I caught this bit of video today and when reviewing it, I thought it looked a little hoppy. Anyone care to weigh in? Much appreciated.
Hey my man - I am not one of the experts, but I AM a bit of a string hopper myself. Recovering string hopper…
I think that it might be a bit “hoppy”, although you will want a second opinion! One thing that I JUST learned is that tempo is part of the equation as far as exposing the evil hop enemy - 140bpm is what I notice the guys here saying is kind of the “wall” for string hopping, and in my case that definitely seems true.
Indeed! that seems a good figure for most people.
@jjsnibor is that the actual tempo or slow motion? Not every curved motion implies hopping of course, which is why we always mention the speed test.
If this is the real tempo of the lick I’d say you shouldn’t even worry about efficiency, you could even get that with all-downstrokes.
@tommo yes! this is slowed down 50%.
worth noting - this was just a string changing 1234-fingers-fret exercise. I was doing 16th notes at about 80 BPM.
even though it’s slow, I don’t want to warm up with string hopping!!
yes! I have a hard time distinguishing between stringhopping and other cureved motions. Am I correct that a twist of the wrist is the difference between stringhopping and double escaping?
I too am a string hopper… (One of those ascending ones) and since String hopping “works” at a lower tempo, and since I have a tough time distinguishing if I am a string hopper on a line then, perhaps it’s maybe important to even “warm up” on a tempo that’s going to either a) expose it as string hopping immediately or b) separate lines destined to be “fast” from slow ones… I mean, some warmups might be for the picking hand, and others might be for the picking hand… There might have to be “minimum tempos” in place for fast stuff until we can really “feel” the difference?
I am just kind of learning what my own picking mechanic/escape motion dictates in regards to specialized vocabulary but I think it also means a big change in how I/we practice also.
Hi Scottulus, I note you say you are a recovering string hopper. I am interested in how you are recovering ! I find that above about 90 bpm, I start hopping to get over strings, and as you say, that flexion extension of the wrist to clear strings seems to have a lmit of, for me anyway about 135 bpm, at which point however, the continual hammering of the pick on the middle pickup on my HSH gtr is doing my head in ! In order not to go there, I’m guessing we need wrist rotation to escape the strings, but having inadvertantly learnt to hop centuries ago, I am struggling to unlearn it
Well as a “recovering string hopper” I didn’t really know what the sensation was, or how to recognize it - so I kept doing it in one particular area of my playing; Any time that I was attempting to USX. It’s easy to fall into a string hopping trap in my opinion because it works at lower tempos, and (I) tended to reinforce it with a “start slow and work your way up with a metronome” mentality. Even worse, now that I know what it is I notice I do it all the time with legato (hammeron/pulloff) stuff that’s mixed with a bit of picking.
Friendly disclaimer: I don’t really know the lingo of CTC that well, and I don’t really know how to identify things that guitarists do exactly, although my understanding has improved. I am also seeing a lot of contradiction here on the forums for certain things, so please take my opinion with a grain of salt…
Honestly, the only “for sure” way that I can tell if I am “string hopping” for certain, is if a thing that I am doing passes the tempo test. straight 16ths at about 140bpm seems to be the threshold of exposing that… If it gets hard, cramps up, speed bumps, etc etc in any way at around that tempo. I don’t string hop all of the time, but it rears it’s ugly head in all sorts of places.
And as far as how do you know what the right picking mechanic is? ummm I just picked the crap out of a single string as fast as I could and paid attention to what it is that I was doing and the sensations/posture, etc and try to ensure that that feeling is present for other musical lines that cross strings. From there you can easily see what your proclivities are as far as slant and picking mechanic. It took me quite a while to accept and be at peace the way that I play and pursue understanding and working with it… (It means that I need to arrange my note orders somewhat for certain things)
I hope that helps? And please, someone correct name if I am providing any misleading advice…