Does anyone feel they lose their ability to control dynamics when playing at tempo or in a challenging passage such as wide intervals?
Or put another way, does technique sometimes get in the way of or restrict expression
It seems that what you’re describing is not technique, but a lack of it.
Imagine a player of “infinite technique” — he/she would be up to any challenge, playing any passage with complete control. This includes everything: tempo, rhythm, dynamics, etc.
Andy Wood and Paul Gilbert both talk about playing with different dynamics. It’s an important (and often overlooked, I think!) aspect of pick and muscle/nerve response training and control.
Some passages do seem to “force” a particular kind of nervous response, but maybe those are places to try different approaches, so you’re not locking yourself into one mechanical straitjacket.
Cheers! Jz
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Sure I personally feel like this 
I think that is what blows me away about Anton Oparin so much. He seems to be able to vary his volume even when skipping 3 or 4 stings or tremolo picking or scalar lines. Great control over speed too (accelerando)
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I suspect there are physical limitations to how well dynamics can be controlled at speed, especially in the “always pick every note” approach.
But I think great players still manage to place well-defined rhythmic accents in the desired places.
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Thank you so much for your reply and your insight.
I’m currently doing a doctorate in jazz performance, focusing on guitar technique and how specific techniques lessen dynamic capacity within a musical line. Interestingly, you feel lack of technique causes a lessened dynamic output. I agree with that; an element of my research is focused on dynamics coming from the amount of pressure we use whilst holding the pick. And when alternate picking either a fast line or a harmonically challenging line, the physiological reaction you mentioned make us hold the pick tighter for fear of dropping it, as Guthrie Govan attests. From research, I found in identical lines that sweep picking uses a third less movement in the right hand than alternate, allowing for a more relaxed pick grip. I am in no way suggesting that alternate is in any way inferior. I use both styles when playing; however, my research is focused on playing within a jazz context. I’m interested in hearing everyone’s opinion
I wonder if some self awareness can help with that. Like actively making sure we maintain relaxation even at the highest speeds. Most of the really fast players look relaxed to me, nearly at all times.
That’s pretty interesting. Can you share some of the details on how you arrived at that number? Test subjects etc?
Right Totally on board with all that. In general I dislike absolutes. “Never pick like this” or “always pick that way”. There’s a place for almost everything.
Totally interesting. I have a bsc in mechanical engineering and imagine this as a complex dynamic system where the “form” of the string displacement from the pick varies according to pick velocity and the type of collision between the pick and string (elastic or non depending on a pile of factors) — so the displacement would be closer to a simple sinusoid rather than a combination/superposition of multiple sinusoids… can expand on that idea if interested.
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I’m so glad to see the level of interest in this topic is high. And all these comments are of great benefit to me. Sorry for the delay in responding; I was doing a gig.
I will try to address some of the comments. Firstly, I believe self-awareness is a critical attribute to any musician. I try to reflect on all aspects of my playing and take an honest look at what’s working and what needs work.
As for how I arrived at the figure of a third less movement, I, initially researching techniques, had taken three separate pieces of music and counted the directional change in the right hand between alternate and sweep to see the difference. I had read in the PhD thesis from Australian researcher Andrew Davenport where he quotes Gambale saying that sweep is a third less movement compared to alternate picking; I found this to be very interesting, so I went back to my figures and did the calculations, and to my surprise, in all three examples it worked out more or less a third less movement.
One thing I have found from trying to research this topic is that there is currently minimal literature or research in this area. So I appreciate your input. This forum has had an incredible impact on my development. I can engage with guitar practitioners of multiple styles and approaches which has been great.
Yes indeed, this does sound interesting. I will look into these suggestions.
Thanks for that.
Ah I see, that does make sense. Context is everything and my brain initially went to some ‘distance’ type of measurement So you’re saying 1/3 less movement in terms of total pick strokes used, is that correct?
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Yes, that’s it. I maybe wasn’t clear in that last post.
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All good. I tend to have tunnel vision and overthink
I guess one other aspect about all this that’s pretty interesting is Anton favors alternate picking over sweeping/economy due to various aspects of control. One of these is rhythmic precision but also dynamics. He talks about that here:
So even though there are more ‘movements’ involved he feels greater control when alternate picking. He has one of the most advanced DBX or Mixed Escape (I still can’t keep those 2 terms straight…I think he does both???) techniques out there. But that ties into what @jzohrab was saying about how reduced dynamic control at a high tempo might be best classed as a lack of technique.
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I haven’t heard Anton, but ill be checking him out. It’s early days for my research, but I will post more videos of my personal developments. And I’ll let you all draw your conclusions
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Thanks! Sounds like a cool project!
Late to the party, but in my experience (and from what I’ve seen), speed trades off with dynamics. As you approach your max, it becomes harder to create controlled attack variations, and pretty much not possible at max speed.
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I feel strongly about researching practical elements of guitar technique as it’s underrepresented in academia. Practitioner based forums such as this are a fantastic platform for discussing and sharing experience and knowledge. And my thesis will reflect real-world practices of guitarists and not just a theoretical concept. Having the ability to post a question such as this thread is valuable to me as a guitarist and a researcher.
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