Crosspicking or just string-hopping

Technique Critique
#1

I’ve continued to explore the crosspicking information this weekend but I feel a bit unsure as to when I’m doing a decent job of getting the moves correctly and when I’m string-hopping so I thought I would share a video.

I feel like I’m close to the Andy Wood “9-0-2” crosspicking setup but maybe I’m just fooling myself? I do feel like maybe I could have more of the “slightly ulnarized” wrist to start.

Rather than a roll pattern I chose a ii-V-I phrase that moves across the strings quite a bit because it’s the kind of stuff I often run into issues with. I also played the phrase with economy picking in the second half of the video for comparison. It’s how I’d usually approach playing something like this.

Any and all feedback is appreciated. Thanks!

1 Like
#2

Anyone? @Troy?

Please let me know if I’m overstepping my bounds in bumping my own thread or tagging Troy here. Just really feel like I need some feedback from another party at this point. Analyzing my own playing is way harder for me than looking at someone else.

#3

Hi John! Sorry, didn’t see this when you put it up. In general, the only real diagnosis for this short of measuring equipment is the clinical diagnosis, i.e. practical, i.e. can you do it fast, with no significant feeling of arm tension? If so, then we call it “correct”.

That being said this “looks” possibly correct to me. I can see that this is arm and wrist, not just wrist by itself. And by that I mean, not just arm movements for moving from low strings to high (tracking), but back and forth arm movements as part of the picking motion itself. Whether this is an efficient kind of arm motion (elbow) or one that will likely feel awkward as you speed up (shoulder), again, speed is the practical test. Can you go faster with this and does it feel pretty much like no effort, even if it gets a little sloppy? Or does is it feel weird like your whole upper arm is rocking around? If it’s no / low effort and sloppy, that’s generally better than something that feels bouncy, tensiony, or awkward.

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#4

Thanks so much for taking the time to watch and giving feedback. I was unaware that I was using my arm so much until after I saw the video and even then I wasn’t completely aware of it until you mentioned it. I used to be an elbow picker so some of that’s probably creeping in. I eventually changed to forearm rotation and had good results but honestly never really considered deviation in either direction as a viable means of picking for me until very recently. I think I need to isolate that movement and see what’s possible for me for a while. I’ll keep working on it and post again in a few weeks.