Even though the Beginner's Corner lesson says that the picking hand should not touch the strings or the body of the guitar, Tyler seems to always anchor his wrist or ball of the thumb in his videos on Music Is Win. Floating makes it so much harder to navigate the right strings without looking and I also see a lot of great guitarists plant their ring fingers and pinkies on the guitar body while picking. Dunno which way is right.
Thomas Sweatt
Ultimately I've found that the best answer is to go with what is comfortable, but even with that said, I've altered my playing in ways that have made me better. Playing the guitar is like an individualized version of playing golf. Everyone's golf swing is going to be a little different, and even the pros make modifications to tighten their game up and make it more competitive. I don't want to have you thinking that guitar is competitive or anything but if you find that something you are doing is making a specific skillset harder, then find whatever modification works for you.
FOR EXAMPLE
I used to be a floater. This sounds really silly but I had to be told that you can rest your hand on the bridge behind the saddles and not have an effect on your tone or sustain. I found that when I did that, for the type of music I want to play, I improved my picking hand proprioception tenfold by doing that. I also realized that when I am full strumming, that I don't have to stay in that position. I don't know if you would call what I do a hybrid style, but there it is, and it works great for me. Might not for you, but try some stuff. I would be interested in seeing what you come up with and how it works for you.
In the end, certain players have their own comfortability on the guitar, so you should really do what feels natural. In the end, there are techniques that force your hand to anchor or float. For example, I tend to float a lot when I'm alternate picking, but I find myself planting for sweep-picking or picking aggressively near the bridge of the guitar. It all depends. Whatever FLOATS your boat? Sorry. Lol.
-Tyler
Jezreel Encarnacion
Hassan Choucri
On top of what feels comfortable, one method might not work with certain guitars as well as the other method and vice versa. I anchor on all my Gibson style hard tail guitars because I was taught that at an early age and its never done me wrong. For trems, I tend to be heavy handed when anchoring on trems, which does not bode well for being in tune, especially on floating bridges, so I float on my strat. The float was something hard for me to get down at first because I didn't have trem equipped guitar until more recently. Try both, you can't go wrong with learning both either.
You want to float your right hand to get clear notes. If youre going across the fret board top to bottom as if youre practicing modes or patterns float your right hand. Its difficult and takes feeling where the strings are and comes with a great deal of practice. If you anchor your right hand you'll find yourself reaching and at odd angles going across the frets as your fingers stretch out away from your palm and are more likely to skip strings or notes. At some point, if you stick with it long enough, your propriocepter intuitive nature (because youve done it a 10000x) will kick in and you'll recognize what it was you were missing as a beginner.
If you ever played a sport think about what your body does to position itself in space in relation to a ball. Its an automatic skill set like walking and running became for you as a kid.
It also sounds good to mute notes with your right hand. You just have to stay out of your own way.
Think boogie woogie notes. When you play them clearly it sounds too "perfect". Muting makes it sound hip and better and the imperfections come through.
Good luck w/ my .02.