Thile quote on resting hand on the bridge

I thought I was an oddball for resting the heel of my hand on the bridge of my mando. Many mando technique videos recommend against this or the pinky plant.

"My wrist – or rather the heel of my palm – rests just behind the bridge. You’re trying to get as far up as you can without muting the string, because the sweet spot is where the fingerboard ends"

Having tried all three ways I know of (pinky plant, heel rest, and no rest), the heel rest works best for me for fast melodic playing, although for strumming I don't rest, and it's effortless to switch as needed during a song.

The whole interview is here, and has a link to him performing a piece by Bach, the first movement is slow, but his usual pyrotechnics come in on the last movement, his expression of the music is superb, and he memorized the whole thing:
https://www.elbowmusic.org/single-po...rning-mandolin

That works for Thile, find out what works for you. I rested behind the bridge for years and constantly fought resting too much on bridge thus killing sustain. I discovered pic guards and now lightly rest pinki on it. Still no problem to go free hand to chop chords.

I do what Chris does; .... but I don't sound much like he does.:(

http://www.mandolinarchive.com/images/75305_2.jpg This was taken care of years ago by Uncle Gene and his Loar!:cool:

In a utoob vid for mando beginners, Mike Marshall advocates the fleshy part of the palm touching the bridge “ever so slightly”.

Uncle Gene huh?

How about my solution for an electric :grin:

Attachment 178579

There is a reason for wanting to feel where the fleshy parts of your right hand are, and keep them ready.

You will have a great extra tool in your box when you learn to mute with fleshy parts of the right hand, then how and when and when not to use it.
You can learn to use palm base, thumb base and the side of the thumb for more or less subtle muting, dampening sustain, manipulating overtones etc.

It may sound way too advanced for beginning mandolin players, but a good example where you really need to control volume, sustain and trebly tone is when you want to support a guitar solo in a duo setting.

Your guitar buddy will love you for your rhythmic, muted and darkened two-note power chord accompaniment instead of the dreadful chops that work nowhere except in a loud neotraditional bluegrass band.

Mike Marshall, one of the best teachers I know, is a big advocate of resting the fleshy part of the palm (just below the thumb) on the strings behind the bridge and also just on the top edge of the bridge, fingers loosely curled. Right hand = tone, Right hand = timing and rythm -- i.e., right hand is king.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tbown

Mike Marshall, one of the best teachers I know, is a big advocate of resting the fleshy part of the palm (just below the thumb) on the strings behind the bridge and also just on the top edge of the bridge, fingers loosely curled. Right hand = tone, Right hand = timing and rythm -- i.e., right hand is king.

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Big advocate? Resting? In the d'Addario video he simply says something about the fleshy part of the palm touching the strings behind the bridge ("ever so slightly"). Touching, not resting.

Pinky plant is not a good idea. On an instrument without pickguard it may cause the pick to dip too low, unless you have big hands. On an instrument with pickguard it will cause a somewhat awkward hand position, unless you're Evan Marshall. The natural technique on a guard is brushing across it with loosely curled fingers.


As always I refer to Stangeland's survey on mandozine.com. Although about 17 players are cited their techniques fall into two groups. I've developed techniques for playing both with a guard and without one.

Don't rest, don't plant.

What Ralph says. Everybody's hand, physiology is diff, but the general thrust is that. A crazy exercise I 'used to do' is to take pick in hand and raise it above my head. Then, gently swoop it down to a given string, say the A string. Then repeat on the D, G, E. This helped me to pretty much not touch anywhere, except pick to string. Sometimes, I do lightly brush bridge top or behind bridge, but there is never any pressure or resting there.