Bluegrass picker turning to shredders to fix my right hand

Introduce Yourself
#1

Hi all James from Ireland checking in. I’ve been playing guitar on and off for about 13 years now with about 90% of that time on acoustic folk genres (mainly bluegrass). Since I was a kid I’ve always had a tension problem resulting in extremely sloppy playing at speed. I’ve dabbled in a little bit of electric guitar after seeing the likes Paul Gilbert playing straight alternate picking lines at double the speed of any bluegrass tune to try and fix this right hand problem. I’ve finally ended up here after deciding that I haven’t treated my playing seriously enough over the last 7 years or so with other hobbies taking over.

Been experimenting with different picking approaches using the “start with fast” technique and to be honest I don’t really see how I can develop these techniques to work on any other type of picking other than straight tremolo. My DSX ended up with the pad by my wrist clamped on the lower strings and wailing away on the G string, first relaxed and then as fast as I could with some (read: a lot of) bicep tension. I also tried a USX with wrist motion which felt better although not quite as fast.

I’ve attached some videos here demonstrating:

  1. My natural picking technique (stringhopping)
    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q5KNoPiZzuwPscM8fw_VnsxpxN2Y6cT_/view?usp=sharing
  2. USX and DSX
    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q7URH-KWC1-hKSPDbYZuRoy1eko5fnBV/view?usp=sharing
  3. USX and DSX in slow motion
    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q7PzgiXIhHHDm3Uy5KE6RubgsSnXKa19/view?usp=sharing

I’d appreciate any feedback/advice on how to develop my right hand to play blistering, but most importantly relaxed and clean leads. I’ve also set a fun goal to get Cliffs of Dover down note for note by the end of 2021 so I’d love to smash that also!

4 Likes
#2

Hey man - first of all the Beaumont Rag vid is straight FIRE :fire: so awesome, sounds fantastic. I wouldn’t say you’re stringhopping - looks to me more like a double escape motion that works quite well for you and what you’re playing. I’d love to see a vid of a phrase across multiple strings using the USX or DSX technique that you’re wanting to develop to get a better idea of what’s going on when you try to start with speed.

I’d say just keep plugging away with the tremolo work as well - it’s a bit of a trial and error process to find a technique that works and feels sustainable and you’re on the right track by pushing the speed there.

I think I was very much in the same boat as you - when I first came across the CtC stuff I was using unknowingly using a DBX/DSX technique pretty successfully but really wanted to be able to play the EJ stuff which was a complete mystery to me so I threw it all out the window and spent a long time trying to figure out the USX, as playing Cliffs of Dover was one of my ultimate goals. These parallels are frighteningly similar :joy:

#3

That DSX motion reminds me of mine, super fast too! Sweet playing.

#4

Cheers man! Yeah looking at my picking from that angle it does look quite like a DBX movement. I suppose it just really never feels smooth and I always feel like I’m just making it through the solo by the skin of my teeth rather than actually playing the music. From a top-down angle you can see that there’s definitely a whole lot of unnecessary motion which is why I believe there’s some sort of stringhopping going on! I’m also ridiculously reliant on hammers and pulls when the speed cranks up which ruins the feel of the solo.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TGONQTEqhOJbwzOPz32OSdqL2qan1dxW/view?usp=sharing

Learned the cliffs of Dover intro last weekend, only at about half speed but we’re all gonna make it!

#5

Hi. first of all, your playing sounds really great even if there’s some kind of mechanical problem there. I see that you have some kind of DSX tremolo and also in the first clip you play a little bit of strumming which usually involves forearm rotation. Maybe combining those 2 to create a DBX pickstroke would work?