Critique demizach's technique

demizach · February 5, 2018, 12:39am

Discovered CtC a year or so ago on Youtube, and it all made a lot of sense. I tried to think about pick slanting while playing, and thought I was using a pick slanting movement, but in December, I finally got around to recording myself, and realized I had a pretty bad string hopping stroke (the picking motion was curved, above the plane of the strings on both the upstroke and downstroke.)

In January, I finally subscribed to Masters in Mechanics and started really working on my picking technique. After a month of practicing both DWPS and UWPS (I favor UWPS naturally), I decided to record myself yesterday to see if there was any progress. It would appear I still have a LOT of work to do!

This clip showed me that I can easily default to that string hopping pick stroke if I’m not careful.

Here’s the 6-note pattern with DWPS:

…and with UWPS:

Here’s my tremolo at 150 bpm, which is the fastest I can manage with my wrist…

…and here’s my elbow driven tremolo with a ‘super slo-mo section’.

DWPS

UWPS

Now, call me crazy, but when I looked at the super slo mo footage, I realized I’m almost doing ‘reverse string hopping,’ where the pick is below the plane of the strings on both the downstroke and upstroke.

I’m thinking I need to focus on making my pick slanting motions more pronounced in both directions, and really concentrate on breaking the plane of the strings on the upstroke with DWPS and on the downstroke on UWPS. I’ve been using rest strokes for the downstroke with DWPS and the upstroke with UWPS, but I don’t feel the opposite movement is breaking the plane of the strings as much as it should.

Thoughts? Suggestions? HELP!?!?!?

milehighshred · February 5, 2018, 1:38am

Two things I see are:

Your pick is flopping around. The pick is hesitating to move through the string. Try tightening up your grip on the pick a little bit, and see if that keeps it more stable.
When you do the UWPS elbow picking, try anchoring with the thick part of your thumb instead of your pinky. I have to anchor with the meaty part of my thumb/palm to maintain control. I can’t do it with the pinky being the anchor point for this type of playing.

demizach · February 22, 2018, 2:20pm

Didn’t get much feedback on my first set of vids (thanks @milehighshred !), though that’s probably my fault for posting during the Superbowl!

Been working on it some more, and taking @milehighshred’s advice, I’ve tightened up my pick grip and stopped anchoring with my pinky on UWPS. That felt okay, and I’ve started doing DWPS without the pinky anchor too. Doesn’t feel too bad.

I “think” I’m making progress, but on the tremolo slo-mo clips I noticed I’m hitting the string MUCH harder on the downstroke and barely grazing it on the upstroke. Should I work on this? Should I lighten up my downstroke, or make my upstroke stronger?

6 note 120 bpm DWPS

6 note 150 bpm DWPS

6 note 120 bpm UWPS

6 note 150 bpm UWPS

DWPS Tremolo with Slomo

UWPS Temolo with Slomo

All advice / comments / critiques welcome!

tommo · February 22, 2018, 2:39pm

Hey @demizach ,

In the temporary absence of more qualified people, here’s my 2cents

Upon a quick look, it seems to me that your UWPS licks are more controlled/comfortable than the DWPS ones, do you have the same feeling? If it was me, I would glide the unused fingers on the pickguard during DWPS for more stability (but this is only my personal opinion/preference).
Apart from that, I don’t see anything wrong!

Also, your tremolo pick looked a bit like you were holding back. How fast can you push it without worrying too much about accuracy? This can give you an idea of how fast you can potentially go with these hand positions.

demizach · February 22, 2018, 3:17pm

Hi @tommo,

Thanks for the feedback!

I’m definitely a natural UWPS (well spotted), but I’d like to be able to do 2 way pick slanting. Before attempting pick slanting, I played with my pinky anchored on the guitar, but I feel that I’m still ‘swooping’ when I do that with DWPS. Not anchoring my hand has allowed me to minimize that swooping. Perhaps when I’ve got the movement more ingrained, I’ll go back to anchoring with my pinky.

I can definitely tremolo pick faster than what I recorded, but that’s about my max for just wrist movement. Any faster and I start to use my elbow. Perhaps I’m wrong, but I’m trying to get my wrist movements down before moving onto other mechanics. Again, my UWPS tremolo with my elbow is more comfortable than DWPS. I feel my biggest problem to overcome is the ‘swoop’ that keeps popping up in my picking if I’m not focusing vigilantly, especially when using my wrist, so I really want to focus on eliminating that as much as possible.

Thanks again! Greatly appreciated!

milehighshred · February 22, 2018, 6:09pm

Your playing is sounding cleaner! Sounds like you’ve improved your muting.

I tend to anchor with the pinky still on DWPS, just not the UWPS.

I recommend choking up on your pick a LOT more. No way I could play fast with that much pick showing. This will help minimize pick flop, and increase the accuracy since it forces you to be more accurate with hardly any pick showing. That’s why some people (I think) do well with jazz picks, because it leaves so little room for error.

demizach · February 23, 2018, 3:37am

Thanks again for the feedback, @milehighshred. I’ve always anchored with my pinky, but it seems I’m able to eliminate the ‘swooping’ movement without anchoring during DWPS. For now, I’m may wait until I get the movement burned in, and then I might go back to anchoring.

When I used SikPiks and one of the smaller V-Picks, I choked up a lot, leaving only a little pick exposed. With the Swiss Picks I’m experimenting with, the holes (which are supposed to help with pick slip) are only on the meaty part of the pick, so I’ve been forced to adjust my grip to get that benefit. I agree that less pick gives me more accuracy…guess I need to keep tinkering with my grip (and perhaps continue the quest for the ‘perfect’ pick! ) .

Thanks again!