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While playing with a mirror today it occured to me suddenly that I never rest my upper arm on my guitar! It almost seemed like a revelation to me because I tried it now and it makes me feel so much more comfortable. I never really realized my position before, that I always play with a slightly raised shoulder / raised upper arm and only my lower arm resting on my guitar, as this accommodates my hand/wrist position. The problem I often had with my old position though was that besides straining my shoulder, it made keeping the guitar in position really problematic at times.
But then I checked out many videos on YouTube and it seems as if almost everyone plays with their upper arm constantly rested.
Which made me think "have I been playing wrong all along"? But I can't really imagine it...because while resting my upper arm makes the whole arm area feel incredibly relaxed I need to bend my wrist to uncomfortable degrees if I'm not playing pulgar. Or do I have arms that are too long?
I know we must have had a couple threads on this but the search function is currently failing me. So if anyone can just tell me what's the "right" position...or what I'm really supposed to do...that would help.
I have always played with my arm rested on -- and even wrapped around -- the guitar. This worked fine for rasgueado and pulgar techniques but seriously impeded my progress with picado since I could not get into a comfortable "box" position because of an unnatural wrist angle. My arms are a bit long, but it seems like most people seem to raise their arms a bit off the guitar when switching to picado, arpeggios, and tremolo.
Looks like the trick is to adjust your arm position depending on what you are playing.
Posts: 15725
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
RE: Raising my shoulder / upper arm? (in reply to Munin)
Here, longish arms means, only pulgar alone and some rasgueados with wrist, require the arm to rest on the body. All the rest of the time, picado, arpegios, etc, the arm is WAY up off the guitar.
Posts: 257
Joined: Apr. 20 2006
From: Sončno polje pri Večnosti
RE: Raising my shoulder / upper arm? (in reply to Ricardo)
quote:
Here, longish arms means, only pulgar alone and some rasgueados with wrist, require the arm to rest on the body. All the rest of the time, picado, arpegios, etc, the arm is WAY up off the guitar.
Todd plays with his arm raised too.
I wonder how can those guys keep their shoulders relaxed.
I have relatively long arms too. I noticed that if I lean a bit forward, my arm slides upwards. Something like Gerardo's position in Ricardo's avatar. Moraito does something similar I think. It also brings my hand closer to the bridge.
RE: Raising my shoulder / upper arm? (in reply to Munin)
Gee, and to think that I have played like that for over a year - assuming it was completely normal! I do wish I could completely rest my upper arm and shoulder..but then I am not sure whether I actually have long arms - most of the guys that play with the arm rested don't seem to have longer arms than me, and yet, if I play with my arm completely rested, I just can't seem to get my wrist in a straight, perpendicular position.
Note that I actually not completely take off my arm of the guitar in my old position of course - I just rest the forearm on the top's edge instead of the whole arm.
RE: Raising my shoulder / upper arm? (in reply to Ricardo)
quote:
Here, longish arms means, only pulgar alone and some rasgueados with wrist, require the arm to rest on the body. All the rest of the time, picado, arpegios, etc, the arm is WAY up off the guitar.
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That picado falseta at 1.12 is insanity........
I notice his hand position is different to paco. Instead of starting with the thumb above the sixth string and then sliding the hand up, he plays with the thumb resting on the string below or 2 strings below the string he is playing. It certainly works well!!!
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