Circle/circular picking troubles

Playing Technique
#1

Hello everybody. It’s my first post. Sorry for my english, i’m from Spain.

Well. I have been reading some posts about circular picking. I’m very impressed with this technique. I use to play hybrid picking using a red little pick and my fingers. But i would like to improve my alternate picking. Well, just read about circle picking in an article of Howard Roberts and i thought that would be good idea beacuse this technique leave the right hand fingers free to play. If you check a people like Danny Gatton, he plays perfect hybrid picking and perfect alternate when it’s necessary. I think he plays something similar to circular or circle picking… A few months ago i saw a YouTube video from Takayoshi Ohmura and i was shocked for his speed playing circular picking and no wrist… Well, i ‘ve started to practise this technique in June and i admit that it’ s cool and i was progressing but i can’t up the speed since three weeks ago… i can’t to play nothing faster of 140bpm in 16th… But i can play tremolo open strings at 180bpm… To play tremolo open strings at 180bpm and scales at 135bpm it has no sense anyway. I wanna play scales and licks at 180bpm too. I’m starting to think that maybe would be a good idea to add my wrist to that technique… I don’t know anybody in person that play this style and i think that’s very difficult to play fast scales only with fingers and no wrist. Your comments will be welcome. Thanx in advance.

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#2

We have stayed away from using the term “circle picking” for a number of reasons, but mainly because (1) there seems to be no consistent definition of what it is, and (2) most of the time, the motions people call “circle picking” don’t look circular.

We have filmed players who use finger-oriented picking motions, like Martin Miller. But his motion doesn’t look like a circle. Ohmura, Yngwie, and Eric Johnson all use fingers sometimes and also don’t look circular. Also, all these motions look a little different, and probably use slightly different joint motions, so it doesn’t really make any sense to me to call them the same thing.

Anyway, the more important thing is this: the only thing that matters in picking technique is whether the motion works for the line you want to play. It doesn’t matter which joint or combinations of joints you ideally want to use. If you can’t do finger motion fast, but you have another motion that works better, then finger motion is out for you and the other motion is in.

Also, keep in mind that not all motions generate the same type of “escape”. You can read more about that here:

No tenemos una traducción en Español pero ahorita lo puse en Google Translate y la traducción me parece mas o menos sensible!

Generally speaking, many common joint motions are “single escape” which means they cannot be used for every kind of phrase. They have requirements, for string switching, where the final note on every string always needs to be a specific pickstroke. For example, Yngwie’s finger motion is USX, or upstroke escape. What this means is that the final note on every string needs to be an upstroke or the motion will not work. So, for example, you can’t use this motion to play a scale with alternate picking. However you can use it to play a scale with downstroke sweeping, which is how Yngwie does it. When he descends, he can’t use downstroke sweeping, so he uses pulloffs when necessary.

That’s just one example. The general point here is that you can’t just choose any picking motion and use only that motion all the time unless you are prepared to make changes to the lines you want to play. And more importantly, I would suggest that you not really “choose” the motion at all, to begin with. Instead, try them all and use the motion which works best at this moment. You can always add more motions over time.

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#3

Thanx a lot for the reply. I’m seeing that i must to study the motions between strings… I’ll study and i’ll let you know if there is progress. Thanx again.

#4

Creo que la mayoría de la gente piensa que mi movimiento principal es muñeca, pero yo pienso que tengo mucho movimiento de dedos. Cómo dijo Troy, no creo que hay algo estandarizado para movimiento de dedos.

Hablo español obviamente, entonces si necesitas ayuda en traducir algo, dime y veo si puedo ayudar!

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#5

Definitivamente intentaré añadir movimiento de muñeca. De hecho físicamente debería ser algo más sensato y fácil. Con la muñeca desanclada tiene que ser más fácil conseguir velocidad. Lo difícil supongo que será la precisión, por lo menos al principio. Muchas gracias Pepepicks66.

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