Close up picking hand clip for you guys to deconstruct

Technique Critique
#1

I’ve never actually tried filming my picking hand up close, and I figure this is a great way to take stock of where I am, at least, before I start trying to rebuild my picking technique post-surgery.

Filmed at 60 frames per second on my camera, but youtube seems to have eaten that a bit. Full speed, so I’d be happy to reload this at half or quarter speed if Youtube’s encoding makes it too tough to figure out when you use their half or quarter speed function. Singlecoils into a Rectifier Roadster with the gain around noon, so hardly a forgiving tone, and there’s plenty of slop - I’ll attribute last night’s beers and a very cold room, but really I’m nust not that tight. :slight_smile: Normally I’d know better than to share something like this, but hey, we’re all here to learn.

My definitely-not-expert take: it looks like I’m favoring a bit of an upwards pick slant, except 1) when I get down towards the bass strings in the first descending diatonic run, and 2) when Im getting ready to switch to a lower string, at which point I seem to kind of cock my pick back by rotating my wrist away from the guitar. Also, on that ascending pentatonic lick at the end, I’m having pretty consistent trouble hitting the high note on each chunk cleanly when it involves jumping up to a new string, possibly related to that cocking motion, which as I write this and go back to watch it looks like I do that when switching up a string here, as well. I’d imagine winding up like that probably isn’t a great way to maintain efficiency, though who knows - you all are probably way better able to say than I can.

Anyway, any and all feedback is welcome!

EDIT - actually, let me get this up at quarter speed as well. I was watching it slowed down in my editor, and its a lot clearer there than on YouTube what’s going on - that “winding up” mechanic actually appears to be occurring on an upstroke, where I’m picking the string below, one thicker, before returning to a higher string, on the pentatonic lick at the end, and seems to be a way I break the pick free of the plane of the strings by rotating my wrist, to facilitate the string change, maybe? Hell, Idunno. Still trying to get my head around this stuff.

Also, holy hell does my paying sound bad at quarter speed. :smiley:

2 Likes
#2

Hahahaha, the slow clip is great! :grinning: Good playing Drew. I am new to analyzing this stuff and I’m not qualified really. But I could give my observation or 2 cents I guess.

It looks like you are definitely a Upward Pickslanter. You are rotating only to get over the next string. This is because your playing pattern has odd notes per string mixed in (I think I am seeing that :thinking:). I am seeing maybe some muscle memory confusion from the right hand not being sure if/when it should be doing the rotation in some areas. This might be causing sync issues between both hands.

:bear:

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#3

Isn’t it absurd? haha. It’s like Meshuggah, but with no talent, lol.

So, here’s another challenge for me - these weren’t “licks” in the traditional sense, in that I kinda just winged them. I blame my blues roots and maybe a lack of patience as a kid, but I generally just improvise solos. I guess some of the “chunking” stuff Troy presents makes a lot of sense to me in that I tend to group scale patterns in little peices and move around the neck by linking them together, if that makes any sense, so I guess I could spend some time working on re-designing those little building blocks of a run to ensure I only use an even number of notes per string in them or something, but ideally I want to get my right hand to a point where, within reasonable limits (I’m not trying to be Rusty Cooley here), I can pick pretty much whatever I want without having to think too much about how it falls on the neck. That may be a totally unrealistic goal, of course, but you gotta start somewhere. :laughing:

I guess, with that in mind, #2 seems to be the approach I might want to go for, no? Intentionally challlenge myself to make that rotational movement as smooth and instinctual as possible?

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#5

Like Hank says, definitely upward pickslanting. You seem to be string hopping a little bit and I think it’s because the last pick stroke you’re playing on one string is a downstroke and then you seem to be going to another downstroke on the next string.

I could be wrong as I’m not an expert, but I think that’s what’s happening.

2 Likes
#6

Hmm… Could you give me an example where this is happening in the slow video? I’m also kind of a novice about this stuff (also, hey, thank you so much for taking the time to watch this and figure out what I’m doing), but it looks like, after the very start where I straight up miss a couple notes, I’m settling into a pattern in that descending run where I’m picking with an upstring on the more-treble string, kind of winding up my pick/rotating my wrist to get over the string, and then following through with a downstroke on the more-bass string. But I’m having an awfully hard time telling for sure - really I just need to get more precise across the board if I’m going to draw any meaningful conclusions from this stuff. :laughing:

1 Like
#7

Just one question - are you pulling off a note before you change strings each time on the descending run?

Also, the ascending run is string skipped - right?

#8

I don’t THINK so… Though, now I’m going back and watching, and I’m not 100% sure. Looking at 0:07, I’m let’s say 85% confident that I’m catching the B string with an upstroke on the way up, before hitting the G with a downstroke. While I put a LOT of time into trying to get a good legato attack when I was younger, I thing given the gain levels I’m using here that’s a little too sharp to be a pulloff alone. Ironically, that mechanic would make a whole hell of a lot more sense with a DWPS, wouldn’t it…

The ascending run is… Let’s see if I can figure out what I was doing, but it was basically a pentatonic run broken into 3-note sequences in a box position. I’ll try to tab it out…

1 Like
#9

Ok, loosely speaking this was what I was doing.

54 AM
Screen Shot 2018-01-07 at 11.51.54 AM.png745×445 15.4 KB

Excuse the messy tab!

#10

Drew,

My advise is to slow down a lot, concentrate on syncronising your left and right hands and use a metronome.

I would also advise using Guitar Pro so you can play along slowly with the TAB.

If you don’t have them get the first two Paul Gilbert REH DVDs and also the 2 DVDs that Vinnie Moore did (you could also try a google search). Learn all those exercises and put them into a practice schedule.

With Troy’s motion mechanics in mind I’m sure you will see a dramatic improvement.

Good Luck!

Snake.

1 Like
#11

I think you are hitting the uncomfortable string switching plateau. That’s a toughie for sure… I’ve seen guitarists spend years practicing it… and never getting better.

My suggestion is to spend some time getting comfortable with 2 note per string patterns, starting on both and up stroke and a down. When I did that… I started to learn different mechanics to help me battle the string transfers that I had the most problems with. For me it was ascending outside picking. I think that can help.

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#12

Hey, thanks guys - want to apologize for the lack of response, as you might have seen from my intro thread, I had shoulder surgery on Wednesday, so I’ve been a little laid up. This is actually the first time I’ve tried typing anything with my right hand (which was the shoulder that was operated on), and I’m relieved it seems to be going pretty well.

The good news is the tear they were repairing ended up being surprisingly clean, and while the prognosis for recovery was aways very good, that makes it even more certain. Pain levels are shockingly low, too - I’ve been off meds after the first 36 hours. The bad news is I absolutely cannot use a pick at the moment; my dad and I were talking about guitar and how revamping my picking technique was one of my recovery goals, and I grabbed a guitar to try to demonstrate the difference between an upwards and downwards pick slant and why it matters. And, well, nooooope, lol. Even a soft impact against the string causes pain right now. So I grabbed a couple of those Gruv Gear wraps on amazon and am working on fretting-hand-only legato while my shoulder heals.

I’ll be back at it with a pick as soon as I can play without pain, though. :+1:

3 Likes
#13

Had my one-week post-op today, and I’ve been cleared to start using my picking hand again. I’ve got some stuff to get done for work over the weekend, but if I can get through it fast enough, then I’ll be signing up for and diving in to Masters in Mechanics. \m/

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