Fortunately my finger made a complete recovery back then, it just doesn’t have the strength and flexibility it should, at least for guitar playing. I’ll start working on it, because most things I want to play require all fingers in order to be clean and reliable.
2 Likes
Came back with a better video angle, couldn’t slow it down unfortunately. I’m only using the right hand in order to see how fast I could get. Is it a bit clearer in those videos what I’m doing in terms of picking mechanics?
That looks like your using your elbow to generate the alternating motion. Which is fine at that speed.
However… it’s best to think of the elbow as a ‘helper’ or a ‘turbo boost’ for speeding up your existing mechanic.
One thing I tell guitarists is to ensure that they can play patterns across strings at a moderate speed before using the ‘turbo boost’. So try and play your ‘even note’ patterns at 140-150 bpm… then try and mix in the elbow. It’s a great warmup routine as well.
The problem is that I don’t know what kind of picking technique I use when I’m changing strings. I don’t know if it’s DWPS, UWPS or TWPS. I’m binge watching stuff I’m finding interesting with the hope to understand those mechanics better and find out on my own, but so far no luck, probably because I’m doing all sorts of different things depending on the patters, but I’m doing them 100% subconsciously.
Just a different way of looking at it, but I’m pretty sure guys like Yngwie, Paul Gilbert and Michael Angelo Batio didn’t know what kind of picking technique they were using when changing strings either and it worked out alright for them didn’t it! They didn;t know, and frankly didn’t care if what they were doing was DWPS, UWPS, or TWPS. Now I know you do want to know, that’s why you;re here, I guess, and that’s fine. But the real ultimate goal is to be able to play well and not knowing exactly how they were doing what they were doing worked out just fine for those guys, so it could work out just fine for you too in the event that after trying, for some reason you still can’t figure out exactly how you do what you do. If you ended up sounding as good as any of them, you really wouldn’t care whether you were doing it with DWPS, UWPS, or TWPS wold you?
That’s right! If something works why fix it or wonder about it? The thing is that something doesn’t work quite well in my playing when increasing speed in most patterns. I’m not saying that I’m practicing 12 hours a day and still can’t do things I want, but I practice a fair amount of time every day, from 2 to 4 hours and I haven’t made the progress I wanted.
Still, I didn’t expect to nail down every YJM and Buckethead material with ease, but I expected to at least be able to approach them and not sound like I’m struggling even in medium speed. I’m at the exact same phase @Troy was before realizing that Yngwie uses DWPS. Unsynced at times and frustrated.
My best advice, Bill, is too keep practicing a lot, keep using this forum as a resource, and above all, be patient.
Of course, there is no other way than being patient. I’ll probably invest my time in theory for the next few days because I’m having RGT exams in a few months and I’ll come back to heavy technique practicing after 3-4 days. Whenever I do that things click a bit better.
Just based on your first video… it looks like a solid DWPS wrist deviation technique. I am not 100% sure… but that’s what it looks like. And that’s a great technique… and I would continue to focus and improve on that.
As you progress… continue to ‘tinker’ with high speed runs. So try doing bursts of speed runs… maybe just string together a couple seconds of alternate picking at 200 bpm. That will let your muscles ‘feel’ what its like at high speeds… so that you will be more accustom to it, and your mechanics will almost self-learn how to be more efficient at those speeds.
It takes a bit of time… but you’ll get there.
Hi Bill! Thanks for posting all these details and sorry for the delay in seeing this. Brendan pointed out the “getting started” section of the site:
Have you gone through that, and watched all the stuff in it yet? Can you get through most of the checklist items on the bottom of each page?
If you haven’t worked through that yet, it is our best recommended starting point for everything we talk about. A lot of basic mechanical stuff is covered. Your current technique is one of the ones we cover in the “Intro to Picking Motion” broadcast in a fair amount of detail. In the second broadcast, “Crosspicking With the Wrist” we expand on that first broadcast with a little more detail on how the wrist works mechanically. It is totally relevant to what you are doing - you’re using the “Andy Wood” style of uwps wrist motion and it uses a specific arm position and type of wrist motion which we’ve been calling the “2 o’clock” motion. Again, the first two videos spell this out more clearly.
For now, I know these videos are long and it may help to watch them in sections. We’re working on splitting up this material in a chapterized format in the future.
If you already watched that stuff, and you still have questions about your technique, then that’s our fault! We need to make things as clear as possible. Let us know.
1 Like
Thank you for your time Troy! The truth is that after I watched the Pickslanting Primer I started to realize that I’m using UWPS and I didn’t want to believe it, because that means that I have to overhaul my whole right hand technique in order to play stuff that I like.
I’ll definitely re-watch the UWPS on the Pickslanting Primer and I’ll watch your interviews with Andy Wood. In the meantime, what would you recommend to someone like with UWPS that wants to play stuff that require exclusively DWPS. Going the TWPS way or starting the right hand from zero by practicing only the DWPS motion?
By the way, I’ve watched the interviews you did with Martin Miller and Teemu Mäntysaari, fascinating stuff! Since I’ve worked as a journalist in the past I would more than happy to help CTC in the future with questions, topic organisation, etc, just let me know.
Hi Bill!
I want you to watch the “getting started” stuff. Have you done that yet? In the getting started lessons that’s where we describe your current motion in the most mechanical detail, including looking at footage of Andy to understand what he is doing.
You don’t have to overhaul your technique - you can access both uwps and dwps phrases from the same general position, the way Andy does. That’s the focus of the “Crosspicking With The Wrist” lesson.
The Pickslanting Primer is not wrong, it’s just less detailed than it needs to be - so the best course is to watch all of them, and use the checklists we created, just to make sure you’re getting the right information from the material.
1 Like
Watching the “Introduction to Picking Motion” right now. Will let you guys know if any other question comes up. Hope to clear a few things out in my head and organize a more focused practice schedule based on doing things consciously, because until now everything was learned and executed based on insticts.
1 Like
Hello everyone!! After 6 weeks of watching Cracking the Code material and practicing, this is where I’m at in terms of right hand technique, mechanics and speed. In every vid I’m playing as fast as I can before getting sloppy. I would like to get some feedback if it’s possible, what to do differently, what to focus on, what needs correcting, etc. Sorry for no slow-mo and a bit bad video quality, it was the best I could get!
2 Likes
Hi Bill! Thanks for posting.
In general, it’s a little too dark to see what’s going on here - a darker pick against dark pickguard is tough. A nice bright open window is the best cheap source of quality light. If you have access to a window, try that next.
I’m not sure what you’re going for but this looks like a supinated uwps motion, like Andy Wood and John McLaughlin. Is that what you’re going for? If so then you are in the ballpark. Keep in mind that kind of motion only works when the final note on every string is a downstroke. So any phrase you work on needs to be that kind of phrase or you’re not really giving yourself clear instructions on what you want your hands to do.
The motion in the Yngwie clip looks the smoothest. I can’t see if you’re making the string changes that you want to make - better lighting will help. But in general at this stage I think focusing on making the motion correct is the main goal and I’m less concerned about the notes being 100% correct.
With that in mind, the motion in the pentatonic sequences clip is not correct. You’re making a double escape motion there, where each pickstroke catches air. Does this motion feel bouncy to you? Because that’s what it looks like. Instead, what you want for pickslanting is a smooth fast motion where only one pickstroke escapes and the other remains trapped between the strings.
What I would like to see is a single string clip where you are going as fast as you can. It’s ok if it’s sloppy and doesn’t have synchronization between the hands yet. Going fast is the only way to learn what a non-bouncy, fast movement feels like. So you have to start there.
In general your form looks fine here so keep up the good work. Just focus on a basic escaped-downstroke movement and getting fast and smooth on a single string.
3 Likes
Thank you for your time Troy to begin with. The lightening thing was very unfortunate, because I could have done better with that while a friend was filming the parts, so tomorrow with a few more lights I’ll try to do it myself.
I already found some similarities between my mechanics and Andy’s, so I tried to get in touch with him with some questions. The funny thing he told me was that he never thought or analyzed what he did, he just went with what feels right, even after the CTC interviews. So after my exchange of messages with him I stopped working towards developing YJM/Johnson right hand form, because it always felt funny to my hand and very inconsistent. If Andy could play John Petrucci’s lead lines with that form, why can’t I play Yngwie’s?
The thing is that I feel what you’re saying about the sequences that end on an upstroke, they feel kind of wrong, let’s say funny. So I’m trying to be in the middle of the road in terms of motions, doing the UWPS most of the time but trying switching when necessary as well.
Now regarding the pentatonic Eric Johnson patterns. Those patterns were given to me by my teacher 3 days ago. They feel bouncy indeed, but that’s because if I don’t do that motion, strings ring out and things get messy. I think it’s a muting problem first before anything else. What can I do to fix that? Having a supinated UWPS motion doesn’t help with those patterns unless I change a few things so they end on a downstroke, but other than what?
I’ll try to record again, this time a single string at top speed and an EJ pattern without worrying about ringing notes so you are able to guide me without technical difficulties. 
2 Likes
Tried to film myself, the camera angle is a bit worse, but I think that my motion clearer. I’m posting a clip with my right hand at top speed without using the fretting hand at all and a few more sequences. The YJM one that it seemed smooth to you and a Paul Gilbert one, where I’m trying to use 2WPS.
2 Likes
This is now, after a few months of watching great players and taking notes after reading what CTC has to offer and of course working extensively with my teacher to fix bad habits of the past. It’s far from perfect, but at least I don’t feel as frustrated as I felt before! 
5 Likes
Hey Bill,
You are almost there man! This sounds great, love the phrasing and bends. The only feedback I’d give is that the L/R hand coordination can be improved in some of the fast-picked runs.
It may be that you can fix this by just doing more recording/listening/correcting at the same fast tempo - rather than going for the old school method of 1000 slow repetions! But I’d ask @Troy to double check on this.
Oh and the tone is great, is this from your tele? Real amp or amp sim?
Looking forward to the next update 
1 Like
Thank you for your feedback tommo! It feels a lot closer to where it was a few months ago, that’s for sure.
I’m working on those licks/sequences almost every day in various speed, from slow to as fast as it gets. I hope they get better that way. The good thing is that things started to click.
I’m using my Tele straight into my audio interface. The amp sim is Mercuriall Spark, a really pushed Plexi preset I made. IRs by OwnHammer, Reverb and some High Freq EQ by Eventide.
1 Like