Hi everyone,
Background
After struggling for years with speed picking and trying to play really slow and relaxed with a metronome, I switched to a sarod picking technique based on Pebber Brown lessons and even though I practiced an hour a day solely picking, I wasn’t able to crack 120bpm. It did make my general playing much more comfortable though and felt really relaxed.
After viewing Troy’s stuff I then tried an action based purely on deviation (I play drums too and it is a similar motion I feel). With this technique on the rare days I can maybe hit 150bpm for a few bars but mostly top out around 110-120 as well which I hypothesize is due to bouncing off the strings from the energy of hitting the string with very little edge angle. Here is a thread on this forum I made about it: Hi guys! Lefty playing righty hoping to improve my picking hand
Current
I find that I can pick a lot faster with a motion I think is elbow, which I can sustain on one string in the 120-140bpm range. I tried to see how fast I can go and can maybe hit 180ish for a few bars but it feels tense. I’ve always heard elbow picking is bad but this forum makes me realize I first need to have a base motion to get a feel for fast playing.
I’ve made a few videos that illustrates the technique and some of the issue (?) I’m facing.
Single string:
The motion seems to be the fastest motion I can consistently hit 150bpm regardless of when I try. Other motions I’ve tried required me to be warmed up and lucky to be able to match this.
Ascending up strings - Starting with downstroke - 4 notes per string
Ascending up the strings always felt the most comfortable when I play but in the slow motion I can see that I’m hitting the string on the way up instead of cleanly skipping it. Is this what swiping is?
Ascending up strings - Starting with upstroke - 4 notes per string
I was hoping that starting with an upstroke would help me cleanly skip the string as I switch, and it’s hit or miss. Majority of the times I’m still hitting the string I should skip.
Descending down strings - Starting with upstroke - 4 notes per string
Descending just feels awkward for me. At least here I don’t hit the string I’m trying to skip a majority of the times but it’s not as fast or comfortable as ascending. I didn’t bother trying to start with a downstroke as I’m sure that would result in me getting stuck on the switches.
Based on the videos I was hoping for general comments and had some questions:
a) Is this a valid motion or am I wasting my time here and should I stick to improving wrist/forearm rotation? I like Paul Gilbert and fast solos where it seems like pick slanting is necessary and it seems my version of “elbow” might limit me. Especially since I want to eventually play Chon and Plini songs which have a lot of 2 nps and string skipping at speed.
b) If this is elbow and allows downward pick slanting and not upward, why am I hitting the strings on the way when i start with an upstroke? Is it just a lack of practice at the moment? Also how do I do 3nps with this as that would definitely require switching pick slanting direction.
c) I’ve notice that adding forearm rotation, or throwing in wrist flicks allows me to escape as it changes the trajectory. But I can only do these at slow tempos as I need conscious control. How do you develop this if I need to be able to do this at speed to develop an efficient motion? It’s like a catch 22. Is there a practice strategy for this?
Apologies for the length of the post and thank you so much for all the help! The stuff here totally goes against the grain of most great teachers on youtube but actually gives me hope that I can improve my technique!
