Hello, everyone! I’ve been struggling with learning to play fast, cleanly picked phrases for over 40 years. I could never understand why I could barely play moderate speed pentatonic phrases across strings cleanly, while others could speed pick with relative ease. I have been buying lesson after lesson, starting with the old VHS format up to the current online offerings. I had gotten to the point where I was just resigned to being a hack lead player.
Yesterday, as I was scrolling through more YouTube lessons, I stumbled onto the Cracking the Code videos. This was the first time I had ever seen anyone explain exactly what my problem has been all these years - a very severe case of string-hopping and holding the pick totally parallel to the strings.
Last night I sat down with the Picking Primer to try to correct 40 years of bad habits. It will take a lot of time but I can already tell the DWPS and pick angle will help immensely. My biggest problem is, when I stopped the intense focus on how I was holding my pick, I was reverting right back to my old methods.
Here’s hoping to a successful journey!