EJ Sixes Pattern and USX Wrist Motion

Technique Critique
#1

Hi,

I’m making some progress with my wrist-only technique. However I find the more strings I descend, the harder it becomes, the pick starts to feel trapped. Looking at the video I have a feeling this might be because my arm is becoming more pronated or less supinated as I descend. Possibly because it’s starting to collapse towards the body of the guitar due to having less strings to rest on? This in turn reduces my ability to USX and maybe that’s why it becomes more difficult. All just theory.

Anyone have any ideas?

Many thanks,

Jonny

2 Likes
#2

This looks pretty great to me. What’s the problem? Small changes in your geometry may happen for sure across big distances. But if there’s no ill effect, I wouldn’t worry about it.

If you feel like something doesn’t feel right or your hearing notes you don’t want to hear, and you’re not sure what’s causing it, better video would help. This is super duper blurry. Room light at night is actually really dim for filming. Reflected daylight from a window, and a phone set to 120fps, and the camera brought closer, will give you a much better look. Here are some more tips:

The angle you have here is great. It’s just the lighting, camera settings, and distance that would help.

3 Likes
#3

Thanks Troy, will try to get a better video up ASAP. Pretty poor effort on my behalf upon reflection.

Kind regards,

Jonny

#4

[ deleted ]

Sorry, I completely forgot what thread I was replying to. Re: this video, the angle is good. The playing looks good too. With a better look, you may discover that there’s not mcuh to fix here.

1 Like
#5

Just a thought, when my pick starts to feel a little ‘trapped’ on this kind of lick, it’s often because I’ve unconsciously gone back to my very flat picking attack style that I used for years.
These days I use more edge picking for fast ‘all picked’ playing, and although I think I still like the tone of a completely flat pick, I see the different tone as a trade off for a faster feel.
Try using more edge and see if the decreased resistance from the point of the pick results in a smoother feel?

2 Likes
#6

Yeah I know what you mean, I think I become more radially deviated as I descend, which reduces the amount of edge picking and makes it a bit harder to pick smoothly. Maybe I should dial in a bit of thumb bending to account for that.

I’ll play around with this tonight and update you.

Thanks for your suggestion!

Jonny

#7

Great description. This is what Frank Gambale does. Because this happens continuously during descending arpeggio sweeping, for example, you could almost see it as part of the sweeping motion itself in his case. But I think “attack correction” is certainly a valid way of looking at it.

1 Like
#8

Thoroughly enjoyed the Gambale interview. One thing I noticed is that you always ask the right question at the right time. I often watch these interview clips and think ‘that’s exactly what I would’ve asked too’.

Will get another video up later and try explain myself a little better.

Jonny