Help with tremolo / pick stuck on upstrokes!!

Technique Critique
#1

Hey yall, nice to meet you. I’ve been studying guitar with a teacher for a few months now and there’s been something nagging at me since a while ago, which is that I feel a slight resistance when picking an upstroke as compared to a downstroke.
I asked my teacher about this and he told me to practice tremolo, but the tips he’s given me aren’t working to fix this issue. I have no clue of what I am doing wrong here and it’s getting very frustrating.

My main goal is just to make the picking as smooth and effortless as possible, so that I don’t have that proverbial stone in my shoe when I work up my speed.

Here’s a video I recorded of me playing on my phone:

If anyone can point out how I can sort this out, I’d greatly appreciate it, cause this has been seriously upsetting me for a while and it’s taken a hit on my motivation.

2 Likes
#2

Welcome to the forum! You may find some useful ideas in here:

And this can be a good read too:

#3

Thanks for the help! Regarding that second video, unfortunately a subscription is out of my budget right now :frowning: are there any other free resources I could check?

#4

The link " Check out the latest wrist motion updates here!" just leads back to the page it’s on, just so you know!

#5

@GioHiTech your pick point is pretty negative (pointing away from the tip of your thumb). You can try experimenting with a positive pick point (tip of the pick pointing towards your thumb).

#6

In that case, check this out :slight_smile:

Phew I’m glad you are a human and not a machine or you would have been stuck forever in an infinite loop… I think :smiley:

Thanks for spotting this!

#7

Wasn’t supposed to be a gotcha! I didn’t realize the page was a couple years old until well after I had posted that, sorry :sweat_smile:

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#8

Oh no I was thinking more in terms of: you proved that you are a human! Don’t get me wrong, I would still like you if you were a machine :slight_smile:

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#9

With a bit more reading I’ve come to the conclusion that my issue is the “garage spikes”, because I never have trouble downpicking, it’s always on the upstroke. However I didn’t really understand what I need to do to solve this? Sure, keeping the pick at 90 degrees is key, but when I’m playing I have a hard time seeing if that’s happening, and even in the video I can’t quite tell whether my playing is USX or not (when I grab the pick, I naturally tend to point the tip of it upward, so I assume that would be the closest thing) but I’m aware I have a few other problems in my motion, as I tend to waste a lot of motion with string hopping :frowning_face: so even though I’ve learned new things, right now I’m just confused on what to correct and how to apply those concepts.

#10

I would say you’re a natral USX player. Not having an easy time on the upstroke is indicative of this.

aceccepting that you are usx and going from there should open a lot. Unless you wana do it all n join the club of trying every motion n being constantly angry about it.

Usx vs dsx

1 Like
#11

beep

boop

some day I will dispense with the flesh in favor of glorious titanium and hydraulics

2 Likes
#12

Hmm I slowed down the footage a bit, kind of looks like the pick dives down under the string after each stroke.