Descending 6's harder on the e and b strings?

[Tom_h]

Hi everyone

Anyone find it harder to play descending 6’s on the E and B strings?

Can get them fast on the other strings but suck at the thinner ones?

[geoffk]

Yes - I have trouble switching from the E string to the B string but the other string changes are easier. I’m not sure why - i’ve been experimenting with starting the lick with a more neutral slant. I feel like it has something to do with the E string having an unlimited amount of space next to it, whereas the other strings have space until the next string (hope that makes sense) Or, maybe it is because of the angle/slant/mechanic of how I play on the high E string. I guess filming oneself would provide the best observations - haven’t gotten around to it.

[Tom_h]

think I’ve just fixed it for myself @geoffk if you check out my other post i explain what happened

Downward pickslanter has 2WPS breakthrough

Hey @Troy Ive just had another one of those lightbulb moments after watching teemu again I noticed that when he does his uwps upstroke he often seems to use the top side of the pick. So he’s edge picking on the up stroke. For some reason I’ve been overlooking this aspect of my picking. I was using the lead edge of the pick on down strokes with dwps but for some reason i was using an almost flat picking angle with the pick on the uwps upstroke? After watching teemu again i notic…

[tommo]

While you already fixed it, I still find the high E string problematic at times when using dwps. I like my rest strokes and also to pick quite hard, so I struggle a bit when there is noting below the string to stop my pick. (When doing UWPS, things are fine as I can rest on the upstroke - so I often do that if it fits the lick).

[Frylock]

so I struggle a bit when there is noting below the string to stop my pick

If I use a rest stroke, it’s not a very firm one, though I do feel like I pick pretty hard with DWPS a lot of the time. While I still occasionally experience blips on the high E string, I think it’s something that improves over time, especially as you develop stronger “muscle memory” of the string spacing from doing licks on strings where there is a higher string to rest against. Though thinking about it analytically, I can imagine the reverse being true if you do a very firm rest stroke all the time (i.e. you’re developing stronger “muscle memory” of expecting the rest stroke resistance to be there; then I guess it could become like when you go up a staircase in the dark and try to take an extra step at the top that isn’t there).

Edit: Clearly guys like Joscho Stephan have worked through this. I don’t know if there are particular nuggets of wisdom about the high E string in his interview?