How can I improve my picking accuracy when I'm standing and can't see my guitar strings?

Question

I do most of my guitar practice seated and can easily see the strings when I'm playing solos or arpeggios. But when I play with my friends, I'm usually standing and can't see the strings to pick. I'm not horrible at it but I definitely notice my confidence suffers and I make a lot of mistakes with the pick. Since I'm not likely to start practicing standing up, are there any specific drills or techniques to use to improve my accuracy with a pick?

I realize just not looking is a drill in itself but I'm wondering about any specific drills to focus on this aspect of my technique. One thing I've tried that seems to work fairly well is to sort of visualize the six strings and just play to an imaginary image that I would see if I was looking. This works fairly well but seems a bit distracting from my playing. I mostly play simple blues and rock tunes.

Answer 1

You've already identified what you need to do...

Practise whilst standing.

If that's the only way to stop you looking at your hands, then do it.

Answer 2

First point - is your guitar at the same height on your body standing and sitting? If not, then the angles of both hands/arms will be different, making life tricky.

Second point - I guess your picking hand is floating, not touching the bridge or just behind it. This will mean that you have no solid datum point for your hand. It hovers, and that's often a good reason for missing the string you want to play.

Without muting the strings - although it's a pretty good place to do that, put your palm, lightly resting it just behind the saddles. That way, small movements can be made which take your pick from string to string.