not sure if this belongs here or not, so sorry in advanced. well heres the story, i have a friend whos ignorant as fuck and his playing technique could be better, he uses his whole arm to pick instead of his wrist and tries to play fast just for the heck of it while missing pretty much every note and making what hes playing sound like shit.

knowing him if i told him about this he would probably say something like " oh but i like to play like this and as long as it works for me", I'm still pretty shitty in guitar myself so im not sure if i should be ragging on his playing and technique. what do you guys think i should do? leave it as it is or try to help him out?

i think you should always help sum1 out if you think theyre doing something wrong. esp if hes your friend. ok now we've established that we're going to help him, the next question is, : is he wrong? and if so what should he be doing instead of the current technique he is using?

im not too sure my self as im new to guitar aswell, i've only been playing for around 5-6months

well, i dont think he uses his wrist, but his full arm and he picks VERY hard, pains me when he plays on my guitar. as well he tries to play things that are too fast for him, i'd probably want to tell him to work on accuracy before speed, because the notes are messy and inaccurate when plays

Tell him to only use his wrist, it will pay off BIG in the long run.

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Show him videos of his favourite bands/guitarists playing live or something, and point out their picking technique. If he idolises someone, or is at least a fan of someone's music, he's more likely to buck up his ideas and start picking properly

Also, when he next says 'it sounds fine and works for me', tell him that it sounds like fucking shite and that if he continues to play with his forearm tensed up, he'll face a serious risk of screwing his arm up for good. Then he won't be able to masturbate, and he'll face a lifetime of sexual tension and severe depression as a result

Yeah good idea!

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LOL, haha thanks for the idea guys

if he wants to play like that, let him.
it WILL give him tendonitis, and stop him playing well, but you should only tell him once.
if you want to change him, learn how to play properly and well yourself. eventually he will ask you "how do you do that shit? how did you improve so much faster than me?", and then you show him.

nobody likes someone who goes round all the time telling eveyone what theyre doing wrong, and how they should do it right like you, you could get a reputation as a smart arse.

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I try to pick only with my wrist but my arm starts wiggling when I do it anyway, any advice on how to hold the pick etc?

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I think that what you are doing is fine, from what i can gather, this guys friend is keeping his wrist rigid, and just moving his whole forearm from the elbow to pick.

As for holding the pick, i would suggest what feels most comfortable for you

zakk wylde picks with his whole arm.... and pulls it off, and alternate pics everything, mostly pentatonic shit and blues scales. Theres nothing wrong with it, its just gives you a differant sound, ive seen michael angelo pick with his arm to.

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Yeah I guess I'm okay with it, I can't find any comfortable position where I can pick with only my wrist and not have the arm shake a little.

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if youre friends doing something wrong let him know. In the long run he might end up hurting his arm/hand by doing that, and he wont play as well as he could.

rofl, good one.

Anyway, by picking with your entire arm, isn't it even harder to do palm muting when needed? That seems... like, impossible.
When I try to do it like that, my arm starts huthing in less than a minute, I can't imagine how he can do that... and about the missing notes part, that ain't fuckin good at all! That sucks, as I'm only playin for like 5-6 months as well I just hate it when I'm doin' a solo and missing notes... no comment. Getting used to that leads you to nowhere.

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Missing notes is brutal. i got Tabs for Bed of razors and was polishing the part that h4x5k8 was doing in his video, Up till that point i had not articulated the same single note over and over, and they sounded completely fucking different. But after hearing that vid i realised what i was doing wrong. So, Propped my guitar up properly, And started picking more technically, As i tend to do it too soft and get a bit of a light note as a result. Got it down nicely now, though. BTW i've been playing for about 3 months.