First Step Help (again)

Technique Critique
#1

This a continuing of the thread of the same name in the Playing Technique category.
I have worked on my tremolo picking and and have found a way that seems to work for me, as shown below. As Troy said in the other thread, this is my first time really looking at and breaking down my technique. Because of this I realized I have absolutely no idea how to do this. So any input on what motion mechanics I am (and am not) using as well as what I should work on or improve is welcome.

Also I have pretty thick skin so I have no problem hearing I suck or I am doing anything wrong, so be as brutally honest as necessary :slight_smile:

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#2

This is looking pretty good. To my eye, this is sort of the beginning of something similar to Teemu’s dwps technique. I think of it largely as a “forearm rotation” technique even though the movement of the forearm can be pretty subtle. There’s also a wrist component to this, but it’s closely integrated with the forearm component. One thing is to work on developing a feeling of looseness and fluidity in the forearm component. I think one way to do that is to exaggerate the flex of the wrist a little more, and once you have the feeling, trying to work it again with the less-exaggerated wrist flex. You can also do little varations with things like the attack angle of the pick, and how firm or loose your “anchor” fingers are against the body. In its current form you seem a little stiff, but I think you’re on the right track. Once you develop more of a loose fluidity to the forearm component, this starts to feel almost effortless.

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#3

Thanks for the feedback! You are absolutely right, one of the things I noticed when practicing is how stiff everything felt. I just chalked that up to this being a new technique and something that would loosen up in time, but `its good to have something to work on in that regard, I will get right to that. Great to hear I’m on the right track too!

#4

Update on my situation, I’ve been working on feeling more loose and free with the picking and that has helped a lot not only with the picking but also with the feeling that this is an achievable goal. But i would notice that when picking something just did not feel right, and when i took a slow-mo video i found that when picking at higher speeds, and particularly on upstrokes, the pick was not cleanly getting through the string, but was getting caught on the string. This would create a sort of micro-bend which would throw off the tone, the rhythm/timing, and make me feel like something was just off. I’m deferring to you guys the experts on this, is this a common problem? And what is the most effective way to tackle this.
If it would be useful a video can be provided
As always thank you for your time and attention!!

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