Having serious trouble with forearm rotation

Playing Technique
#42

Thanks for those tips! I notice I tend to count my air forearm rotation by stressing the downbeat, so I think I might already be doing this. But I also think this is causing me to get tripped up on the upstrokes, since they are a tiny bit weaker.

The tip about the pick angle is spot on. At first the only way I could perform the motion with the pick having any contact with the strings, was by turning the pick around to the round end, and just sliding across (i.e. minimized resistance). So yes I fully agree that changing the pick angle to reduce drag across the pick will help.

Here’s a bit of an update for those who come across this. I’m starting to have some success with bringing the motion to the guitar. It just took a few days of perseverance and shutting off my brain haha. Now the plan is to get it consistent, and not with my picking hand completely floating and pointed straight at the floor lol

#43

Nice update. I’ve watched several players with this style on youtube. They all have their forearm resting on the guitar, gives them a nice anchor point. Also, it changes the angle, so the hand isn’t pointing at the floor:

I’ve seen some players actually drag their ring and pinky fingers across the guitar face, under the top E string, as a point of reference (the tops of the fingers, not the pad). It adds a lot of stability.

I do the forearm anchoring, otherwise the arm is far too floaty for me at the moment. Perhaps later I’ll be able to have floating arm. I haven’t decided yet on adding the 3rd/4th finger glide on the body.

For upstroke weakness, I find that the wrist bend (see the troy video at 5:35) helps, I believe this is because it keeps pushing the pick “down” into the guitar body, which counteracts the push away from the body that the downstroke creates (think of the string as a launch ramp, your pick is getting pushed away). This is my current theory, anyway.

Best wishes! z

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#44

Its cool you take lessons from Wes! He’s a monster player and love his playing with Keith!!

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#45

Yeah it’s interesting, I don’t think I’m wired for finger-resting method to work for me. Even air picking, I can get the motion going at all if the fingers are dragging across a surface.

Currently working on the anchored forearm, since that’s how I intend to play otherwise my shoulder would get real tired. I can get the motion going no problem with the anchor, so it’s just a matter of making it click like I (sort of) did with the floating arm.

I’ll try the wrist bend and see what that does!

#46

Yeah he’s awesome! Amazing player/writer, and a wizard of a teacher too. He was calling out problems with technique I didn’t know I had, all from a webcam. He’s definitely had the most impact on my playing out of any teacher I’ve had

#47

For me the difference in tension between air picking and actual picking comes from trying to hold your hand in a position where the pick will contact the string. I’ve found that if I let the motion feel like it originates with my hand and not my forearm I am more accurate and have less tension. My forearm above my wrist is relaxed. My forearm rotates and it appears that I use my forearm but I don’t. The forearm rotation is a reaction to my hand moving side to side. I feel like I am wrist picking but it looks like forearm rotation. I struggled with tension for a long time and this technique has pretty much eliminated it. Once I am warmed up I no longer have any tension.

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#49

Yeah this is spot on and what I’m currently trying to do. The technique looks very busy with all the forearm movement but you’re right, it’s super relaxed and only a few small forearm muscles are engaged, all the excess movement is just reactionary.

I think I built some bad habits by focusing on the forearm too much. It’s a hard thing to do to just focus on a specific part of your forearm, so I think the answer like you said is to make the motion feel like its coming from the hand (without being wrist motion)

#50

It’s not the EVH tremolo picking kind of rotation. There is definitely a different group of muscles working. It’s more like the reverse dart throwing motion Troy talks about. If I’m rotating my forearm I’m doing it unconsciously. I’ve also found it helps to just think about picking either side of the string, or the top of the string. If I want down stroke escape I think about picking the top side of to string, upstroke escape the bottom of the string. If I need double escape I think about picking 90 degrees to the guitar body. I need to film and see what is happening. That may seem obvious but the point is I don’t think about mechanically how to do it, I just do it and let my brain figure it out.

I really struggled with right hand and have made tremendous improvements with this stuff. Thanks to Troy for figuring this stuff out.

#51

I took a handful of lessons with him around a year ago. Dude completely elevated my playing, music theory knowledge and technique. Awesome guitarist and super insightful guy. Honestly those lessons were the best thing I ever did for my playing.

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