So....I have been really obsessing on this style of picking as of late...I think it might be starting to graft its way into my natural playing tendancies...Today was one of the most exciting days for me ever...after the mandatory 2 hours of trill/open string picking that I now have become dependant on to get warmed up...(every time i have tried to skip it winds up being unproductive practice day) I moved to the more exciting parts of my technique excercises..the techniques especially pertaining to soloing...When I got to the Gilbert-esque/Mr Bucket lick that I have always wanted to really be able to let rip...but never could get to sound very good because my picking has always been awfull...which in turn screwed w/ the picking accents in the lick and made it sound poor....well not today...I decided before I started playing through the coils that I was going to try orienting my picking hand/arm on the body of the guitar such that the the dead middle of my forearm was the only part in contact w/ the very top of the corner of the guitar body (such that the part of the arm that performs the Sarod motion ie the muscle btw the radius and ulna would not be in any way hindered by resting on the guitar but rather suspended in the air at my side.) This of course left the entire end half of my fore-arm and picking hand in the air relative to the guitar body/bridge...And I was able to play through the coils faster than anything that I have done before, without having to slur 9 out of each 10 notes as a crutch for not being much of a picker...The one thing about it that really got my blood pumping was that the picking articulations that it afforded me enabled me to do something w/ the coils that I was not capable of before...I was able to lock them into a groove...as sets of 6 @ 120 B.P.M...I will spend time over the next few days trying to make it super tight before making any vid posts...Pebber and Frakh even though I have not met any of you before...I just wanted to tell you how thankful I am for the Sarod content you both have posted...I consider you guys my heros.

RE:

"that I was going to try orienting my picking hand/arm on the body of the guitar such that the the dead middle of my forearm was the only part in contact w/ the very top of the corner of the guitar body"

I tried Sarod like this for awhile and found that my wrist always had to bend in a swan position for me to still pick in an area that produced a good tone. While Sarod/Oud players might do this, I thought it was a straight wrist that we are striving for on the guitar. True/False?

Anyway, I'm finding that to keep my wrist straight (i.e. no swan at all) AND still do my weakling (but improving!) attempt at Sarod, no part of my arm can touch the guitar. It's hard to tell what part of their arms, if any, touch the guitar in the videos of Frakh and Pebber. I may be wrong, but to me it looks like Frakh doesn't rest his arm on the body while Pebber does. I bet that varies from video to video. I guess I just figured that once your Sarod picking forearm muscles develop you could do either, but that as you're developing those muscles floating is better.

i wouldn't call it resting or anchored on the guitar...its just that the body of my guitar kinda stickies or at least friction keeps it in place with that point on my arm

*no swan required! (-;

My arm...wrist...elbow...ect is free from being locked down. I dont really think about it, I just know when I am in the zone with my right arm/hand position. Its a balance. The main thing you want to have is that rotation of the forearm...thats the whole Sarod technique. Whatever makes you comfortable in completing this task....that is what you are looking for.

Frakh... you used a term "balance" which explains everything very much, according to angles, pick grip tension variety, amount of scalpel, amount of rotation etc... it all comes down to this... balance.

Perfectly stated.
When everything is in balance you will know and will be able to get back to it fairly easily when you forget after a break in playing.

ALSO...
I do have a problem.....
Its the muting aspect with Sarod. When I go to mute the "balance is now disturbed" which prevents me, for the time being, from being able to zip around easily. This is where I am experimenting with SCALPEL for this technique. I am not sure yet whether or not I will be able to play Sarod "with" muting at full speed. I am still in the beginner stage with this and may have to spend years again on it before I will know.

I just never really payed attention to muting until it was brought up by someone in the forum. Then I said to myself...oh shit! I suck at it!
lol!


ohh....I say experimenting with Scalpel because my thumb is screwed up....I have to change it for it to work for me. But I have a good feeling this will be the answer for muting....at least for me.

For muting while trying to attain the Sarod motion, I've tried it at least 3 different ways I can recall at this moment.

Firstly it was to use the base of the palm, and it caused weird wrist angle and noise from strings below the muted ones, and it's hard to manage on floyd rose bridge with high tuners that gets in the way, so I've abandoned that approach pretty soon.

2nd approach was the standard palm mute with the base of the palm, but with different angle. For me, it helps to just brush through the muted area with palm base and never lock in the anchor. Also, the presence of the thumb on lower strings, which I use for filtering out the unwanted noise on lower strings under the one being played, also helps since it gives a different angle and more freedom to rotation motion. And transition from clean to muted tone is just up and down of the palm base. Although, the presence of scalpel and wrist motion is inevitable. I use this approach mostly.

The 3rd approach is underground guitar secret, so I'll pass this secret to my grandson only, when he turns 46.... just joking, this is funny approach, it's weird that I've never seen anybody used this even it's quite simple idea. Muting not with the palm but with pinky or the ring finger curved into the palm. This requires picking closer to the bridge but it's quite fun to do. The transition from clean to muted tone is kinda problem, but it might be good idea for me to practice this approach more.