As a guy who found himself in the same boat as Troy did for his first ten years on guitar (strict downward pickslanter), it might be fun to compile a master list of players who use purely DWPS in their playing. Maybe this will help serve as motivation and indication of what is possible using this system alone. Feel free to fact check! Anyway, I’ll start:
I think it’s a bit more complicated. Some of Yngwie’s stuff has a few notes that don’t really work well with just DWPS. Others, like Eric and Zakk, also use hybrid picking. And Albert Lee, while using DWPS, isn’t limited by it, since he developed his technique for crosspicking.
So there’s definitely more variety and it’s important to keep that in mind. If I was to name somebody who uses “pure” DWPS, it would be Doug Aldrich.
This is a good point. Do we stick to only players who adhere strictly to DWPS alone, or do we allow for players who are 95% of the time DWPS with a few exceptions. I would not consider the hybrid picking of Johnson or Wylde to be a concern because when they are strictly using the pick they are DWPS. Yngwie may have one or two licks that use swiping and outside picking but he’s still dwps. Also guys like Benson may once in awhile use a descending rake but I’ll allow it in the list. Lee is someone who I agree with you on after thinking about it: he’s a crosspicker so he doesn’t adhere to the dwps rules. What I would like to veer away from is players who are primarily dwps but also use 2wps like Steve Vai for example.
I’ll also add:
For some reason I thought Emil Werstler did a bit of 2 way and crosspicking, but I could be mistaken.
I think when he sweeps an arpeggio he is obviously two way but according to Ben Eller he is a “hell of a dwps.”
I’d be wary of listing George Benson and Isaiah Sharkey. It’s not that they’re not DWPSing, it’s that they hold the pick turned 90 degrees from how most people do. (Carlos Santana, Sheryl Bailey, & Cory Wong use this grip too).
I agree they hold the pick using a trailing edge, but that isn’t necessarily something to worry about here. The indication of DWPS is less about the angle of the pick and more about the methods for switching strings. Actually as long as you do that, it’s not important to what degree of edge one uses or how they hold a pick (or even thumb in some cases for jazzers.)
I would just add to all this that there are very few players who are really “purely” anything, as the many astute examples here point out.
However if you’re trying to categorize players in a way that might help understand the differences, one thing that is more consistent is the baseline setup. For example, however you describe George Benson’s picking system, it is clear that his baseline arm setup is a supinated. Same for Albert Lee and Zakk Wylde and Marty Friedman. These players all make various different picking motions, and they sometimes become pronated in the process. But they almost always start with and return to a supinated setup.
And of course supinated setups very often correlate with downward pickslanting. But it’s a broader category. If we’re doing family trees, I would connect all the supinated players on one side of that tree, and all the baseline pronated players (McLaughlin, DiMeola, Andy Wood, Molly Tuttle, etc.) on another branch.
That might be more helpful for you in terms of thinking about your own setup, and what you’re going to need to do to play various lines, than thinking specifically about “pickslanting”, which may or may not always be a part of that equation.
Totally agree. I figured initially that this would be moreso a list of players who, when playing their fastest and most terrifying licks, resort to DWPS. It may help someone who feels limited by being a dwps to think, “Oh, hey. This guy (insert favorite dwps guitarist) uses the same string switching methods as me so I know I can break down his licks, and learn to play them!” For example, I am a dwps player and switch strings after an upstroke (or by economy picking while ascending). I can also do the Joscho “outside picking swipe sixes,” but for the life of me, no matter how much I practice, no matter how many videos of yours I watch, uwps doesn’t feel comfortable or get much easier. Doing something like the Vinnie Moore pepsi lick starting on a downstroke is literally impossible for me to do well.
Because of this, when I try to break down a player’s licks in a song, if there is 2wps in it, I eventually say screw it and it discourages me because I end up string hopping. However, if I see that said player is a dwps, all of their licks come very easily to me and I am able to build confidence that I can be a good player without having to be able to pick like Andy Wood (I wish!). I was hoping this list would serve as a reference material for those who are in the same boat. We could do one for pure uwps like JM too.
Essentially, if you all remember the pickslanting venn-diagram Troy made where he put DWPS on one side, UWPS on the other and then the center was 2WPS where the overlapped areas were either primary or full-time one way, what I am aiming to do is craft a more comprehensive list of this. I am particularly interested in the full-time downward players, but I would be open to making this a list for all types of players.
Here’s a clip of JD Simo talking about some interesting stuff regarding his picking. I’m pretty sure he’s a downward slanter.
Wanted to add 3 potential new DWPS candidates which I am unsure about to be honest. If anyone can confirm these that’d be awesome: Ron Bumblefoot Thal, Vernon Reid, Richie Blackmore