DWPS and floppy upstrokes on downbeats

Hello guys. Downward pickslanter here. In this lick, when I get to the marked points where I need to start the downbeats with upstrokes I feel kind floppy and get disconnected. Martin Miller talked about the same problem on one interview (he said that if he don’t use downstrokes on downbeat and upstrokes on upbeats he looses the time feel and it feels awkward). On the other hand, Petrucci said that it is good to practice the same lick with reverse pick direction to reinforce that weakness. Any thoughts? Thank you

For what it’s worth, Paul Gilbert is another advocate of training yourself to be able to play the downbeat with an upstroke. He probably has suggested exercises for it, though I don’t have any links handy.

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Do most people play this in 16th notes? Why not play it in quintuplets so you always start on the downbeat?

That sounds like a breakdown in your motion to me, if you have an efficient motion that is. How is your picking on a single string, do you have any videos of your tremolo?

Maybe if your doing 3nps alternate picked stuff that requires a helper motion but for single escape/one-way economy playing that doesn’t make any sense, especially for 2nps pentatonic phrases, all of that stuff works best when it’s picked in a certain way :slight_smile:

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I think this is.

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Steve Morse said on an interview: ´´I practice alternate picking with downstrokes on the downbeats, and then I practice upstrokes on the downbeats, which is very difficult´´.

Petrucci said: ´´Typically will start with a downstroke, but will practice licks and scales starting from an upstroke so both are equally strong.´´ min. 22:54

Definitely I will work hard on this!