The student should by now be completely familiar with the use of free stroke i, m, a and p, along with rest stroke i, m, a. It is now time to explore the important technique of rest stroke p. Rest stroke p is one of the most powerful techniques available to the guitarist as well as being one of the most difficult and misunderstood in terms of proper use. The rest stroke p is primarily used to produce a more powerful note than the free stroke, but it can also be used to stop a note sounding on an adjacent higher string, as will be seen in the following lesson on silencing basses (i.e. rest stroke on @ automatically stops any note sounding on %). The technique employed differs from free stroke p, in that p does not move independently of the hand (as demonstrated in "Thumb Plucking Action, Free Stroke" page 30), but rather retains a normal hand position with the thumb extended (see photo A). Proceed as follows: