Mandolin right hand technique

[Skanda p]

Guys can you please tell me proper placement of the right hand.
Firstly, which is better ?
1. partially moving the wrist while picking.
2. Moving the entire wrist while picking.
3. Moving the arm.

And secondly
Where to place the right hand ?
because I only place it on the bridge and I am finding it very difficult to improve my speed.

[Mark Gunter]

Brushing the bridge with it is okay, but firmly planting in one place on the bridge would be a good way to restrict yourself and stunt your playing, I think. Be loose and give yourself some freedom to float a bit and move things around.

Try to relax your arm and wrist. You should use natural motion and avoid tensing up in order to play fluidly and prevent future injury.

[onassis]

Someone posted this Mike Marshall video the other day. I had seen it years ago, but forgotten how helpful it is. The relevant right hand stuff starts about 45 sec. in.

[Pittsburgh Bill]

Wrist playing notes (melody).
Combination of wrist and arm playing tremelo.
Arm strumming chords.
......and not always purely as stated but certainly mostly.
Right or wrong, I don't know, but it works for me.

[SaintlyTom]

I took a private lesson with Sharon Gilchrist recently (highly recommended, she is a fabulous teacher and listener) to work on tone on my E string. She described right hand motion like this:

Isolated wrist movement should be for when playing on one string.
Total arm movement used when moving to a new string.

Ie pivot your elbow to change strings, pivot your wrist for individual picks.

By warming up this way, my arm has become much more fluid and I’m getting a consistent pick angle on all 4 pairs of strings.

[Simon DS]

Learning tremolo will help

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XxvD41asKCY

My favourite exercise at the moment is play a measure of eighth notes and then damp the strings with the fret hand at the seventh fret, LOOK at the picking hand and play the same right hand pattern again. With the metronome on slow.
Then repeat the exercise, and on...



And. Think about the right hand while looking at the left etc.

[DavidKOS]

Guys can you please tell me proper placement of the right hand.
Firstly, which is better ?
1. partially moving the wrist while picking.
2. Moving the entire wrist while picking.
3. Moving the arm.

I use all of the above plus movement in my finger and thumb too.

Where to place the right hand ?
because I only place it on the bridge and I am finding it very difficult to improve my speed.

You hand should be free-floating. It can touch parts of the instrument, but only as spacing, not anchored.

You will hear and see many other ways of playing, and have to make your own decisions.

Just a thought, though - many great players with certain habits like planting play great IN SPITE of their non-textbook technique, not because of it.

[Paul Haley]

I'd forgotten what good advice this is. Thanks for posting.