Hey Friend,

I completely forgot to wish you a happy Cinco de Mayo yesterday, so Happy belated Cinco de Mayo! There, I feel better…

I was checking out an article at Guitar World about Eddie Van Halen’s unique picking technique. It’s pretty well known that Ed has about five different ways to hold a pick, depending on what he’s doing, but I don’t remember anyone ever analyzing the mechanics of his technique like this.

The video explains and demonstrates it in good detail, and it is a unique approach when you compare it to how most of us approach picking.

Conventional instruction has us anchoring our picking hand on the pick guard or body of the guitar, but Eddie has this ability to hover his hand over the strings in a fixed location that defies normal human accuracy.

Am I saying Eddie isn’t human? No. But this is a testament to mechanical muscle memory on steroids! And no that wasn’t an accusation of Eddie Van Halen being on steroids…

He also plays in a way that is a lot like strumming, which goes against the idea of picking efficiency - playing as close to the strings as possible to minimize movement so you can play faster.

His technique is all him, and yet we don’t see too many people jumping on the bandwagon to learn his technique.

I do want to offer an argument that this picking approach is not unique to Eddie Van Halen - in fact, I think he may have adopted it watching Gypsy Jazz technique. I know a guy in Italy named Dario Napoli  that plays in a very similar fashion, and it seems to be a common picking technique for that style of music.

You can see his picking technique in this video (both in fast and slow speeds).  Notice there is no anchoring. 

This picking is a more traditional approach to holding the pick and playing, so maybe Eddie just developed his own approach based on what was comfortable for him.

That’s an argument for you to do the same. 

You can learn the time-tested techniques, but if you need to adjust something so it feels comfortable for you and allows you to “get the job done,” then do it. Don’t let an instructor tell you something is wrong if it works for you. 

In the end, it doesn’t matter how someone else plays. Take what you learn and adjust it to fit your needs. You might discover a new technique that helps the rest of us out!

Have a great weekend...

Peace~

Dave