#267: Open Hand VS Closed Hand Picking Technique Lesson

Hey Bernth. When i was first learning to play guitar and since then I’ve always put the pinky of my picking hand on the pick guard as a reference. Will i need to stop doing that for the most effective closed hand technique?

Hey there, it's not broken, that is intentional - please read the text that is leading to the link. Hope that helps have a great day!

Bernd Brodträger

hello，the link seems broken, this links to lesson #266

Marco Maria Fernando Scandolaro

I've avoided switching for years and everytime I hear it in one of your videos I kind of plug my ears and pretend I can't hear it. I watched this video and it convinced me to finally stick with it. I did my usual practice routine today all close handed and though I've got a while until I'm used to it, it was an absolute game changer! I was able to shorten my picking motion significantly. Jamming out some of my favorite Lamb of God and Gojira tunes with it right now and (at least the parts that aren't extremely awkward) it is cleaning up my playing so much! Thanks for always pushing the close handed technique

simon kretchik

Sorry didn´t read the whole paragraph. The answer´s yes and it makes sense. A big hugh, pal!!!

Eduardo Martín Alonso

After decades .. going closed handed.

Tomas Tomasovich

Bernth, are the attachments to this post #267 the same ones attached to the post #266? Thanks!

Eduardo Martín Alonso

I'm the same way, but I also see the anchoring as an intermediate style between closed and open hand. Could be it's just a crutch, but I feel like my playing is more relaxed when I anchor compared to either closed or open hand.

Wilhelm Glomm

I was stubborn when I was young and would just say I preferred my style when people suggested I was holding the pick wrong(basically formed an O with thumb and index and held the pick with the finger tips) and was hitting all the plateaus that came with it. Took me 3 months to relearn how to pick, but I was still persisting with open hand, that took me another 2 months to correct. 15 years of bad habit does not die overnight. Everything just became easier, once I kicked the old habits. Give it time, a couple of months of practice to correct a bad technique will save you years of frustration.

Rene Lavoie

I think the core statement here ist, 'What one wants'. At the moment I sometimes mix the two styles, but I don't see the need to adapt to the closed hand style completely. Since following BERNTH, him constantly pointing out the importance of clean playing and avoiding a fretwarp whenever possible, I managed to clean up my playing a lot without adaping to a closed hand. A lot has to do with hand sync, but obviously also avoiding extra string noise from the picking hand. Which is definitely possible with an open hand.

Arvid Richter

This is great, I've been working on it already and this was a huge help. Also been holding the pick wrong all my life. Taking some time to adjust but seeing steady improvement starting at a month into them both!

Robert

I have been playing for about 30 years, but only seriously for about 7. I recently moved from open to closed. challenging transition but worth it. I am now 52 and learning to play fast only now, learning techniques like tapping and legato only now. closing my hand does make a huge difference to speed and clarity. However like Bernth says, I still open my hand when playing live. Be patient work on the technique if it is beneficial to you and in time it will become natural. Great tip by the way?

Dimitri Constant

very good tip i will use that!

David Ménard

I was also an open-hand player until i started practicing your excersises, and transitioning to open-hand style improved me a lot. But transitioning phase a little bit though for me until i watched a trick. For those who are struggling to transition from open-hand to close hand, I watched a video from Ben Eller (He got this trick from a bass player actually) Here is the tip: Practice with 2 picks. When practicing, just hold your main pick with regular grip and hold the second one (not squeeze, just hold.) with your pinky&ring fingers and your palm. The aim is not dropping the second pick. At the beginning, it will feel weird. Just continue with your regular practice routine. After a couple of weeks, your muscle memory will adapt. Congrulations.

Çağrı Aydın

I have always anchored with the pinky, but I have also always experimented with right hand technique, including losing the pick and just using my thumb and fingers. After trying it out for a few days, I think the closed hand technique offers advantages in terms of range of motion, speed, control, and picking attack options. To be clear, I still almost always anchor with something while using the closed hand technique, I just don't anchor with the pinky. When palm muting, I anchor with the palm near or on the bridge. When not palm muting, I anchor with my forearm on the outside edge of the guitar, even for most strumming. I am still trying it out, though. Maybe the anchoring is a crutch that I need to lose eventually, but it does ease the transition to closed hand technique while providing the benefits mentioned above, even with the anchoring. Thanks for the encouragement to try the technique!

Scot A. Griffin

I switched to closed hand about a year ago now and is pretty rough at the beginning because it feels like starting over again but now it is finally paying off as I am building up speed and other techniques right now. do not expect this to change your live within a week, it's a matter of practice and getting used to it... This also applies to the palm muting part, I personally now have zero issues with that anymore.

Opus Gaudens

probably its a matter of practice. i find it hard for me personally because ive been playing for 16 years with open hand. maybe.. there are some advantages with that technique, but have you ever saw Paul Gilbert? Malmsteen? Michael Angelo? They all have different approach on this topic. so my conclusion is that its really personal. Also every hand is different and unique, from what i saw in Bernths videos, his hands are much different than mine. Despite that fact i found a lot of useful info and good lessons! Thank you

Todor Todorov

I have considered this transition from open hand to closed hand technique, but I also find that palm muting is quite a challenge. Any advice on this, Bernth?

Martti

I find that palm muting with this approach is hell 😭

Michele Brusadelli

Amazing, I just figured out the reason for the ONLY thing I "don't like" about your sound, Bernth. It's the closed hand approach making your sound more sterile, as opposed to my aim for the more dirty kind of sound found in hard rock etc. Therefore, overall I'm gonna stick to it for most times but gonna lern the other for versatility. Thanks alot!

Dante21

I can't agree enough with the advice here. It's been very helpful to hear this from yourself. I was chatting to some other musician friends of mine just recently about this and we couldn't come to an agreement on the form your picking hand should take 😂. For them, it was just the style they wanted to play, rather than being articulate.

Michael Hewett

I completely revamped my picking technique from open to closed hand with the help of your courses and vidoes For me it made all the difference. My confidence is boosted because I have more control of the notes and it sounds better

LowFrequencyOxidizer

I've been dying to learn more about this because I play open handed and feel like I'm doing something terrible. I want to go to closed hand but, like you mentioned, it just feels so wrong - and if I don't concentrate my hand opens up on its own

Nick Peth

I had the pinky holder since i started and i feel very uncomfortable using the closed hand technique but it does remove lot of noise and awareness over string to focus on playing, i will get there soon!

David Ménard

Yes I have exactly the same issue atm - so I don't have the answer but would also like to know 😅

Ivan V.

Hi Bernth I generally play with a closed fist approach, however cant seem to palm mute properly, bottom 2 strings are fine if I am playing some metallica riffs for example, but the top 4 strings get progressively worse, for example the GnR welcome to the jungle opening riff is full of excess noise etc. Any tips to get that down? Tried experimenting with different angles etc but nothing is working for me. thanks

philipp kopfli

@bernth are you resting your right hand palm on the strings or bridge? Or is it always in the air?

Tim Sellsted Guitar

Playing anything with any efficiency and especially dynamic and stamina requires ...maintaining a completely relaxed shoulder, arm, wrist and hand.

Brian Bridger

Lucky for me I naturally started with a closed hand. I caught tons of crap from other guitar players to the point I switched then realized for me it was way better for what I wanted. Easy transition back. I like it for palm muting, string changes, and sweeps too because my arm slides down my closed hand and I can visualize where I am super easy and get the best angle consistently.

Donovan Pierce

Oh no you are absolutely right, I should have read the post first. My normal "must download new Bernth exercises"-habbit kicked in too early. :D Sorry!

Mirko

I have same problem too !?

KB

There is no specific #267 workout - the note above is saying that last week's #266 is a good picking workout to start using the closed hand technique 👍🏻

Eric Bailey

Thanks for the comment! Please read the post, that should answer your question :) Here is the information in the post for you again: Looking for a workout to start practicing/trying a different approach than your current technique? Last week's picking play-along workout is a perfect choice! Here are the files once again: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1yTw0_1X-nk2o7w9_WrJw8mM8R_Mh22R6?usp=sharing

Bernd Brodträger

I can't...

Lukasz Koziol

Hey, when I click on the links (both google drive and dropbox) it opens workout #266 from last week. Can anyone download #267?

Mirko

This was one of the biggest turning points in my playing. I had a terrible right hand position where my picking hand looked like a claw and I would anchor my pinky to the pick guard or high E string for stability. I switched to Bernth’s approach last year mainly doing the 7 note per string AP exercise over the major scale, and I think it took me about 10 weeks to get used to the new position. I still switch to open hand occasionally for downpicking parts because it is a slightly different choke sound.

Miles McDonald

Very interesting - so I must try to play "The Number of the Beast" intro (downpicking ONLY) with my picking hand closed!

Lukasz Koziol

Perfect timing, was just speaking to my guitar teacher about picking technique this morning 🤘🏼

Benjamin Hirons

Ooh, a very interesting topic! I've just switched to the closed hand having played with the open technique for something like 5 years or so. I feel like it also makes me more accurate with my picking hand. However, it does make strumming and riffing much more difficult since I find altering the technique is very difficult at least now in the beginning when I haven't gotten used to the closed hand yet.

BadassBämbi

I'm going through this transition as well! Thx Bernth!

Scott Ring

Thanks for this, Bernth! Now clocking at 1.5 years of steady practice in my guitar journey, this 'decision' - or rather choice while practicing - is surfacing a lot lately for me.

Ivan V.