Hi,
Anyone know of any useful exercises for trying to master the double down stroke? I seem to have mastered a double upstroke without practising it much when playing descending sextuplets, but struggling to apply this to ascending sextuplets (my arm and shoulder sort of tenses up insanely). Economy picking is my bread and butter technique, so trying to make it work for me in scenarios which would normally demand alternate picking.
In my experience with any of these downpicking / uppicking things, speed is the best test. I think common wisdom historically accepted that these were endurance or strength feats. But if you ever stumble across these techniques accidentally, you realize that when you do it right it suddenly feels fast and easy, for almost no reason.
I assume you are using some type of forearm or wrist-forearm technique, with a flexed posture? Because that’s the most common form for this. If so, try experimenting with loose / rapid downpicking motions on a single note, just to see if you can unlock where it feels fast and the upper arm tension goes away. You can also just do chordal downpicking. Same basic thing, just bigger, which is sometimes eaiser.
It’s not an exercise, you’re not trying to work through the pain. It’s a technique thing. When it’s right there is no tension. Just try to go fast like you’re in a hardcore punk band. If you can make that happen, that’s the basic feeling of these techniques. Then refine from there.
That’s how it feels doing a double upstroke, fast and easy. I’m trying to invert the action that I do which makes it so easy descending, but still struggling, almost as though my whole arm is trying to jump to reset the picking motion when ascending. I don’t know whether the fact that I lean very much towards DSX playing has anything to do with a descending form being easier, given that my pick is angled in sympathy with the direction(?). Maybe if I try to train myself in USX when ascending then that might change the arm mechanic possibly.
I did notice earlier when practicing, that my tracking was all over the place. I was moving my whole arm when moving to each string rather than almost keeping my arm sort of fixed and allowing my wrist to do much of the tracking. So far, this seems to be solving some of my problem with excessive shoulder tension and certainly plays a part in the success of the double up stroke. I seem to be able to do.
I will post a short video on technique critique tomorrow, once I’ve figured out how to stop my iPhone from slipping when I’m trying to film with the magnet.