Help with identifying my picking motion

Technique Critique
#1

Hi everyone,

Steve here with an update.

I joined the community a while ago to share my struggles with picking technique as a lefty-playing-right-handed player, which led me to get a lefty guitar to start all over again with a picking motion that didn’t make everything feel awkward. For me, it was a lost cause to try and improve my right-hand picking. If it never worked in the last 20 years, what’s gonna make it work now, right?

Well, I’ve recently learned that CTC now includes a whole section devoted to study and develop a consistent tremolo picking motion and it made me curious so I decided to give it another go, this time with Troy’s invaluable insight and the help from the community, and I am pleasantly surprised by how quickly I have started seeing an improvement! Just for context, in all my years playing, the only way I had to play fast was by relying entirely on my elbow motion with lots of tension (and sometimes pain) , and now, this is the first time I’ve managed to pick above the 100bpm mark while feeling relaxed and in control.

I am not really sure which movement I am doing (I want to say a mix of EVH butterfly wiggle and some elbow?) so your feedback will be greatly appreciated:

1 Like
#2

Looks like elbow to me, the whole arm seems to move up and down in a unit and I’m not seeing any rotation. How do your pickstrokes escape? Have you tried experimenting with DSX style phrases at all and does the motion work? :slight_smile:

1 Like
#3

Welcome back :slight_smile:

Following @Jacklr’s comment, could you film a couple of quick tests?

First, a few rounds of this starting on a downstroke (16th notes):

---------7-7-7-7-----(repeat a few times)
-5-5-5-5-------------

Then, a few reps of this also starting on a downstroke (3 or 6 notes per beat):

-------7-7-7-7-7-7------(repeat a few times)
-5-5-5-------------5-5-5

Which of the two options feels easiest to play fast?

#4

Hi folks!

Thank you for your responses.

To answer your questions, I feel my pick escapes on the upstroke so changing strings with a downstroke feels more natural. Also, I have tried DSX before (it used to be my go-to motion) but it always felt awkward and difficult to control, and it still kind of feels that way.

Moreover, here is an additional video trying the string changes you suggested @tommo :

1 Like
#5

In the first example it looks like you’re using USX wrist and then in the second example it looks like you switch to DSX elbow but you’re not very comfortable with the motion and it’s escapes.

It’s up to you which one you want to pursue but if your fastest tremolo on a single string is elbow it might be worth experimenting with it a bit and seeing if you can get it to work more comfortably :grin:

#6

You definitely have more finger movement in the USX portion (almost exclusively I’d say), whereas you’re mostly all elbow in DSX.

2 Likes
#7

I agree with this, it looks like the USX portion is mostly a finger and thumb motion. It’s unlikely you’d reach high speeds with this motion.

I think overall, the tremolo tests aren’t fast enough. I’d recommend turning off the metronome, picking a single string without anything happening with the left hand. Filming your fastest tremolo up close will reveal a lot

#8

Thank you for your observations folks! I hadn’t realized I was doing the finger thing :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:.

As suggested, here’s a test of my tremolo motion without a metronome, and I tried both USX and DSX just to see how they feel.

1 Like
#9

Hey! It’s hard / impossible to see the escape path from this angle, but to me the joint motions looks similar in the two cases: mainly elbow.

So, I suspect that both attempts are essentially DSX, but from 2 different arm positions… unless you are doing a Zakk-Wylde sort of thing on the “USX” attempt. Again you could test this directly by applying these motions to the two exercises discussed above.

Another thing you can try is to assume a more classic elbow form (see for example Brendon Small, Bill Hall or Vinnie Moore, and Try to imitate their arm / wrist placement, etc), and check if things become more comfortable.

Side note: I personally don’t think there’s anything wrong with finger motion, if you like the results you get.

#10

I agree with this, Although I view finger motion as kind of an add on to the primary motion to get that little bit of extra without taxing your self. Personally that’s where I think it works best, although I have seen people play pretty fast with just finger movement.

1 Like
#11

Well, the Magnet has not arrived yet so I tried to get a better angle by holding the phone myself. It was more tricky than I anticipated :sweat_smile:.

Is the motion more visible this way? Thanks in advance!

#12

It’s still kind of hard to see, but from the angle you have it at, it looks like a shallow USX with a bit of rotation. I would have to see a little more of your arm too, but it looks like you may be using a bit of elbow when you are trying to pick faster because I can see most of your arm moving sort of up and down as well, at least that’s what it looks like from the angle you shot in.

#13

Thanks a lot for the feedback, fellow pickers. :slight_smile:

Your input helped me learn a lot about my own mechanics, and realized that I kind of use a little bit of every joint LOL but yeah, it looks like my motion counts as an elbow movement, although I must say the USX string changes feel very natural so I guess I might be closer to a Zakk Wylde kind of thing rather than Vinnie Moore.

Also, I don’t really mind the thumb movement but I’ve perceived it works best for me as a method of control while my elbow provides most of the drive, and my wrist, well, I feel like it moves a little as a natural by-product of the elbow movement and my anchoring the pinky over the pick guard.

One thing I have noticed compared to some years ago, when I used to pick with a stiff arm is that although I was able to achieve relatively fast speeds (with a lot of tension and effort), I could only use that motion to play super fast whereas any medium speed (120-160 bpm) felt like a nightmare. However, my recent discoveries with the help of the CTC community have led me to find the motion described above, which even though might not give my absolute top speed (so far), feels comfortable like never before and I feel like I can express my musical ideas more freely, and my “top speed” with the motion seems to be improving a little as I become more familiar with this new technique. That said, I’ve never been quite the speedster so everything feels like a win for me. :grin:

I’ll share some content showing my progress soon. :slight_smile:

1 Like