Early Yngwie - this looks like pretty heavy picking to me.
In more recent videos he seems to pick much more lightly.
What do people here at CTC think? 
Yeah I’m not sure. I always thought he picked lightly just because he looks so freaking relaxed when he plays everything. He always has a nice semi-aggressive tone/attack though. I agree he looks like he’s digging in more in the earlier clip. Could be the live situation and some adrenaline though Sorry, I’m probably not much help lol!
1 Like
I can’t say for sure, either. But if you try his picks, which are the lavender Dunlop Delrin 1.5mm, I think this will help answer your question. Coming from a pointy jazz 3 pick, I can barely get any attack out of those slippery Delrins. I use a fair amount of edge picking so the curved tip, beveled edges and thick gauge felt like pure mush to me. @Twangsta uses these exclusively I think so maybe he can enlighten you.
2 Likes
If you sand the pick point a bit they become way more playable. I bought a bunch because apparently Jason Becker used them too, but the base shape and texture just seemed to akward.
3 Likes
Glad you all are struggling to tell how hard he is picking as well! I was worried I might look a bit foolish asking the question. It certainly appears that he is picking way harder in the early days - but who can really tell?
Also agree on the picks - I have one of those 2mm ones and I can’t any definition on the notes either when I pick - slips around on the string!
My current go to picks are Jazz 3 XL 1.5mm. I have one I have worn down a bit and it seems to work the best overall.
In the first clip he uses a fender extra heavy pick (1,21 mm I think).
1 Like
There are some clips where he was playing on an acoustic and it sounded like he was picking quite hard there.
I had it on an old VHS tape, but there are possibly clips on YouTube.
I have been wondering this for a while too. Yngwie is the poster child for relaxed form while shredding. I really don’t understand how he sounds so aggressive using that little pick motion. Rick Graham is very relaxed too, and in many of his videos you can hear the snap of the string over the amplified sound. You can tell he is picking quite hard, even on fast stuff. But I don’t know if Yngwie is getting that much attack.
A while back (years ago) when I first saw some of his live concert footage I wondered the same thing, and came to the conclusion that he picks fairly lightly, and relies on the eq of his amp, whatever boost he’s using at the time, pick thickness and guitar to give him that pick attack and presence. His motions are too small and fluid for him to be putting in a lot of force with each pick stroke. He may play a little harder on an acoustic instrument, because, well, you kind of have to, but I’m sure he uses a compressor on his acoustic guitars to mitigate that somewhat.
Regarding the 1.5 delrin Dunlop’s, I personally have a hard time using them too, but there was a time I used to use them exclusively and for the life of me can’t figure out how I did. I also tend to use the Paul Gilbert 45 degree angle these days, and anything with a rounded tip like that, super slick material with highly beveled edges just feels icky and wrong, and tends to slide over the strings with a really poor attack, and more noise than any kind of intelligible note. Yngwie on the other hand plays with the pick more horizontal to the strings, more so than it might appear, and you can even see him at times bending his thumb back a bit to flatten the angle of it to the strings.
2 Likes
Don’t know enough about Yngwie to be sure, but if he used / uses 8 gauge strings tuned a half step down, I can’t imagine he picks very hard.
edit:
Yngwie, def the purples, sounds right with high action and as mentioned needs an appropriate angle of attack on the strings, almost parallel to the strings for most efficiency as far as I know, much more to it than I can put in words from my experience though. The upstrokes are magical and percussive, the down strokes are a suggestion. Needs a leap of faith with the high action, else it’ll sound like crap, can’t stress on this more.
Heavy picking? Are you kidding, you need to have dynamics, emotion and feel. Sometimes its sweet other times its nasty. Get it down.
edit2: acoustically the purples have more volume, throws them jazz picks in the garbage, if you’re ham fisted and death grippin the pick maybe you’d like the pointy picks for your style. My personal opinion, no offence.
Hey amigos. There is a relativity here just like everything else - ha! I’m not stating there are any wrong implications in the thread - there aren’t, but compelled to point out the obvious as I see so many beginners get it wrong. I often see too many beginners confuse playing light/hard as directly related to pick depth. This stifles many. There is a correlation between the 2 of course but those starting out need to understand that you don’t merely increase pick depth to play hard and decrease it to play light. This leads to so many never refining pick depth control to the point where they never learn to glide effortlessly across the strings. One can certainly play “hard” with very little pick depth and focusing on those dynamics is critical to getting to advanced levels. Hard or light - learning to control and maintain low pick depth is a key skill. I’ve found it comes as a surprise to many when they hear “hard” playing is to come to understand just how little pick depth is being used and how “light” it actually feels to the hand. That’s the relativity I’m referring to. Of course, the opposite is important also - being able to dig the pick way into the strings and finesse such so the pick is not getting stuck. The side of all this many never get achieve is the dynamics of hard playing with very little pick depth. Most on this forum understand this for sure but I’ve found it’s a common hurdle for many to achieve the picking skills sought.
4 Likes
That’s interesting that you bring that up and is a good point. I am pretty advanced but I think even my fairly well developed picking still goes too deep. I don’t know if there is a one size fits all and I would like to get Troy’s input on this. Cuz in his slow motion videos he seems to use a decent amount of depth sometimes. Others its clear that only the tip is meeting the string. I do have to say that dynamics and volume seem elusive when using very little pick depth. But Rick Graham quickly dispels that.
On the other hand, I do just LOVE the sound of digging in hard on the string. I have not experimented enough with minimal pick depth to see if that bloom occurs in the same way. I have experimented with playing with a cranked volume and very light fretting and picking. And it just does not sound good to me. Just like banging out a power chord. I show my students the difference between feathering a distorted power chord and then really whacking it. Not tense. Just fast and hard. I teach them to keep their hand loose and just wind up and whack the strings.
What have you specifically worked on to achieve said dynamics with minimal pick depth?
1 Like
Also, could be a good time to look at the “Is Pick Depth Slowing You Down” video again
1 Like
Not Yngwie but this comes to mind RE: learning to pick hard/soft and everything in between:
3 Likes
Great post Jburd. Great videos by Troy and Rick. The context of Yngwie is important here. I also agree nothing better sometimes than slamming a good power chord. Malcolm was the best and there is no other way to get his sound either. Rick’s disciplined, deliberate playing is mesmerizing to watch for sure. The title of Troy’s video sums it up pretty well. One of the main factors for achieving many picking goals is pick depth control. A long time ago I dismissed the concept, feeling that mine was good enough. Playing didn’t progress much from there. When I finally let go of that and worked on it with a fair amount of discipline, my playing exponentially got better - achieving desired picking goals. I realized the importance of it and also how easy it was to be content with my prior mediocre pick depth control which was holding me back. Comes down to what you want to emulate and play.
2 Likes
So just wondering in the early Yngwie example above - how much depth does he have to his picking do people think? I have queued this up to another section that shows a bit more close up.
Yea that’s the video I was thinking of when I talked about Rick’s description of pick depth. I gotta be honest, after watching the Pick Depth video for the 2nd time, there really isn’t much of a conversation about it. It’s more of a lesson on escape strokes than anything else. In fact, towards the end, Troy seems to say that he doesn’t think pick depth is the issue when they evaluate players. I’d like to see a deep dive on this subject. Maybe get Ricky to come on the show lol.
So does the CtC team think that minimal pick depth for pure speed is important? Obviously there’s tons of variables. But to play like Yngwie, Joe Bonamassa, Teemu, et al, is pick depth a major consideration when playing the fastest lines?
In my opinion, it all boils down to how much energy is transferred to the string on hit, since (other things being equal) the more energy is transferred = the louder the note = the more the picking motion is slowed down. This is very noticeable to me when you can hear someone play unplugged, or the string / picking noise is audible in a video. Things like the angle of edge picking, pick flexibility, pick depth… they all impact the amount of energy transfer to the string. I think most fast players are on the lower end of “string transfer energy” (quieter notes) during their fastest passages, with their loudest notes being noticeable on accents.
2 Likes
I would generally say that too…but a quick stroll thru IG with today’s generation of super freak guitarists like Rick Graham, Stephen Taranto, Wes Hauch tends to show otherwise in my experience. Those guys seem to be picking/accenting quite hard. Even on faster phrases. Stephen Taranto is just unfair.
Edit - ok I guess if you look at the accenting, that always tends to be the loudest.
It kind of eludes me how these guys get these loud and clear accents. I wonder if their guitars are just that much better than mine. Or if it’s all picking finesse. But I cannot seem to get my accenting to be razor sharp and with such snap as these modern freaks seem to be able to do. I think above picking depth, my main issue is the lack of clarity on accents. I’ve always had a pretty soft pick attack on my single note lines. I guess it comes from my preference for economy lines. Which is what Rick talks about in that video I believe - how he gets snap and bite using economy picking.