Help! My Right Hand is Becoming Confused

Technique Critique
#21

Hi Jgor–

Can you play the “Yngwie 6” one string pattern up to speed using legato or just picking the first note of each 6 and keep it in time? If your fret hand timing is off you will not be able to sync up the pick hand no matter what.

Can you play the pattern legato for 30 seconds or so at 140 and keep it in time?

I know for me sometimes the issue is/was in the fret hand–so no matter how much “hammering away” I did with the pick hand it was never going to sync up because the fret hand was off.

My apologies if this was already suggested or you have already tried it.

#22

My experience is that wrist-based motion is more susceptible to getting “deflected” by the strings. Compensating for that deflection makes it harder to pick fast. For me, that means at lower speeds, I can “dig in” with wrist picking as much as I want, but at higher speeds, I need to bite the string much less in order for the picking motion to stay smooth and fast. I find that motions using elbow or forearm-wrist blend allow me to continue to bite the strings harder (deeper pick attack on the string) at high speeds than wrist-only motions.

One thing I’ll add is that the deflection effect is greater as you get closer to the bridge. I generally like to rest part of the heel of my hand on the bridge. If you use a setup that allows you to pick further from the bridge, the deflection effect is reduced (that is, for a given pick depth, the string displaces more easily as you move from an endpoint of the string towards the midpoint).

#23

@RevTwo

Thanks for that suggestion. In my mind I could play that thing lightning fast with legato, but when I actually dug in with the click but there wasn’t much of a gap between legato & picking speeds. Haha, good call.

That particular pattern is pretty foreign to me; I haven’t been much of a rock guitar guy since the mid-'00s. I’m going to work on that! I will say that there are lots of 4, 6 & 8 note patterns I can play ‘fast’ legato, but can’t get my picking speed to match up with. Will continue to explore this idea, cheers.

Can you play the pattern legato for 30 seconds or so at 140 and keep it in time?

I don’t think there’s much I can play fast straight for 30 seconds :joy: :rofl: :shushing_face:. That’s a long time man! My goal is between 4 - 10 reps at the moment. That’s just a few seconds at high speeds of 180+ haha. Long way to go just to get there.

@Frylock

My experience is that wrist-based motion is more susceptible to getting “deflected” by the strings.

Thanks for your input on this! Are there any specific videos or articles in the primer that you could point me to that might address these concepts in more detail? Appreciate it!

J

#24

Not off the top of my head. Maybe in the recent videos about pick shape and pick material? @tommo might know better.

#25

Uhm as far as I know @Troy did not explicitly mention any fundamental reason why wrist picking should be more susceptible to deflection than, say, elbow picking.

Though I see your point that, for example, elbow motion appears to be more powerful.

On the other hand I can also think of wristy players that get a lot of “bite” on the string even at high speed: Paul Gilbert comes to mind.

Edit: here he is demonstrating different degrees of attack via pick depth (should start at 7:15)

And that concludes my non-answer :joy:

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#26

Great clip.

In addition to the fact that I’m not at Paul Gilbert’s level of ability, pick choice may play some factor as well. I do think dealing with deflection is more challenging with wrist-only movement, even though it’s a challenge that guys like Paul and Andy Wood have been able to overcome. Edit: I think Andy Wood prefers less flexible picks, but he also cut his teeth on mandolin, so maybe that helps.

Paul has used different picks over the years. Not sure what he’s using in the video, but in the not too distance past he was an advocate of .60mm Tortex with a DIY slightly sharpened tip (the “rub it on the carpet” trick). Tortex TIII .60mm is probably on the right track. Greater flexibility of the pick should help buffer or time-disperse the deflection phenomenon. Nowadays I’m mostly using 1mm Ultex or “heavy” celluloid. Might have to dabble with a thinner Tortex TIII some more to satisfy my curiosity. :smiley:

Edit: Speaking of course stringed instruments (e.g. mandolin) and picking development, Phil X (Bon Jovi), credits childhood bouzouki lessons with helping develop his picking hand:

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