Figuring out how to pick a double time Link

Technique Critique
#21

Yeah that is great progress! Just like Jack said, the first 20 seconds you are using rotation and then you sort of stiffen up and use more elbow. I’m not sure if you can feel it yourself but you probably do.

One way to work on this is to really think of the pick as traveling INTO the plane of the strings or TOWARDS the guitar body. Rather extremely at first actually. This kind of forces the rotation to happen or at least helps the body exaggerate that motion. After som time this will feel more natural and you don’t have to be so exaggerated anymore.

This is what it kinda looks like when I try.

(And wow, making a smooth acceleration like this was hard in the morning. Have to work on this.)

#22

Thank you! Yeah, it’s night and day compared to stiff mess it was before :grin:

Yeah completely agree, it’s quite a deceptive motion if you don’t know what to look for. When your properly warmed up with it and locked in, I’d even say it is pretty effortless. In Yngwie’s case he’s probably been doing it as long as he can remember, maybe that’s why he can move around on stage so much while doing the fretboard acrobatics he does, it’s just second nature to him at this point

#23

I’ve found that picking on the high E is especially challenging–see my last post about going from a purely floating technique to one where I let my hand lightly rest on the pick guard. Especially for playing on the B and E strings, my technique switch seemed essential. When I spoke to DC about floating, he mentioned Moses Rosenberg. Even if you are not a manouche aficionado Denis Chang’s material on Youtube is worth a watch.

Here’s the video of my picking. The last critique was so good it made joining Troy’s site worth the price of admission, but don’t tell him that :wink: Cool to have a space to discuss these picking troubles

#24

That’s a great looking gypsy-style tremolo! Clear up stroke escapes happening.

The next recommended step is to make sure you can continue to use that motion on melodies, on one string, with good hand sync. Then work on lines that change strings after upstrokes.

#25

the problem between floating and planting for me is that for my brain i perceive floating wrist flexion, the downstroke as the rest stroke so i am more consciously aware of that stroke. now during heel plant based picking if i roll a bit onto more of the thumb heel side i can do the inverse of the tremolo that you do with the floating wrist flexion but with wrist extension and it becomes dsx which escapes on downstrokes. here i am more consciously aware of downstrokes so now if while i am picking a fast tremolo and i roll from the thumb heel to a more pinky heel it will feel like i am consciously aware of upstrokes now, and not downstroke rest strokes. there in lies my problem with the whole conundrum of picking mechanics. LOL

#26

Here is more of me playing in my “natural habitat.” As you can see, there’s a lot of picking techniques peeking through, but they aren’t consistently clean. Upward and downward pick slant sometimes. I studied Jimmy Bruno’s “The Art of Picking” for a while and took a lesson with him–he’s a beast and freaking hilarious! Anyway, thought I’d give more content for you all to critique–this is quite fun… when y’all gonna charge me? :rofl:

And yeah, Brade, the floating technique was a little awkward–especially when performance anxiety sets in :sweat_smile:

That click is 30bpm to mark the downbeat–every first quarter note. So that would equal an easy swing of 120bpm–which is still hard for me to get those double time licks in :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

#27

Replying to my own post is not great form, but one detail that I noticed is that I flick my wrist away from the guitar in an exaggerated motion when I accent a note dynamically. Denis Chang chided me (in his good humor) about that and said “pick into the guitar, NOT away like THAT!”

#28

Do you have any fragments or phrases you can just burn through?

I would utilize that kind of thought, and try to analyze what kind of motions you are doing. If you don’t quite grasp it yet, just take different soundscapes (fretboard patterns/shapes), and utilize the strength of those fast picking pathways already ingrained into your picking hand that you can naturally just burn through to play other kind of phrases with different fretting pathways.

#29

I would echo this sentiment. Your tremolo motion looks great but I don’t see you applying it when playing any of your phrases. All your phrases sound great and really musical though so I’m not saying to completely any of disregard that stuff :slight_smile:

Maybe start trying to apply your motion in a musical phrase on one string and slowly get comfortable adding more strings while maintaining your motion. You’ll want to favour licks that change after upstrokes that fit within this USX style, when ascending you can apply downstroke sweep string changes as well - all the stuff that sticks within the confines of typical gyspy technique :grin: