Hanky Pooh's Picking

#57

Explains why you are now able to animate teddy bears on your YouTube channel. That, and, OUCH!

#58

Between playing with Rob Rock and taking part in a Great Kat music video, you might actually be the coolest dude on the forum. 100% serious.

#59

hahaha!!! You’re pretty famous Hank dude.

#60

I agree, though with a little bit of key missing information like that which Cracking the Code comprises, a lot of those years of playing experience (and listening!) translate directly into chops today. (Speaking as a 49 year old.) Peace out.

#61

@tommo lmao :rofl:

@aliendough No way man. I have 115 fans. fail. :smiley:

Ow, thanks man. I’m just digging up older stuff that people might think is interesting on here. I wish I were as cool now. :sunglasses: Since you mention it though, here are a couple Rob Rock solo compilation videos! :rofl:

#62

Hey, it’s a older video, but have you guys seen this one? This was my first video with Teddy.

:fire:WARNING: EXPLICIT LYRICS :fire:

#63

Looks like Teddy is an upwards pickslanter :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

#64

Buahahahahahahahahahahahaha! That’s funny as hell, man. :rofl: I have another bear named Freddy that I want to do a video with. But that YouTube advertisement AI hates my bear videos. Here are Teddy’s Motley Crue and Michael Jackson videos. Sorry for re-share, I want to put them here. :bear:

#65

I don’t know man, paw picking and knives…

#66

Granular Update

#68

Look at the underside of your forearm, near the wrist. There’s definitely some forearm rotation happening, even if it’s subtle. Forearm rotation isn’t “required”, but if you’re agonizing over what you perceive as a lack of forearm rotation, I think you are doing forearm rotation.

The thing about finger movement is: “Is it causing a problem?” The amount of finger movement in the clip you show doesn’t seem excessive to me. I think that being aware of the different motion components is useful mostly for helping you categorize your own experiments and process of elimination as you figure out what’s working for you and what isn’t. To me, the key criteria for any picking technique are: “does it work?” and “can I do it without excessive discomfort?”. The question you need to decide for yourself is whether your technique that includes finger movement is satisfying the first criteria.

From previous posts, it sounds like your main concern is lack of consistency on certain licks. If I were in your shoes, I’d spend some A/B comparison time on “problem licks” with “letting my fingers move the way they have for the last X years” versus “forcing my fingers to move less”, and deciding which one is giving better results. And consider also that “moving the less” doesn’t have to mean “not moving them at all”. But again, this latest clip doesn’t scream to me “why is he moving his fingers so much?”, so my not-so-helpful advice is, don’t change it unless you feel like it works worse than forcing yourself to use less finger movement.

#70

Hi, Fry :fries: I’m agonizing over anything that will keep me from picking as fast as Teemu and Troy. I get the general feeling that the fingers will hinder the speed. Maybe this isn’t the case. As far as the forearm thing I obsessed about for a while. I am now convinced that wrist is ok. And Troy confirmed to me that his 2 way picking that I am trying to do is mostly wrist. As far as finger movement causing a problem? Not yet. But I am not up to speed with my picking yet either. So I don’t know if fingers will be hindering at the speeds I am wanting to accomplish. I noticed that Troy was picking at Teemu a bit for using his fingers. So I either read that the wrong way, or moving fingers is considered a speed hinderance by @Troy . Maybe I make too many assumptions. Obviously I have in the past on here.

After watching my clip again, it doesn’t look too bad I guess. It’s not what I was wanting to see though. The way I am picking is totally comfortable. But I need to get my speed up, and my playing a lot tighter. What ever it takes to do that. If the fingers “aren’t acceptable” for this… I don’t want the bastards moving then.

Like you say… I need to do my own speed and mechanic experimenting and do what works for me. But I want what works for me to acceptable and fast enough. And tight enough. Right now it’s not, and my videos show this. I’ve not been able to completely stop moving the fingers like Troy told me to.

On a positive note though, at least I cut that “scalpel” picking out so far. That is a sloppy *** picking method IMO. Why did I ever naturally start doing that crap?

Later for now guys!
:bear:

Edit: Don’t get mad at me Troy. I am not doing what you told me. I know. I know. I know what you told me. I’m not ignoring it. I am just unable to comprehend how that will make what I am trying to do better. I will keep doing the even note stuff as well. Consider me trying to skip ahead in the book. I won’t tag you much man. Don’t get mad!!! :rofl:

#71

Not a problem Hank. I only allow myself one peeved retort per month so you’re safe for at least a few more days. (I’m kidding.)

To be totally clear, I have nothing against finger movement. Whatever the movement is that Danny Joe Carter is using, it’s plenty fast - faster than I can play. And Martin Miller gets lots of mileage from finger movement in terms of complicated string switching lines. In fact I have nothing against any of these movements - they all clearly work.

In your case what we’ve talked about is just focusing on one movement instead of randomly doing several. The mixing and matching of multiple movements even across 20 seconds of playing — it’s confusing and makes it very hard to feel what you’re doing and get better at it. Doesn’t matter which movement you choose, but (I think) you’ll get better results from trying to isolate one of these. Or at least, one at a time.

#72

Buahahahaha, that’s funny man.

In the case of Danny Joe Carter, he isn’t executing every note right? It’s fast but sloppy. Do you think the finger movement causes this? Or is it more the player? When I mention you and Teemu, there is the clarity and timing factor I am referring to also. I want to play faster, in time, with every note clear. I’ll keep working on it.

In the 13 second clip above, am I isolating anything? If I pick one, I pick wrist… So do I need to put splints on my fingers so they won’t move?

Ok, let’s say hypothetically I pick fingers and isolate fingers… Does that mean I need to stop using the wrist or arm?

What should I isolate? I will wrap metal splints around everything else. I crazy mane :stuck_out_tongue::slightly_smiling_face::upside_down_face::stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

Later
:bear:
“this post was at least 20 characters long”

#73

Nice Les Paul @aliendough I got another Kramer yesterday. Dirt Cheap! Hehehehehe. This one has a reversed headstock :upside_down_face: This one is gonna be my Bumble Bee one. Yellow tape paint. The other black one I have was going to be the bumble bee, but it’s in brand new unmodified condition. So I just couldn’t bring myself to hack on it. This one is a rough player with Dimarzio and other change outs. So this b**** is getting yellow taped, baby!

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#74

Looks cool, Hank! What are the switches for? Coil tap and phase switching?

#75

He’s not making [all of the] the string changes, so the notes on the other strings don’t sound. It just ends up sounding like tremolo on a single string. But it’s a fast consistent tremolo on a single string. Whether or not you could use this movement for fast one-way pickslanting type lines that move across the strings, would have to be tested by someone who could do it. But I would like to think it’s possible.

As far as the left hand not being synchronized to the right hand, that’s not really the fault of the picking technique.

I think we’ve discussed just about all I know on this subject. It’s hard to make sure you’re doing one movement consistently and not other movements. Especially when you’re not sure you’re doing them the way you want, and you can’t feel the differences. But the more you can isolate the movement you want to learn, the faster you will trial-and-error your way through figuring out which version of it you want to use, and the faster you will then bake in that trial-and-error-ed movement.

Welcome to the struggle.

#76

Yeah, that’s what those little switches are. The middle pickup is dead, and those little switches work half-assed, they were installed and have chipped paint around them. Those issues are bad wiring. The guy didn’t know what he was doing. It’s going to take me days to get this thing playable. It’s setup like a old acoustic with Dobro action. Has Bass strings on it. All of the tremolo adjustments are f***ed. In fact, every adjustment there is on this thing is out. But, those are 2 Dimarzio x2n pickups man. I’m thinking about pulling the middle pickup, since those get in the way of my pick anyway. Then wire those x2n’s to the 5 way. Then ditch the mini switches. You can do split/phase stuff from the 5 way with 2 humbuckers. Hell yeah, bro. I got a Quad-Bucker Kramer. A Seymour Duncan Kramer. And a Dimarzio Kramer, Boiiiiiiiiiiiii!!! :fire::guitar::fire::guitar::fire::guitar::fire:

What kind of yellow spray paint should I use? I’m going to do the stripes with painters tape I guess.

@Troy lmao, Thanks for the welcome!. Thanks for answering the same questions over and over. I think I need to let my picking mechanic obsession subject rest for a while. I know now, and have been told, all that can be told I think. Now let’s do this hyperpicking thing man. :rofl:

:bear:
“this post was definitely at least 20 characters long”

#77

There’s a guitar for every budget guys! How am I picking on this one? (kidding) :bear:

#78

Strange as it seems, this dollar guitar video is the best so far on what to isolate :slight_smile: From 2:08 to 2:24 that’s yer moneymaker! If that motion is comfortable and you can get decent speed with it you want you to burn that movement into your muscle memory.

I had a lot of finger movement from Zeppelin & Skynyrd licks to overcome so I did it by repeating single string ostinatos like the Yngwie six note pattern (8-5-7-8-7-5) or 5-7-8-5-7-8. Yeah they’re boring and not incredibly musical but the goal is to get that movement to become your primary picking motion. After a month doing them while watching tv/youtube/reading every night my speed and accuracy went through the roof. It’s been 8 months and now 16ths at 140-150 bpm is my relaxed cruising speed.

Another benefit from cycling those little patterns is that each new lick takes less time to “burn in”. The Gilbert pattern took about a month to get to shredtastic speed (I swipe 'em). A DiMeola lick took a couple weeks. I’ve been going over the Volcano seminar again and the Trilogy and the Pop Tarts licks were maybe 3 days.