DWPS + Upstroke Escape Technique Check-In

Technique Critique
#1

Hello everybody!

New around here, just checking in to see if I’m practicing this DWPS Technique correctly. More specifically the technique Troy used in his Yngwie seminar.

Picking feels somewhat stilted especially when shifting to the low A and E strings, I tend to lose edge picking when descending. Also keeping my fingers on the pick guard feels awkward when reaching these lower strings. Any advice on streamlining my technique and ensuring I’m practicing correctly?

Cheers everyone

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#2

Welcome to the forum @cong4400! Are you telling us something about your favourite sample rates with your username? :slight_smile:

Your clips looks like a good starting point for an upstroke escape picking style (we prefer to use this term now, rather than DWPS, to place more emphasis on the pick trajectory).

One important test to do is: can you play this significantly faster, even if a bit inaccurate? This will tell you whether the movement you are using is actually promising in the long run.

Here is the main idea explained:

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#3

Hello Tommo!

I wish that was the story behind my username, the real story isn’t that clever or interesting it’s simply something I chose off the cuff 15 years ago!

Guitar wise what’s got me stumped is:

  1. Feeling picking hand cramps as I move to the lower strings.
  2. Losing accuracy when I move from the low strings to the high strings.
  3. Accuracy in general when playing at higher speeds.
  4. Improving String Tracking
  5. Figuring out which pickgrip @Troy is using in the Volcano seminar.

Ill upload a video later today, hopefully it will give you clearer idea.

Thanks!

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#4

Sorry for the double post but here are the videos. As you can see it gets sloppy when I speed it up, not that it’s that fast. I want to refine my picking motion and make it uniform, I also want to make sure I’m practicing correctly!

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#5

Thanks for posting @cong4400! Is the audio out of sync with the video - or are you starting with an upstroke?

PS: just going by sound, this is not as sloppy as you may think! Also, by removing the audio and just looking at the picktrokes, it looks like you are correctly switching strings after an upstroke.

The movement looks also quite smooth - so I am tempted to say you are not stringhopping - but to know for sure you’d have to speed it up a bit more if possible! Don’t worry at all about sloppyness, just try to reach a picking speed where your hand just gets going and can’t control the individual pickstrokes.

To make it simple you can even remove the left hand and just pick open strings - let us know how that goes!