The Invisible String

by Chris Tarry

What is the invisible string?

Notice that when alternating the fingers of the right hand that pulling into the string below (or bringing the finger to rest on the string below the struck string) gives the fingers a common distance to refer to when making the journey back to the string to strike the next note.

This concept is called a rest stroke. Your finger comes to rest on the string below.

Inevitably, what happens is that this works well for all the strings except the E string.

Once you’re down to the E string, you are pulling into thin air, and the fingers tend to travel great distances because there is nothing to land on.

If you pull into your thumb when playing on the E string you will notice that the distance between your thumb and the E string, will be roughly the same as the distance between all the other strings. This means that your thumb is acting like an invisible string.