I have been working on using 2wps on 2nps pentatonic shapes and by making some simple exercises I see some clear improvements.
What I need from you guys is some recommendations of players who play fast 2nps pentatonic runs using 2wps.
Any genre really
Thanks
Follow up question.
Eric Johnson is an obvious answer that I avoided because I think of him as a dwps
But if I should be able to use his lines w twps then I can just dig into his seminar again.
I wasn’t sure because of his eco tendencies
Was afraid i might be going down a bad path trying to convert his 3nps alt plus eco style to
2nps 2wps
Any thoughts?
I’m going to apologize again for the confusion around the terminology! What you mean by “2wps”. Do you mean a double-escape pickstroke, where the pickstrokes have a semicircular look to them? For an example of a player who uses a semicircular pickstroke to play most things, including pentatonic lines, Carl Miner does this. However I am not aware of anyone who does very fast two note per string shapes of any kind, 170-180bpm sixteenth notes and above, with that type of pickstroke.
If you put me on the spot, I would tell any new player that the best first step in getting your picking technique on track is to get a simple, single-escape (aka “one-way pickslanting”) motion happening at a high speed. And the best way to do that is to try all the most common joints for this, including elbow, forearm, and wrist, and choose whichever one is working best right now. Because once you have this, you can learn almost anything else down the line. Edit: And, conversely, when we see players who haven’t taken this step and don’t have this, a lot of them are stuck in the low 100s with a stringhopping motion and no effectively no real picking technique at all.
Thank you
What I’m calling 2wps is like this
I switch between down and up slant only where I have too.
I use to switch back to my default dwps asap but what I’m doing now is maintaining which ever slant until I’m forced to change it.
Either way you are right that I need to keep experimenting. I can pick rapidly either slant but
I’m still struggling with accuracy and hand syncing.
I’m also focusing on using correct slanting even at low speeds in Hope’s that it further trains my body to feel when and where the slant changes happen.
I do speed bursts also but to be honest 3nps are much easier than 2nps for me.
Thanks for replying
I know we are dealing with not focusing so much on the slant but what the slant affords you. But I still just refer to it as pick slanting because my little brain learned it that way
You can think of it anyway you like, but if you don’t know what actual joint motions you’re using for the “two slants”, you won’t really know what you’re doing, or how to make it better. When you switch the “slant”, are you switching to a different picking motion? Because that’s what “2wps” players like Andy Wood appear to do, even if it’s just a slightly different kind of wrist motion. If you’re not sure, it could be that’s why you find the switching to be weird.
Even still, pentatonic licks are mostly one-way pickslanting licks anyway. The Eric Johnson fives pattern, for example, only works with an upstroke escape picking motion, and only has two notes on a string. I’m not even sure how you would make that into a “2wps” phrase even if you wanted to.
Edit: If you’re a wrist player, another thing you can do is check out the new wrist motion section in the Pickslanting Primer. It is the simplest presentation of this stuff we have done so far. We haven’t added the chapters about switching between motions yet, but when we do, the foundations for this are outlined in the stuff we have up there now. The nice thing is, the two basic motions we’re looking at there are all done with the same arm position. So when you get to the point where you’re playing phrases that require both, there is almost no real change to your setup necessary to do it. And any changes you do need to make will be minor.
Ok, cool
I think I will try to record some of the things I’m trying even if the quality isn’t great it will probably help me see
What I’m actually doing.
Once I work out recording I will post some clips so you guys dont have to “remote view” my actions
Wasn’t 2 way pickslanting defined in the anti-gravity section? It’s been a while since I’ve watched it, but I think it you defined it there. I think MAB was the player you focused on most as an example of what 2wps looks like, if I remember correctly. I don’t recall anything about a “semi-circular look” to his pick strokes though.
A lot of the fast Randy Rhoads pentatonic licks, if you tried to strictly alternate pick them, would probably require some type of double escape movement. I’m too lazy for that and just use pull offs 
I don’t know how Randy played them.
These guys:
e|—15—12———12—————
B|—————15———15–12—-
Yeah, for that lick above I start with
Down stroke using usx then switch at the 5th note to
Dsx, maintain that for three notes and repeat that mechanic as long as you keep descending.
I will dig into some randy stuff again now that I have some understanding. He was just always so out of my reach I stopped messing with it.