor my forearm on the guitars edge,
fingers don't touch guitars top.
Wish I was better at it.

Cheers.

Most of the time I rest my palm on the bridge or anchor my pinky. Just depends on what I'm playing.

Schnepf,we have just about the same technique.I was trying a while back to break the habit of fanning my fingers out was watching a lot of paul Gilbert but it has been to many years.The only thing that snuck into my subconciese mind is when I play up on the bass strings my pinkie is kind of pulling up on the high E.I guess if I was starting out I would do the closed hand as I think you get maximum speed that way but I also see a lot of great guitarist fan out so as we know there is no right and wrong.Like Yngwie said about AL DIMEOLA his hand floats when he picks which works for him but not me.

Varied, but 'am a pickguard-pinky-on-resting kinda person for melody stuff with a flatpick

Thumb pivoting on pickup for playing electric bass.

Hand suspended for fingerpicking.

.

I usually have the side of my hand resting on the strings to mute the ones I'm not playing. Sometimes I rest my hand on the bridge when I have to play something with a lot of palm mutes, and sometimes I have my fingers anchored on the pickguard.

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I'm in the majority for a change.

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I use them all, I suppose. I just go by what feels right at the time. I've been playing for so long, that I don't notice. Like driving a five speed... I just know and don't really think about it much.

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"...The final truth is, there is no truth..." - (from "Nice n' Neat" by the Boomtown Rats)

It all depends on what i am trying to play. I had to actually think about it, as I was playing to answer, I guess I don't really even think about it anymore.

I realized, I actually hold my pick differently when I play my acoustic.

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Thanks for the feedback guys! I was curious about people's opinion on this subject...you hear from time to time that resting your hand on the bridge or body of the guitar is "bad technique" because it causes tension in your picking hand. But this never made much sense to me, because A) I personally feel more tension when I'm trying to pick individual notes "freehand," B) I always seem to get a lot on unwanted string noise when playing this way (at least on electrics), and, C) lots of terrific players (Clapton, B.B. King, John Mayer, Joe Satriani just to name a few) seem to anchor their picking hand most if not all the time and it doesn't seem to bother them.

I'm sure there are good and bad things about each of the different picking techniques -- different strokes for different folks, I suppose...

For those who are interested, here are links to a couple of videos with Al Di Meola and Eric Johnson discussing picking technique.

Al actually recommends resting the palm of the bridge most of the time...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkqWn-MLGQ0

While Eric seems to have his pinky lightly resting on the body of the guitar while picking...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACH5Z_YPmVg

Again, two different styles but each seems to work.

My pinkie and ring finger brush the pick guard, never in one spot.
Still working on whether to play with the point of the pick or the round corner, a la Robben Ford, as it keeps turning unintentionally.
Finally bought some picks which are knurled on the fat end, but they keep turning too.
I notice I let the picked string just brush the tip of my thumb or fore finger when I'm being emphatic. On a Strat it sounds way cool.