Fretting or Picking Hand - Which Do You Find More Difficult?

[James W]

Well?

I have always found my right hand more difficult.

[pamosmusic]

More difficult?

Not sure. Hard to know if it’s actually harder or if we all just ignore it for eight years and then decide to work on it and go “whoa.”

But also I think I find the right hand more interesting. Maybe for the same reason.

[James W]

More difficult?

Not sure. Hard to know if it’s actually harder or if we all just ignore it for eight years and then decide to work on it and go “whoa.”

But also I think I find the right hand more interesting. Maybe for the same reason.

Good point.

I think I may be guilty of having ignored it for a while - through most my teens. Then I recall being about 17 and buying Guthrie Govan's book called Advanced Techniques and it has lots of exercises for alternate picking, alongside strictures such as having to pick from the wrist etc. plus it came with a CD of him doing all of these picking exercises. That was enough to put me off! I never really recovered haha.

[jazznylon]

Probably my fretting hand. I can go crazy with my right hand but my fretting hand its harder to keep up. Especially with shifting chords at faster tempos. Very difficult to not have it be a chord slopfest

[pauln]

Poll data results suggest majority's
picks are too thick for playing jazz?

[Llewlyn]

I think the picking had is where I put more work on, bc it plays a prominent role in tone production.

Ll.

[Christian Miller]

Atm I’d say the fretting hand


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[JazzPadd]

When I played with a pick, I’d have answered picking hand. But several years ago I became a thumb player, so I answered neither / both. There are trade offs for using thumb and fingers instead of a pick, but for what I want to do, and enjoy doing, with jazz guitar, my hands feel more in sync, more in touch with the strings, without using a pick.

Interestingly, when I first started out on jazz guitar in the 1980s, I played with thumb. After leaving guitar aside for many years to explore world music, on the oud and the kora (both strung with nylon), and then returning to jazz guitar perhaps 10-15 years ago, I began using pick on steel.

Perhaps ironically, when on other world music instruments (setar, tanbur) before my return to guitar, it felt awkward to use fingers on steel strings. Now it feels like a happy medium using thumb and fingers on steel (though I also play some nylon).

I suppose, in the end, I can only wish everyone the best in finding what works for them on guitar.

[James W]

When I played with a pick, I’d have answered picking hand. But several years ago I became a thumb player, so I answered neither / both. There are trade offs for using thumb and fingers instead of a pick, but for what I want to do, and enjoy doing, with jazz guitar, my hands feel more in sync, more in touch with the strings, without using a pick.

Interestingly, when I first started out on jazz guitar in the 1980s, I played with thumb. After leaving guitar aside for many years to explore world music, on the oud and the kora (both strung with nylon), and then returning to jazz guitar perhaps 10-15 years ago, I began using pick on steel.

Perhaps ironically, when on other world music instruments (setar, tanbur) before my return to guitar, it felt awkward to use fingers on steel strings. Now it feels like a happy medium using thumb and fingers on steel (though I also play some nylon).

I suppose, in the end, I can only wish everyone the best in finding what works for them on guitar.

Yeah. My history is one of switching between using a plectrum for rock and then jazz and fingerstyle for classical. After years on and off trying to use a plectrum, last year I made the final decision it wasn't for me, so switched back to fingerstyle, initially just playing classical but now mostly jazz. For jazz I mostly use rest stroke because I find that easier than free stroke to play faster (though I practice both and TBH now the situation is sort of evening out - sometimes if I practice too long my right hand gives up for rest stroke and resorts to free stroke lol) though I haven't *quite* got to the Mancuso-style situation of switching between the two strokes for certain licks haha - although I did buy his course and have purloined a few exercises from that - but for now, just concentrating on the rest stroke for playing jazz lines. I've got it where I relax more for awkward string-changes so they feel better now.

Anyway, the take away from all of this is that, in general, picking hand technique varies much more for guitar than does the fretting hand, I'd say. So my left hand has been steadily developed over years whereas my right hasn't. Not that I'm some sort of legato monster haha...

[Mick-7]

Once you perfect your right hand technique, the difficulty should end, but there is virtually no end to the complexity of what and how you may play with your left hand, i.e., there will always be something to "fret" about.

[James W]

Once you perfect your right hand technique, the difficulty should end, but there is virtually no end to the complexity of what you what you may play with your left hand, i.e., there will always be something to "fret" about.

Sure but are you speaking from experience here, Mick?

[Mick-7]

Sure but are you speaking from experience here, Mick?

Yes sir... then again, I have often thought of abandoning the pick and going fingerstyle as Lorne Lofsky did (well, he does use a thumb pick) and for the same reason.

Now if I could handle a pick like Johnny Smith, I'd have no reason to go fingerstyle, but that's a super high bar. So a plectrum is limiting to me but not enough it seems to give it up.

[James W]

Yes sir... then again, I have often thought of abandoning the pick and going fingerstyle as Lorne Lofsky did (well, he does use a thumb pick) and for the same reason.

Now if I could handle a pick like Johnny Smith, I'd have no reason to go fingerstyle, but that's a super high bar. So a plectrum is limiting to me but not enough it seems to give it up.

Limiting? But you told me from your own experience what rewards you found after perfecting right hand technique...

[Mick-7]

Limiting? But you told me from your own experience what rewards you found after perfecting right hand technique...

What I meant is that I've perfected it about as much as I can short of matching Johnny Smith's proficiency.

A corollary to that might be playing finger style as well as Matteo Mancuso. To quote Clint Eastwood in the movie Dirty Harry, "A man's got to know his limitations."

[pamosmusic]

I made this for a few students.

forgive the dramatic name — it was a joke. But also I’ll probably leave it.

little orchestra 1 - alternating - Google Drive

I’ve got a few others of these. They get a little wild.

[pamosmusic]

What I meant is that I've perfected it about as much as I can short of matching Johnny Smith's proficiency.

[rpjazzguitar]

There are hard things I can't do with my left hand, but I don't worry about them because there are easier things I can't do with my right hand.

[supersoul]

I voted for the picking hand, but now that I'm thinking about it I should have voted neither. They're both equally important. They have different challenges for sure, but they need to work together.

[BreckerFan]

IMO, the things the left hand does, while challenging, are pretty intuitive. It's conceptually easy to understand how to fret strings. The things the right hand does are not intuitive, and there is also many ways to do the same thing.

It's much more common for someone to have good legato technique (I know, I know) and bad picking technique than vice versa.

[AllanAllen]

My fretting hand started behaving better once I focused on my picking hand.

I don’t have a right hand denomination, I just come across hard lines and try to make them easier with economy, slurs or sweeps. Someone who cares more about labels, or someone who teaches, could figure it all out. Luckily, I don’t have to.

[Mick-7]

IMO, the things the left hand does, while challenging, are pretty intuitive. It's conceptually easy to understand how to fret strings. The things the right hand does are not intuitive, and there is also many ways to do the same thing.

I really don't know how you can say that. An average phrase could be fretted in many different ways; hammer-ons, pull-offs, slurs, slides, played on different sets of strings, in different positions, with or without open strings, etc., the possibilities are very numerous. Comparatively, how many ways can you pick a note?

The point I was trying to make earlier (but apparently didn't succeed at), is that once most guitarists achieve a certain degree of proficiency with their right hand technique, a level they are more or less satisfied with, they generally don't spend much time on it anymore but instead focus on their left hand phrasing. Does anyone disagree with that observation?

[pamosmusic]

I really don't know how you can say that. An average phrase could be fretted in many different ways; hammer-ons, pull-offs, slurs, slides, played on different sets of strings, in different positions, with or without open strings, etc., the possibilities are very numerous. Comparatively, how many ways can you pick a note?

you’re talking about how many ways there are to fret a phrase. So you should be asking comparatively how many ways are there to pick a phrase.

Answer: quite a lot.

especially when you consider that you included left hand articulation. So we should also include for every note things like staccato, marcato, accent, pizz, ponticello, dolce, etc.

I think honestly there tend to be fewer practical left hand fingerings for something than there are practical right hand fingerings.

That may not be true, but it kind of feels true. Verifying it would involve math and I don’t want to do math.

[Mick-7]

you’re talking about how many ways there are to fret a phrase. So you should be asking comparatively how many ways are there to pick a phrase.

Answer: quite a lot.

especially when you consider that you included left hand articulation. So we should also include for every note things like staccato, marcato, accent, pizz, ponticello, dolce, etc.

I don't see it, all the picking motions you listed can be controlled by left hand technique, how you fret the note, how long you hold it, etc.
A string is struck softly or with more force, perhaps repeatedly, that's a long way from "quite a lot" of ways to pick a note.

[pamosmusic]

I don't see it, all the picking motions you listed can be controlled by left hand technique, how you fret the note, how long you hold it, etc.
A string is struck softly or with more force, perhaps repeatedly, that's a long way from "quite a lot" of ways to pick a note.

loud, soft, everything in between, rest stroke, free stroke, dolce, ponticello, everything in between.

and thats one note

so yes ... apply that across a phrase and that is indeed a lot.

[Mick-7]

You can change the volume of notes with the right hand techniques you mentioned, and tone a little bit (it's more controlled by the left hand), but it does not at all compare with the many ways you can affect the sound of notes with your left hand. If you're playing an electric guitar, the left hand wins this left/right competition hands down (pardon the pun).