Accents using UWPS?

Playing Technique
#1

How do you guys accents notes using UWPS ?

As a primarily UWPS myself I’ve struggled for years to keep my hands in sync.

I know now that I was trying to accent the DWPS way, but playing with an UWPS position: whether switching string or not, I was using some “momentum” on an upstroke to prepare the next accented note on a downstroke.

But because of the use of UWPS, my momentum was stuck in the strings, making it feel awkward, like an unwanted rest stroke.

My sync went much better when I began using the feeling of UWPS tremolo picking as a reference, but still I could feel the accents, in a much more natural way than when I attempt this with DWPS.

I think the reason why is that I’m doing things in reverse now: either I get used of the up-rest stroke - momentum that precedes the accent, or since the UWPS downstroke accents allows for an escape from the strings, I may use this as a reference to keep things in sync.

Anyway, I want to know your thoughts about it guys, about how you think you manage to keep things synchronized, and if it helps with switching strings (always struggling with this).

Forgive my English, I’m French. Regards,Olivier a.k.a Bart Morgan.

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#2

Hey Olivier,

A great way to conceptualize accents is to use a tip I got from one of Troy’s videos: Think of accents as more of a mental tool than a physical one.

A huge problem many guitarists have is excess tension where they try to force control of the speed by introducing accents. Introducing audible accents into your phrasing is simply exerting extra force into a note to get it to sound louder than others.

I’d say the best strategy is to either:

  1. Use a metronome and see how fast you can play without feeling like you need to tense up to keep up with the speed. In other words, you’ll be able to play at a speed where you can think as fast as the music you are playing. This is key.

  2. Play without a metronome and see how fast you can play while still remaining in control. This is likely the fastest speed at which you can think. You might find you’ll ditch the metronome at some point in its entirety once your internal rhythm is solidified.

Paul Gilbert talks about this a ton. You can have your foot on the gas all you want, but if you don’t have your hands on the steering wheel, you’ll crash eventually. I’d recommend staying at a speed that you can mentally control and ensure you can think with the music, rather than letting the tempo “scare” you. Accents are a great tool to have, but remember that a high level of dynamic control is a subsidiary of having already mastered a tempo.

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#3

My 2 cents for accenting with UWPS: use rest strokes!

This will come naturally on upstrokes, while on accented downstrokes you will automatically rotate to DWPS for a brief moment. Don’t worry about going DWPS consciously, if you just think about rest stroking your hand will do it automatically!

To summarize:
try to accent the upstrokes instead (can be weird at first)
use a rest stroke to accent downstrokes.

PS: I’m sharing what works for me, not claiming this is a universal law!
PPS: You don’t necessarily need a larger motion for an accent, what matters for “loudness” is how far your pick displaces the string before releasing it. So for example you can still make an accent with a small range of motion but by using more pick on the string

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#4

OK thanks for your answers ! Since my post, I’ve noticed that I tend to use mostly UWPS, with minimal DWPS when I play accenting downstrokes. Just enough to switch strings without anchoring. Could do it UWPS only by reversing the picking patterns but I don’t like that much accenting with upstrokes, even with I try to work on both. Weird thing is I feel more comfortable at higher speeds, when I can mostly “feel” accents, than at lower tempos when I try to control those accents…Will keep you updated with my progresses, maybe with a video someday :wink:

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#5

That’s what I said, but it turns out it’s not what I do. Several different viewers have pointed out that if you look at some of the single-string licks in Volcano, you can actually see the accents that begin each chunk, because the pickstrokes are visibly larger. SMH! People wonder how you can do something and not be aware of it, well, this can be true even if you actually like mechanical topics and make an honest attempt to understand them.

So… if that’s the case, then we also have to ask, is a physical accent the most effective route or just coincidence in my case, and if so, why does it work? We know from Pietro Mazzoni that chunking eventually causes entire phrases to be stored as single motor programs. It may be that the initial accent helps this process.

Anyway, accents - not just in your mind people.

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