Right Hand Attacks on Guitar

Right Hand Attacks on Guitar

"The right hand is what brings life to your playing. It allows you to build, to soften, basically to add a lot of techniques that make your music more interesting."

Later on when we talk about dynamics (in the Songwriting section) we'll take some of these attacks and apply them with variations to melodies to see how we can alter the piece.

There are many different ways to attack the guitar strings. The mark of a good guitarist with good technique is to be able to determine when and where to use any given attack. Lets look at a few different right hand guitar techniques:

Types of Strokes

the rest stroke:

Used to emphasize the beginning of a note. Perform this right hand technique by striking the string and follow through the string until your finger rests on the next string. Notice the note has a decidedly clear tone. The emphasis is on the striking of the tone, the beginning. Then the tone volume decreases from then on out.

Because of the direction of this attack is a slightly more downward motion than say the free stroke, it creates more tension on the string and consequently the resulting tone contains an even clarity.

It's an attack used to call attention to a note, it says, "I'm here and I stand out above my peers."

the free stroke:

As the name implies, in this right hand technique the note used to create a melodic, flowing feeling. The emphasis is on the ring of the tone, or perhaps the building of the tone because no part of the life of the tone stands out really.

It says, "I'm here, I'm beautiful and look how well I play with my peers."

The direction of the attack is more horizontal than the rest stroke. Your finger moves through the string
and retracts, then returns to its original position, ready for its next move. It's much more even in volume, it rings.

the upstroke:

I don't mean this in the sense of a strumming upstroke, I mean that when you attack the string you get under it. You use your nail, pick or flesh to very slightly pull the string up away from the soundboard. The result is that the string snaps back down and gives a POPPING tone.

This attack has a similar energy as the rest stroke except that it's not as ...proper I guess. It says, "Boom I'm here let's get it on." By the way sorry about my corny metaphors. But hopefully you get the point.

The strokes above deal with angle of attack to a point, but you can also change the angle of your nail or pick to change the tone.

• Parallel to the strings and you get a harsher, more solid tone with higher volume.
• Angle the attack a bit and you get a more mellow, fuller sound.
• You can slide your finger or nail lightly over the top of the string to get a more glistening sound.
• You can dig into the string to get more of a crunch.

Finger independence

The exercises I've provided deal less with the type of stroke you use and more on the finger you use to attack with. This is one of the great technical challenges of ours as fingerstylists: To develop the right hand and fingers enough that they can move as independently as possible with enough control and confidence to easily play or execute what it is we hear in our heads.

Try these exercises and incorporate them into your practices. The exercise may seem short but they are invaluable to developing your right hand.

Right Hand Fingerpicking: Attack exercises

With the following exercises, use the same tab but switch fingers to help make your fingerpicking and fingers more independent of each other.

Right hand attack TAB

|-5-6-5-6-5-6-5-6-------------------------------------------------------|
|-----------------5-6-5-6-5-6-5-6---------------------------------------|
|---------------------------------5-6-5-6-5-6-5-6-----------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------5-6-5-6-5-6-5-6-------|
|-----------------------------------------------------------------5-6-5-|
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
	

Fingerpicking exercise 1 : Right hand guitar attack

(p - i) Alternate your thumb and index finger

Fingerpicking exercise 2 : Right hand guitar attack

(p - m) Alternate your thumb and middle finger

Fingerpicking exercise 3 : Right hand guitar attack

(p - a) Alternate your thumb and ring finger

Fingerpicking exercise 4 : Right hand guitar attack

(p - i - p - m) Alternate your thumb and index finger to thumb and middle finger

Fingerpicking exercise 5 : Right hand guitar attack

(p - i - p - a) Alternate your thumb and index finger to thumb and ring finger

Fingerpicking exercise 6 : Right hand guitar attack

(p - m - p - a) Alternate your thumb and middle finger to thumb and ring finger

Fingerpicking exercise 7 : Right hand guitar attack

(i - m) Alternate your index and middle finger

Fingerpicking exercise 8 : Right hand guitar attack

(i - a) Alternate your index and ring finger

Fingerpicking exercise 9 : Right hand guitar attack

(m - a) Alternate your middle and ring finger

Fingerpicking exercise 10 : Right hand guitar attack

(m - a - m - i) Alternate your middle and ring finger to middle and index finger

Right hand multi finger attack TAB

|----------------------------|
|-----------5-----------5----|
|-------6-----------6--------|
|---7-----------7------------|
|-0---0---0---0---0---0------|
|----------------------------|
	

Working with this tab

Play this tab over and over again. But CHANGE the right hand fingers you use to play them. The point is to get use to using eahc of your fingers independently of each other. Try these patters with your right hand:

1. p - i (thumb index all the way up)
2. p - m (thumb middle all the way up)
3. p - a (thumb ring all the way up)
4. p - i - m - a (thumb index middle ring going up)
5. you get the idea...

These guitar exercises are great for your right hand attack and dexterity. But be patient and use a metronome. Learn and Master Guitar has a spectacular session on fingerpicking and fingerstyle guitar on one of their 20 instructional DVDs. We encourage you to take that next step and try Learn and Master Guitar.

Also check out this page if you are interested in some flamenco or classical right hand technique.