Many migh have already checked this lesson out. But here is Mr. Govan covering many aspects of his picking techinique.
We already know this master in not too interested in appearing on interview to discuss technique but he has given too many amazing lessons on many aspects of guitar playing. I think this is an awesome video no to be missed by any aspiring guitar player
This video always annoyed me because of the stupid camera work - I don’t have 14 minutes right now to rewatch it but from what I can remember the camera spends a lot of the time on his fretting hand, which is kinda silly for an alt picking lesson.
It’s a good video but YES! It clearly wasn’t recorded by someone who understood that it was all about picking tenique. It’s so annoying when they zoom in on the fretting hand right as he’s doing something with the pick that he just explained. But overall I thought it was good LOL
I know! and I believe It was on purpose, like a demo. So we can buy the real lesson. Yet he explains many topics like pick grip, pick angle, dynamics and string changes… coming directly from the master.
jajaja like those 60 live rock performances when the guitar solo comes and they change to take the bass player 
or anything else but the one doing the solo.
What I would love to see is Troy interview Guthrie, as I think that GG is intelligent enough to understand the details of his mechanics after Troy will explain them to him, and that discussion will likely be fascinating.
I imagine Guthrie has been asked for an interview so does anyone here know what his answer was? From reading posts on this forum for as long as I have, I predict that a Guthrie Govan MIM interview would be one of the most highly anticipated interviews in MIM history. There would be threads about it for weeks or months even!
I’m still waiting for Troy to interview YJM, it will be very exciting because his work would have come full-cricle. I can imagine Troy in Florida, driving one of those three red Ferraris…
I think he said he isn’t doing any video work at the moment.
I honestly can’t imagine Guthrie being interested in doing something like CTC. I went through a period of watching more or less all of his clinics on YouTube and whenever he would get hit by a mechanical question he would either brush it off or imply the same sort of thing John McLaughlin has said - that you need to figure things out for yourself.
I agree.
Plus, and please don’t take this as a knock on him, but I’m not sure we would learn much that’s new? His picking hand setup seems pretty clearly to my eyes to be a very standard clockface-family sort of deal. He’s just… better than the rest of us at it %)
I love a lot of stuff I’ve seen from Guthrie, but it’s so disappointing to see any expert give that kind of answer.
Imagine if Olympic divers were trained that way: “Yeah, you’ll just need to figure out what works for you.” Or maybe, just maybe, a person can be shown “here’s what works for me” and yet still put their own stamp on how they do things. There is no need for suggestions/analysis/description to prevent someone from doing self-directed experimentation, and quite the contrary, it can provide additional threads for someone to explore beyond the possibilities that they have already explored for themselves.
That’s one of the things I like about CTC. It’s not saying “though shalt do this”, it’s saying: “here are some ideas you may not have thought about before re: the geometry of how a picking motion can interact with the strings. And here are examples of how the challenges associated with that have been overcome by some highly respected players.”
And as @eric_divers hinted at, the insights from CTC provide a conceptual framework for us to interpret what we see someone like Guthrie doing, even if he’s not directly involved in the analysis.
Yes to clarify we have asked, and what we heard back is that he’s generally not that interested in being filmed / doing videos. Beyond that I don’t know why specifically and we’re not going to push it. Whatever the reason of course we respect that his priorities may simply be elsewhere.
I think this is a great general point that, if we’ve done our job showing the range of possible techniques and how they work, we don’t necessarily need specific footage of any single player to understand what they’re doing. Though clearly it’s still nice to have that too when possible 
Guthrie comes across as a painfully shy type of guy, probably would be out of his comfort zone by CtC scrutiny!
Also, do you guys wonder whether someone as good as Guthrie wouldn’t want to know the ins and outs of their technique? That there would be a fear of psyching yourself out with things becoming analysed where they haven’t before?
He’s afraid someone will finally catch on that he’s just miming playing the guitar while a concealed mic under his collar pics up his extremely accurate vocal interpretations of guitar sounds.
edit: On a related note, who was that guy who used to play an acoustic guitar while impersonating a trumpet for a skit?
Mr Govan has already declined the invitation. He is pursuing other aspects of his art nowadays. Which is fair if he wants to do so. I respect for both Guthrie Govan and Troy Grady as I admire the work of both.
I’m sure many people here would absolutely love for that interview to happen but I imagine it would be quite an expensive interview because of the type of money Yngwie commands. They’d have to weigh the cost of getting Yngwie to do that interview with how much additional revenue they expect it would bring in and then decide if they think it would make good sense, financially. Of course it could be that Yngwie wouldn’t be interested in doing that particular type of interview, no matter what he’d be paid, in which case it’s a moot point.
If he has been contacted regarding doing a MIM interview, it would be interesting to know what is response was. Even if it was something like he will think it over, that would be encouraging as opposed to a flat out no. If I could choose just one guitarist that we would be assured of seeing do a MIM interview this year, Yngwie would easily be my first choice. He’s just a one of kind musical genius.
It says a lot that the first guitarist that Cracking The Code does a specific section on in their instructional material it’s Yngwie Malmsteen and the “Volcano” sections. The next guy featured in that way was Eric Johnson in the “Cascade” sections.
I’m friends with a guy who has that mindset. He’s a state of the art player. Astounding ability. Years ago, I’d ask him “How exactly do you do this” or “Exactly how do you move the pick when doing this type of string change…” and he’d answer to a degree. Then when I asked if it was possible to go into just a little more detail he’d say that he didn’t examine his playing in that way. He honestly didn’t know exactly how he did what he did. That’s not uncommon… The next thing he said surprised me though. He said he didn’t want to know. It was something about if he started consciously thinking about the specifics of every little movement he made, it might kill his ability to do what he does, the way he does, without having to think about it.
So yes, I think this it’s very possible that other guitarists who are also state of the art players might have that mindset as well.
Not to be a killjoy or anything (after all I am a fan), but YJM interview probably won’t offer much more educationally than what we know, will it? And don’t forget to ask him if he wants any donuts…
I agree, I would be nuts for it…
I think the best inspiration for me was the interview you did with Mike Stern. Because just the fact that he was willing to be present for such introspection opened doors for me that I did not think possible anymore. In the early 80’s I tried with him and it didn’t happen and I really am glad for that in hindsight.
When he dropped the pick(but not his thumb), it was a revelation, no amount of private time could replace the insight into playing the guitar(his ideas on articulation), especially working within your own “strengths” and “weaknesses”. It was welcomed music to my ears. He is a true guitar hero because he DID choose to participate whatever mechanics may(or may not) have been exposed. Thanks for that.
so weird cause this video shows the other way to pick. why would he leave this out? i was wrong he does show it, but this video he shows some tricks to practicing it with the box or a hotel room key. the hardest part about this tremolo picking motion of a single string and note is that you have to get accustomed to that point where the pick is trying to cross a string with tension. it’s super weird and takes some time to find the perfect setup to make it happen.