right hand position: to anchor or not to anchor?

[Blazphemer]

how do you guys hold your picking hand?
do you anchor one or more fingers one the body of the guitar, or does your hand float closed over the strings? also do you have different approaches when playing rythm than when playing lead?

i have always been anchoring with my ring or pinky on the body below the strings when playin lead, but have recently been trying to practice with a closed fist with only the wrist resting on the brigde. when playing rythm i tend to vary between closed fist, or with the 3 non pick holding fingers fanned out, not anchored but sometimes muting the high strings.

what, in your experience, is the proper way to pick and why?
i find that anchoring makes it easier for the hand to "remember" where it is and also makes string skipping easier. but as i experiment with the closed fist version, i think that i am getting good at picking that way as well.

[Razor]

I anchor the pinky as well. I finally decided to go with what felt comfortable to me.

[thetroy]

I never anchor. Feels weird to me and makes it hard to really put some force into my pick attack.

[Trem]

i don't play with a closed fist at all, my right hand is across all the strings when playing rythmn, and for leads pinky anchors usually but is still resting across all the strings to mute unwanted. sometimes when i play my strat my pinky somehow is always curling around the volume knob
don't try to be like marty friedman, he looks like he has palsy when he plays.

[toejam]

I fan my fingers out, George Lynch style, but I will sometimes anchor my pinky on the pickup ring when soloing... or at least my bad attempt at soloing.

[SlasZ]

I use my pinky too as anchor but I've been trying to play stuff without anchoring and it works quite well. Intuitively however I always anchor.

[Cygnus X1]

I anchor, but I need to get away from it.
The same thing is showing up on my gloss black DKMGT.
Look what it does to the finish on my guitars:

[black cherry]

I started out anchoring with my pinky but I soon stopped as I felt it slowed me down.

I find that resting my palm on the bridge gives me a good enough point of reference and also it mutes the bass strings as I play, which is useful with high gain.

A friend of mine anchors with his pinky but he plays a classical guitar.

[KevinDguitar]

Whatever feels the most comfortable to you is what's right. I anchor when doing intricate alternate picking.. I don't when sweeping or economy picking.. I don't when dong funk style rhythm, but I do when I'm doing broken chordal passages. go figure.

[Super_shredder]

i tuck my pinky underneath the high e while riffing and when i solo it goes to the pickup ring

[Phantom Hawk]

I always anchor my pinkie on the pickup ring when alternate picking.

[Bert]

I learned to play anchoring my pinky, and have been trying to break that habit ever since! I've gotten to the point where I only anchor occasionally (usually when I'm not focusing.) In general I don't think anchoring is a good habit as it constrains your movement. Unfortunately once you've learned to play that way, it's really hard to change your ways.

[metalhead28]

I also learned with anchoring, did it for years and years. I started to actually have pain in the middle joint of my pinky that seemed to stem from anchoring my pinky and pushing it around.
Because of that I started to play a little more from my fingers for a while - moving my wrist less - but ultimately I stopped anchoring altogether. It was sort of wierd at first, but since then it has contributed to a big improvment in my playing. The next step I took was to start curling my fingers in, not into a fist, just in tighter to my hand as opposed to fanning them out. Once I stopped anchoring my pinky this actually felt pretty natural.
My motion now feels much more economical and I feel I have much greater control and speed. I didn't need to be anchored to keep my place on the strings like I thought I did. It was all just a habit.

I would recommend anyone who anchors to try and break it. It might not work for everybody - but then again - I didn't think it would work for me until I did it.

[rjohnstone]

It totally depends on what I'm playing.
If I'm doing a lot of palm muting, then my ring finger is my anchor.
I rarely anchor with my pinky finger though. I like to have it free to catch the trem bar.

[Stijnson]

I anchored my picking hand to a point where I actually broke the pickup ring. I then concentrated on achoring lightely..