thats great news if that’s the case!
If I were to sum this all up, I would be very cautious about relying solely on certain visual queues for any of this. There are very important tactile references that simply cannot be conveyed this way, and are equally as important.
Important tactile references Like what?
Any subtle or not so subtle thing that influences how hitting the strings actually feels when you do it. Going by looks alone cannot convey this or how the individual you are trying to copy experiences it. It’s a multi dimensional issue than just making sure you have it looking right and it’s personal.
Idk about that. There are some experienced members here who used imitations as a means of producing similar results with success. Obviously trying to
Mirror a YouTube video can only take you so far but i think it helps alot
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I think the thing to be careful with is, trying to keep in mind the movement you’re looking at mirroring may not work because of missing information - so don’t dwell on it too much. Try adding it in, if it doesn’t work, unless you can think of a logical reason why you might need to develop it anyway, it might not be that important.
With Anton, I think he’s pretty clear, the grip is important because it limits how much the pick is wiggling, but there can be more than one way to do that. The middle finger reenforcing the index finger is important because it gives more stability to the picking motion. Those are the key points.
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Not sure if this is helpful information, but I’ve found that with different pick types, sharp ones, rounded flexible ones etc, will affect whether my thumb is bent or more neutral.
As mentioned already, it’ll be a case of just trying and feeling/hearing/seeing what the difference is.
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That’s the point exactly. It may help to get the general idea, but there’s a lot of other information you are not going to get from it. There’s also a lot of nuances you can’t hear from a yt vid either.
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The vibe I got from him was, “how do I keep it as stable as I want it, without having to use a lot of pressure and grip strength/tension to do it”. To a degree this is somewhat of a personal preference as well, and like you said not the only way to hold the pick to get a pretty hefty attack, which honestly can be pretty nuanced too.
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Kind of interesting - this video is cool because you get some shots that show the palm anchoring position pretty clearly and I think his technique is pretty close to Paul’s. You have to ignore some of the explanation, I’m not sure the finger movement is really much benefit (could be wrong), definitely not required for the runs.
What I found interesting was - I try to anchor on the bony part of the pinky side of the palm, almost on a pivot, but he’s pulling the side of the hand way up past that. Playing around with it, kind feels like leaning the body of the guitar back a bit and keeping the forearm resting on the top/front of the body to pull some away from the hand/palm so it’s resting a bit more loosely allows me to do that, not totally sure yet.
Go to about 1:55 to see a great right hand close up ! @cmcgee11235 you can hear he kind of flubs the low E notes but it’s barely noticeable
That’s the exact place in the video I linked to in the OP. I’m wondering if there’s a video of him playing scarified or technical difficulties since he’s played live with Paul.
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i lose track in these threads so easily. Sorry about that
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Not that I know, but there certainly is of Remy, who also played with Paul.
Watching Remy is actually very useful, and he mentions Troy in his more recent videos - it seems like he tries to incorporate the magnet style view of his playing and that let me realize I might make some real progress (at least, something concrete and new to try) by finding a comfortable spot where my palm hangs over the top of the bridge and is counter balanced by my forearm, and working that consciously into my string tracking.
That’s what Remy talks about in the video I linked above, and it’s interesting because he specifically says he does it to overcome the lack of motion range Andy complains about staying anchored in one spot.
I thought Remy just says he observed Paul Gilbert anchors his pinky to the bridge and doesnt move it but lets the wrist move?
I think anchor is a strong word. He lets it rest there, and it may help with his muting somewhat, but it’s not as ridgedly glued to one area as remy is showing at least not all the time. It’s also the reason Paul doesn’t have his volume knob there as well, and has it located where the tone control usually is, and nothing in that space. None of his guitar setup is an accident.
Right he is still saying to move the hand across the six strings but he used that statement to illustrate that pauls wrist movement isnt that large because his pinky really stays still
I actually find this to be a problem in my playing since adopting the supinated 902 style - bumping into the volume knob is super annoying and messes things up a bit.
As far as anchoring, I think maybe the term “reference point” is better - he’s resting his forearm on the body and his palm on the bridge. There’s probably some amount of pressure, so it is anchored, but it’s movable - maybe with a motion from the elbow or shoulder primarily.
EDIT:
I think there’s something interesting going on when I play with how much pressure is on the forearm anchor point vs the palm, I think there’s kind of a Goldilocks zone where I use just enough pressure on my forearm point so it does become an anchor and lets my palm lift up. Apparently pressing down with my palm has been creating tension in my wrist movement because it feel much more relaxed.
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I think this is some real forward progress for me, not totally clean or anything but it’s just a randomly chosen symmetrical pattern in groups of 9 and then random other patterns I try to keep going for a while and keep it somewhat fluid.
Typically, if I play something across all the strings like this I always really tense up my right arm unless I get “lucky” (meaning I wasn’t clear what adjustment was allowing me to do that). I can do descending sixes fine, but I’m getting a lot of tension by the end.
The adjustment I made is this - I’m kind of using my forearm as a fulcrum on the top of the body, just enough to take away some of the pressure of my palm anchor, then also resting the pinky side of the palm on the bridge as I’ve been doing, but that fulcrum maneuver feels like it does two things:
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I’m much more situated to track the strings, because there isn’t as much force anchoring my palm in one spot, so less muscle tension needed to move up and down.
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Apparently either the force or muscle tension from holding my palm against the guitar was causing the tension to spread to my wrist, or holding my wrist there was actually blocking part of the wrist range of motion so it wasn’t moving freely without tension. Either way, I was anchoring too hard with my palm, I got the idea in my head that I should put little to no pressure on the body of the guitar from my forearm during some of my sweeping experimentation, in that case, it works fine, but wrist movement being restricted would not be terribly noticeable.
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