Hello from Hamburg, Germany

[gometh]

Hello everybody

my name is Sebastian Albert (nickname gomez) - and I am really thrilled to have discovered this fantastic site.

For many years, my personality was sort of divided in two halves: Learning, studying and playing classical guitar and playing bass in rock bands. Aside from unclear phases concerning the way to conduct my life (music had a meaning and a promise), this was made possible by taping my fingers to protect my nails and fingertips.

Here and there dipping in into the music of Pat Metheny, Fareed Haque and others in the improvisational realm.

Only after over 25 years of doing this I (and the end of my band and family „Eaten by Sheiks“ I decided to „fill the gap“ between acoustic guitar and electric bass and to get serious about playing electric guitar with a pick.

The main misterious question in all of my searching with teachers, You Tube, Courses etc. was what to do with the pick? Especially: Why is my wrist movement so slow? Had it something to do with playing finger style, especially in a quite tense way on classical guitar and bass?

In the last years; I had the chance to play professionally (as a sub) in theatres for productions as West Side Story, Rocky Horror or most recently, Lazarus by David Bowie. I just get away with „throwing in everything I got“ - and for sure, this music is not about playing crazy guitarologies (except some icing on the cake - bars and showing off before soundcheck).

And by the way, Pat Metheny was always a hero for me - mostly for singing his song and creating a musical environment that fit perfectly to what he wanted and what he could do, and it fit perfectly to the time he lived in.

So, in this sense, this will be my biggest obligation for the future: build my own way of playing and creating a musical world that is my home. To stay away from the internet and starting to listen deeply inside.

But before that - I have to carry away as much as possible from this well of slant happiness!! :-))

Thank you for your amazing work and dedication.

[JonJon]

welcome aboard. enjoy the journey!

[gometh]

Yeah, thank you!
In exploring as much as I could before overload confusion, the most critical point is now:

My goal is to decide now, wether it is possible for me to play with fast right hand picking movements or not.( In this case, I simply continue building my musical system which doesn’t need these movements)

Any attempts of fast playing resulted inevitably in right arm pain.

Assumed there is an established mistake such as using the same muscle for both picking directions, or using the wrong muscle (like a picking movement from the thumb) or too much force in wrist movement, tension, too tight grip on the pick (see the mentioned Martin Miller excerpt) etc. , any online thing will reach its limits as only the player by himself can change bad habits. So, what does it take to be successful in this regard? Normal answer: „feel“ . Well, I feel, that I need to be more specific in this way.

Starting: How reliable is my introspection (or proprioreception?) In terms of posture, muscle control, tension (better: misused tension)? When I think I sit straight, do I really sit straight?

Mirrors and Magnet (just ordered one) but in the end it must come from the inside.

In Alexander-Technique, there are some interesting concepts, also for overcoming the „wrong use of the self“. I will try to understand these and apply to practice and performance.

At the end, you have very much information and one moment of truth…

All the best and a good and peaceful year 2019!

[JonJon]

well u shouldnt really be getting “pain.” You might get some fatigue, especially in the left hand on occasion.

you could get some fatigue in the right hand or arm if you are too tense etc.

I always try to be aware of how tense I am getting. Many players play with a very light touch and very few (any?) play with a death grip

[gometh]

It’s in the right arm - but I feel that I am on the right track. Being aware of tension building, but more specifically the point where the wrist moves around. Hard to describe in english, like “listening to the right arm”.
Thoughts like these are like a revelation, bringing back something we already knew…

Advice: Reasons why pick is getting stuck on the upstroke?

It’s not possible to “floor it” with crap movements. That’s the point. The “flooring it” forces you, one way or another, to use an efficient motion. However, this is a mindful process. You’re not going for “reps”. You can’t just “floor it” fifty times doing the same thing each time and expect to learn something. Instead you’re searching aggressively for the “click” of what it feels like when you finally do something correctly and smoothly. What @mr_fisch93 wrote above is a great summary …

So, let’s play like some damn teenagers! (found this quote somewhere)
Thank yo for your thoughts!

[Troy]

So, let’s play like some damn teenagers! (found this quote somewhere)

This is a sentiment I can certainly get behind. Adults are great at having “discipline” and doing things the same way for hours. And kids are much better are screwing around and pressing every button on the arcade machine. Sometimes, that’s just the sort of fearlessness you need.