Hello Again, and Help

Playing Technique
#1

Hey gang! I’m sort of new here. I mean, I created my account probably over a year ago, but didn’t stick around. Anyway, I’m thinking of coming back and getting more into what Troy is teaching.

One thing, I had an online lesson with someone else a few days ago, and the first thing he told me was to change my picking hand grip/angle, because it causes too much tension. That may be true, but I have played like this over thirty years, and it seems okay to me.
Apparently I hold my pick backwards, with a bit of a hook to my wrist - I strike the strings with the opposite edge of the pick compared to everyone else I’ve ever encountered. I was told years ago that Neal Schon also picks like me, and IIRC, Troy has mentioned the same grip as a valid, albeit rare alternative to the standard grip.
I’ll try to demonstrate : my pick angle, looking down at the string ----/---- : everyone else’s pick angle ----\---- . Make sense?
If this is a pick lying on the table, pointing up, my pick wears here /\ < : all others I’ve seen : > /\

Any thoughts? Am I doing it wrong, or just different?
I’ll post a photo if I figure out this forum thing. Not used to how it works yet.

Thanks in advance, and Rock On!

1 Like
#2

Hey @JustDave70!

The first question is: do you really experience too much tension? Are there things you are playing that feel particularly uncomfortable or even painful? If not, no problem I’d say!

I am skeptical of the “do it this one way or it’s wrong!” approach, which unfortunately is still common in guitar education. Here we prefer to think (backed by plenty evidence) that there are a wide variety of ways to approach pick grips and picking in general.

The Primer has an entire section on different pick grips and how they can all work:

2 Likes
#3

Thanks @tommo !
The link you sent was just the table of contents (I’m sure you knew that) but some of it looks familiar.
I plan on upgrading next time payday comes around. I kind of had a feeling I might be wasting my cash on that other guy.
Tbh, I wasn’t convinced Troy’s ideas were on the ball at first. I figured he was getting hung up on just a tiny part of playing fast.
So I’ve been trying other methods for the past few months, practicing faithfully, but getting the same result each time - a tiny drop of progress followed by a brick wall.
And all of it seems to show me the same thing - my fundamental picking technique needs to change. I tighten up as I reach higher speeds, because I just can’t make the string changes happen cleanly.
My fret hand is not bad, as my legato is acceptable up to about 138bpm sextuplets - think ending of Crazy Train solo. But picking the 16th note fills in the choruses is a nightmare.
In practice sessions, I can work my 16ths up to 135, once or twice out of 15 or 20 tries, after about half an hour or more of gradually building up from 60. This is my max, but it isn’t useful. My useful max is 16ths at around 100, 110. A few well-known licks get to 120-125-ish, if I drill them a few times first.
Oh, sure I can do a 16th note, 4 nps chromatic drill on all 6 strings up over 220 - 240, but that’s not a true measure of anything. Can’t use that in a song.

So, it all means I’m not quite able to perform solos with even a brief burst of picked speed any faster than 115 max. This annoys the hell out of me, cuz I REALLY WANNA SHRED!! It’s what made me wanna play guitar 30+ years ago. I really hope Troy’s methods are the key I have been looking for.

Sorry for the long, venting post. I just really want to get past my limitations and move ahead with my goals - playing like my heroes, and creating music that does to someone else what their music did for me.

#4

Wait a second, this is really really fast! True it’s only a drill, but the picking technique necessary for this can be applied to plenty musical phrases. Would be great to see a video of that when you get the chance!

The fact that your “other” playing maxes out at about half of that speed is a strong indicator that you may be using two very different picking motions for the two cases. What you call “useful” picking motion is - most probably - inefficient. No amounts of reps can change that - you gotta change the motion!

So just based on the info you provide, I’d say your short term goal is to convince yourself that the “chromatic” technique can be used for many other things - let us know how we can help with that :slight_smile:

Also, two highly recommended [and free] views on the development of speed: