changing rh muting technique after 20 years (need help)

[pandemonium]

hi fellas 

 

first of all, this question is directed at people who can play really fast cleanly (because technique starts to break down past certain BPMs).

in short, i always had my own muting technique for decades, never thought much about it but for the last month ive been doing a very specific exercise that uncovered some limitations in my tech.

the way i mute is thumb on bridge pup for E, thumb on E for A, thumb on E+ ring finger on A for G. basically thumb always anchored on E and ring finger comes in when i need to mute the A string.

i dont think about it, i dont plan it, my ring finger does this automatically (i cant stop it even if i try) and it has served me well.

 

but heres where i noticed the problem. recently ive been doing a variation of spider exercises. im doing 80bpm for the main notes but im playing it in quadrupplets so its roundly 10 notes per second.

because this particular exercise forces me to linger on D and G back and forth non stop, the skipping with the thumb always anchored on E and ring muting in and out on A makes my technique very clunky. thumb and ring anchored limit my range of motion and the movement for the skip becomes quite massive. i been doing this daily for weeks and i noticed small improvements but still far from how easily and cleanly i can do it if i were to simply anchor my thumb on the A string. 

 

so it got me thinking. is my muting technique limiting me in other areas that i didnt even consider before? to be frank, this is a theoretical isolating exercise, the real world applications are far and few between, and my technique for muting works very well on literally everything else. so im at a crossroads.

 

im considering the "floating anchor thumb" technique. where you basically float your thumb from E to A and anchor it there. but when i tried to experiment with it feels very alien, uncomfortable and clumsy to me. altho works great if you happen to be lingering on D and G for a while. but kinda feels like cheating. i never liked the idea of hybrid techniques. i want one that fits all. cause if i have to hybridize that introduces actual thinking instead on muscle memory. i would literally have to consciously tell myself "forget about everything you know about muting and anchor your thumb on A for this one little segment and then revert back to the familiar" 

 

my question is : should i push through and get my current style of muting to the same standard (even tho it will always be more labor intensive due to the massive skip the hand has to do) or should i change my whole technique to floating thumb anchor? (ive been paying attention recently and i noticed most people use this) . i know this is a hard question to give an answer to. i dont know why i even asked lol. i been debating it with myself for a few months now

and i cant come to a solution. i figured maybe i will get some fresh perspective that will sway me one way or the other.

 

thanks in advance 

[Sté]

Last year i' have completely re-build my right hand technique after seeing some vids from Anthony Jackson. I was needing something to easily switch from chords to single notes and feeling it the more natural possible. 

And then i also discovered how he used the pick. It was a revelation. It took me several months, little by little to change habits and feeling good with this new way: i play now with thumb, index and middle finger, without a real anchor: just my hand palm touching strings when i need to mute. A mix between Anthony Jackson and Mark Knopfler. And it works really well; in alternance with more conventional two fingers techniques with floating thumb anchoring on strings, and pick. It opens a lots of possibilities, as the sound is not the same when you play with the thumb or with the classic two fingers technic. And when you got the habit to not really anchor your hand, you can easily move the hand to change tone on the fly following what call the tune. All i can say is when you have few months of practice; you don't ask yourself what technic to use: it comes naturally with what tone you to achieve at this moment. Like muscle memory. And this 3 fingers "guitar" technic is really cool for playing chords in the middle of your bass line. 

You can also look at Hardien Feraud technic. It's kind of mixing all of that except the pick, inspired from Matt Garrisson & Anthony Jackson. This change has carried a lot of possibilities to work on dynamics and be able to change tone only with right hand.