I started playing in '78! Took lessons from a local musician for a couple of years as a teen. This gentleman specialized in Jerry Reed & Chet Atkins styled music. Other than that, I’m self-taught.
I play Classic Rock, Classical, and multi-voiced fingerstyle across many genres. I can play just about anything I want from classic rock and have a strong expertise in fingerstyle. However, for music requiring a pick, I’ve avoided pieces beyond classic rock that exceeded my picking capabilities (EJ, YM, etc). From the videos I’ve watched, I can see that I never spent the necessary time to debug why my synchronization and overall speed were limited. The material I’ve viewed has really opened my eyes to where and why I was limited. Ironically, I was on the right path to fix it, but couldn’t pull it together into a philosophy that I could build on. That was until I heard Troy explain it! Wow, I have really brought my playing to a higher level & am very pleased.
I’ve varied my picking style considerably over the years, trying to mimic various famous players in how they hold their arm, hand, pick, etc but never really understood the key mechanics that occur where the business end of the pick touches the string. I’ve tried planting, heel of palm on the bridge, and floating above. I switched back and forth on pick thickness as well as how “choked-up” I held the pick. I think I did the latter as an intuitive step to limit wrist pronation, but didn’t realize that was what I was doing.
What has worked the best for me is the pick slanting and realizing I need to think a couple notes ahead to anticipate string changes. The lectures on pickslanting as it related to limiting wrist pronation really allowed me to break some bad habits. As I continue to dial-in an optimal personal technique, I’m exploring forearm rotation and wrist rotation - essentially looking for where I am most effective.
Ironically, the lessons I took years ago have provided me a trough of complicated single-line melodies that I had memorized years ago (like Yakety Axe). I’ve used these familiar left hand gymnastics to hone speed and precision to my picking technique. At the time, I hated those songs & wanted to learn VH in an era without Tab or the internet. No one could play that stuff, you had to figure it out on your own with a turntable or a friend that was willing to share.
I would like to get a Magnet to better study my progress and look for opportunities to improve. I’ll look around the site for details & hopefully they are available for purchase.
Thanks to CTC and Troy for being the guitar teacher we all wish we started with. Learning is a joy of life.
Best regards from Pittsburgh,
Rich