Critique on my picking

Technique Critique
#1

Just some warmup runs, working on getting a better camera setup so I can zone in on my picking hand. I have been working hard on my alternate picking for a while now. This site is awesome and there are so many talented players here it is insane!

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#2

Hi! Thanks for posting. There’s an interesting thing going on when you’re doing the ascending sixes on the top two strings which Eddie Van Halen also sometimes does when he plays that line: he “displaces” one of the pickstrokes to the top string.

So instead of playing DUD - UDU, three notes per string, he ends up playing DU - UDUD, which is two notes and four notes. You would think you’d hear that as a wrong note, but actually because the pinky tends to barre both of those strings, you actually end up getting a fretted pitch, just on the E string instead of the B. Here’s what it sounds like when Ed does it:

Technically this is a mistake. However, it’s a mistake that can sound “correct” because of the fretting coincidence. And it requires a specific picking motion where the upstrokes escape, aka what we sometimes call “downward pickslanting”. So it’s one way we can actually witness picking techniques evolving on their own spontaneously.

In your case, if you’re intending to do three notes per string, now you know what to listen for. But one cool idea is to specifically practice fretting and picking the DU - UDUD version intentionally. This is a relatively uncommon fretting pattern, so there are some possibilities here for creating unique lines. And again it only works with escaped upstrokes. So it’s a cool way take something that’s already working for you and make it ‘official’.

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#3

Thanks Troy for the advice,I really appreciate your feedback.I had no idea about EVH.Sometimes I am not really paying attention to my picking and just go for it but I will be more attentive to it.Thanks again Troy!