I wanted to post a couple things I noticed about MJRs playing that ended up helping my playing quite a bit and were of great use to me. These are things I am not sure most people have noticed.
1. When sitting and playing, MJR positions the body of his guitar between his legs. Many people let the grove of the body fall on their 'outside' leg (closer to picking hand). I at first thought this was just a personal comfort thing, but I realized ultimately that holding it the way MJR does allows you MUCH better upper fret access with good form of the wrist. If you try to play on the highest frets with the guitar on your outside leg, you are obligated to arch your wrist because your upper arm collides with your body and you have to bend at the elbow to make further headway with your hand. If, however, you hold the guitar like MJR does, you can reach the highest frets without breaking form because you don't have to bend at the elbow - all frets can be reached by moving at the shoulder, and therefore you can keep good form in your wrist.
2. When tapping, MJR uses his index finger - whereas most guitarists use their middle finger. I think we can agree that his tapping is of a caliber that means he is doing something right, more so than most. I've found that tapping with the index is better than with the middle finger for a few reasons. One, the index finger is just a superior finger to the middle finger. That's just a known fact about our biological makeup - the index finger is the go to guy for work and is the most accurate. Two, the index finger can move side to side with far more independence than the middle finger. As a result you do not have to move your whole hand as much when changing strings being tapped. Third, muting is easier with the index finger because all other fingers are on one side of it and can be anchored across the strings safely.
Of course, you may ask, what is to be done with the pick if you are to tap with the index finger. What MJR does is a quick little move where he slides the pick into a wedge formed by his middle finger, between the first and second knuckle. I've learned to effectively make this little transition and it actually doesn't take all that long to reach a point where you can make this move to and from with relative ease. It allows for an extremely quick switch in and out of tapping mode.
Hope that is of some interest to a few guitarists here!
1. When sitting and playing, MJR positions the body of his guitar between his legs. Many people let the grove of the body fall on their 'outside' leg (closer to picking hand). I at first thought this was just a personal comfort thing, but I realized ultimately that holding it the way MJR does allows you MUCH better upper fret access with good form of the wrist. If you try to play on the highest frets with the guitar on your outside leg, you are obligated to arch your wrist because your upper arm collides with your body and you have to bend at the elbow to make further headway with your hand. If, however, you hold the guitar like MJR does, you can reach the highest frets without breaking form because you don't have to bend at the elbow - all frets can be reached by moving at the shoulder, and therefore you can keep good form in your wrist.
2. When tapping, MJR uses his index finger - whereas most guitarists use their middle finger. I think we can agree that his tapping is of a caliber that means he is doing something right, more so than most. I've found that tapping with the index is better than with the middle finger for a few reasons. One, the index finger is just a superior finger to the middle finger. That's just a known fact about our biological makeup - the index finger is the go to guy for work and is the most accurate. Two, the index finger can move side to side with far more independence than the middle finger. As a result you do not have to move your whole hand as much when changing strings being tapped. Third, muting is easier with the index finger because all other fingers are on one side of it and can be anchored across the strings safely.
Of course, you may ask, what is to be done with the pick if you are to tap with the index finger. What MJR does is a quick little move where he slides the pick into a wedge formed by his middle finger, between the first and second knuckle. I've learned to effectively make this little transition and it actually doesn't take all that long to reach a point where you can make this move to and from with relative ease. It allows for an extremely quick switch in and out of tapping mode.
Hope that is of some interest to a few guitarists here!
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