2NPS, string skipping, picking speed and wrist tension

[vvr4ith]

Hi CTC, long time lurker first time poster.

I have been struggling with my picking speed for quite a while. In my normal playstyle, I don’t think I would be comfortable alternate picking up and down a scale faster than 120 bpm without feeling my wrist and hand tense up and eventually fatigue. Over the past few weeks, I even tried to “brute force” my way through the speed barrier by gradually upping the BPM with my normal playstyle, while trying to use mental magic to keep my hand relaxed. After watching some more Masters in Mechanics (in particular Martin Miller) I am abandoning this approach and seriously reconsidering my picking motion.

I’ve realized that my natural playstyle for alternate picking is not very supinated and does suffer from string hopping. The lick in question that I am using to target this is “Thrive” by The Contortionist (tabs below). This is me playing it at 70% speed:

Slow-mo starts at 0:17, since the riff is fairly repetitive I hope you will forgive me in not uploading duplicate slow-mo + regular speed videos.

If I try to play this way at 100% speed (154 BPM), my grip and wrist will quickly tense up in an effort to maintain control of the pick. Alternatively, my elbow motion will take over but I cannot remain articulate for this riff which requires some string skipping. However, lately I have found that the slightly supinated approach with more forearm motion is doable at that speed, with much less tension, but it is still not very clean:

I was also comparing my style to this gentleman’s excellent cover of the song, but to me, his forearm doesn’t seem very supinated, so I’m not sure if this new approach is necessary.

I would love to hear criticism of my attempts so far! Is there agreement with my assessment of my natural playstyle? Is there anything I am doing wrong in the supinated approach? I think most would agree that my “brute force” method I was trying earlier is bad, but is there any element to this that is just pure and simple strength/endurance training?

Lastly, is there a particular CTC seminar that would be specialized to this issue for me?

Cheers,
Adrian

[Troy]

@vvr4ith

I’ve realized that my natural playstyle for alternate picking is not very supinated and does suffer from string hopping.

Correct, it’s bouncy. But it’s not your “natural” motion. It’s just a motion you learned on your own, and you can learn others too. And we know this because…

@vvr4ith

t the slightly supinated approach with more forearm motion is doable at that speed, with much less tension, but it is still not very clean:

…because this looks great. This line is a textbook USX / DWPS line because it’s all two notes per string. You don’t need the semicircular motion for this like in your first clip, you can use a “single escape” motion where only the upstrokes go up in the air.

I see that you’re hitting some of the string changes and not escaping, but what is nice about this is that there is zero stringhopping. So we’ve solved one problem, now we’ll solve the next one. You need to do some experimentation to see if you can figure out how to make the upstrokes escape more.

As far as lessons, the Pickslanting Primer has a whole new section on this motion which is very detailed. I don’t know if you have access to that, but if cash is an issue you can always apply for a scholarship and we’re happy to help.

One thing I’ll point out is that when I do this I use a straight thumb, not a bent thumb like you are using. Not sure if you really need to do that, but you can experiment with a straight / relaxed thumb to see if this allows you to change the motion to escape more.

Also, there is not a lot of forearm in what you’re doing. It’s mostly wrist motion. In that respect, your arm position is similar to the arm position that Eddie Van Halen uses. The difference is that he uses a middle-finger / three-finger grip. It’s very common for the more supinated arm positions to match with a middle / three-finger type grip. So you could try experimenting with that too. We cover that in the Primer too in the wrist motion section.

Edit: Also, as you’re correctly pointing out, you don’t need this much supination. You could use less supination and the straighter thumb. That’s also a pairing that works. Here’s the lesson where we describe the different pairings:

Chapter 2 - Using More Supination

In general, though, this is a great first step. A lot of people get stuck in the stringhopping phase and you have now blasted past that. You just have to figure out the escape part. But now you have a nice reference for what “not stringhopping” feels like. So as you do this experimentation, just ask yourself if it feels smooth like this approach, or tensiony like the previous approach. When you figure out how to get the escape but with the smooth feeling, then you’ll have it.

Nice work.

[vvr4ith]

Thanks very much for the quick reply!

@Troy

I see that you’re hitting some of the string changes and not escaping, but what is nice about this is that there is zero stringhopping. So we’ve solved one problem, now we’ll solve the next one. You need to do some experimentation to see if you can figure out how to make the upstrokes escape more.

Excellent, this is great feedback. I really wasn’t sure if this is a step in the right direction, but compartmentalizing this as two separate problems (stringhopping, escaping) is really encouraging. I will definitely experiment with the way I hold the pick and see if I can manage the string escape with this new motion. And I’ll be sure to check out the Pickslanting Primer as well!