Right-hand Technique

I started to write a post about right-hand technique and holding the pick...and then it occurred to me that maybe I'd already written about it. And what do you know, I have (here.) That was exactly the post I was starting to write. And now, 18 months later, I can say that I actually do hold the pick that way, for both guitar and mandolin - and it finally feels natural and right, for both strumming and flat-picking. And it's been my conscious focus for that whole time. I pretty much had to dismantle many years of bad habits and replace it with proper technique - and it took a *long* time before it felt natural.

The final hurdle was strumming - just the easy up-and-down playing of a chord on the guitar. Even after playing single notes felt good with the new way, strumming didn't feel good - and I always had the urge to go back to the old way. But I kept at it, and have tried to go through some repetitions of some strumming songs every day (recently from among the following):

• "Old Man", Neil Young
• "Sugar Mountain", Neil Young
• "Melissa", Allman Brothers Band
• "Ramble On", Led Zeppelin
• "Time For Me To Fly", REO Speedwagon
• "Daughters", John Mayer

On a related note, last Sunday was this month's acoustic jam meetup. That's a great chance to strum for three hours, and it was also the public unveiling of my new baby. Our friends ooh'ed and aah'ed appropriately - although the guy who most wants to see it wasn't there. Hopefully next month.

There weren't meetups in July or August, and I'd missed the June session, so this was my first jam in four months, and I'm pretty sure this was the first time that I'd held the pick the right way for the whole jam.

The song I brought to the jam was Neil Young's "Sugar Mountain". Here's the song, a good tab (though tuning down is only necessary if you want to play along to the studio recording), and a good guitar lesson.