There's an issue I see in so many guitar players, from beginners right through to upper intermediate, that really harms their string changing. It brings in tension, it creates inaccuracies and it actually gives you a bad tone as well.
The fix is pretty simple. It just takes some practice. And there's a bonus you get from changing it, too.
Arm height vs wrist turn ▶ 0:41
There are two ways your picking hand can get from one string to another.
The first is to use your arm height to decide which string you're on. As you go through a scale from the low E to the high e, the whole arm drops down, and the movement comes right from the elbow.
The second is to just turn the wrist to change strings, while the arm stays roughly where it is.
The second one is where the problems come from.
Why turning the wrist causes problems ▶ 1:12
You want every string to respond in the same way each time you play it, as best you can. Whether you're on the low E or the high e, you want it to feel like the pick is doing the same thing to both.
If you use your wrist angle to change strings, by the time you get to the high e you're at a really funny angle to the string. You're almost picking sideways, brushing through it, with the pick very angled against the string. Whereas up on the low E, the pick is nice and parallel. A bit of pick angle is fine and quite natural, but you don't want too much.
A quick test ▶ 1:46
Here's a good way to check if you're doing this:
- Pick through a scale from the low E all the way to the high e.
- Look at where your wrist is when you reach the high e, and keep it locked in that position.
- Bring your arm back up and play the scale again with the wrist still at that angle.
If your wrist has been turning to reach the high strings, this will sound bad and feel pretty horrible. That's the angle you're forcing on the high strings every time.
It hurts your tone too ▶ 2:07
Technique aside, it's not great tonally. The more you pick sideways against the string, the more scratchiness you get in your tone and the less definition each note has, because you're brushing past the string rather than properly going through it.
When I was in the studio with my old band, I was a little guilty of brushing the strings like this, and the producer told me to flatten the pick slightly against the strings because it gives a much fuller tone. You lose that scratchiness and just hear the note.
Bonus: palm muting gets easier ▶ 2:38
It also makes your playing a bit muddy, because picking-hand muting is really important. When I pick through a pentatonic scale moving from the arm, by the time I get to the high e, all the lower strings are muted with the palm of my picking hand.
If I just turn the wrist, that's really hard to do. I can sort of mute the strings, but it's hard to get the palm flat against them as you get towards the high e and B strings. I actually needed a couple of attempts to get a clean run, or as clean as I could, while demonstrating the wrist-turning version.
Less tension in the wrist ▶ 3:12
The other problem is tension. Just angle your wrist downwards and you'll feel it. With the wrist straight, in line with your arm, there's less tension. So as you pick through the strings, it's your arm height that should change.
Practise it with a sweep ▶ 3:24
A really good way to test this is with sweep picking. Take a basic arpeggio and push the arm through the strings. Make sure it's the arm dropping through, not the wrist turning. Your muting will be better, your tone will be better and you should be able to relax more.
It might feel a bit weird and wonky at first. A lot of things do on guitar, especially new techniques once you're past the beginner stage.
A little bit of wrist movement is okay. It's very natural for the wrist to turn a little, and if you watch me play you'll probably see mine move a bit when I change strings. But the main mover of my picking hand is my arm, almost from the elbow.
So check in with yourself. Run a scale from the low E to the high e, slowly, against a metronome, and watch whether the arm is doing the travelling. Then try the locked-wrist test again and see if the high strings feel any different.
