Downwards slant flattens at higher speeds

Technique Critique
#1

Hey there,

So I’m pretty sure I’m more of a natural upwards pickslanter (it feels much more relaxed and easy to play higher speeds) and I’m having some trouble increasing my downwards pickslanting speed. At the moment, my slower speed downwards slant doesn’t feel too bad but I’m having two issues:

  1. The first is that when I try to go at higher speeds, my pick stroke flattens out and I’m assuming that’s because of my natural tendency to want to upwards slant to gain speed.

  2. The second is that when I’m playing on a single string, the upwards motion is nicely linear. When I’m changing strings (particularly when I am going from higher strings down to lower strings) becomes less linear and a bit more circular.

I’m hoping you can see both in the following two videos:

Slower Speed, Better Technique:

Faster Speed, Worse Technique:

Any advice you guys could give would be tremendous.

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#2

Hey welcome! It looks to me like you are still escaping on the upstroke on the second clip, and you seem to be able to switch strings smoothly.

So the question is… Are you happy with the sounds you are making? :slight_smile:

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#3

Hey there!

Thanks so much for your feedback. I’m glad that you got a good impression from those videos. I’m still pretty convinced that my upwards escape doesn’t escape the strings at higher speeds as my pickslant flattens out. I notice that I will have to do the classic ‘hop’ over the string when my pick doesn’t escape properly and it slows me down and causes me to hit strings I wasn’t meant to. So, I guess I’m wondering how I might go about maintaining the slant at higher speeds?

Thanks in advance for your help.

#4

I think you don’t have to worry about the slant flattening out as you increase speed. As long as that upstroke escape is happening, you should be fine. I don’t see you improperly escaping in the last video

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#5

If it works, it works, but I kinda see what you mean. When you think about a downward slant (old language), it’s not about what the pick looks like, it’s what the motion looks like. You might have angled the pick using the forearm to set that up, but maybe some rotation in the actual picking motion would get the pick buried and escaped in the way you’re intending. Maybe exagerrate the way you rest into the next string on each downstroke. Refinement is something that just sort of happens at speed as your mind looks for a way to keep up, but there’s nothing bad about what you’re doing at all.

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