Hello, Everyone!
I thought I would share some tips and things I have discovered with my own picking technique after I started analyzing it more in depth recently. As I mentioned in a previous post I made…I think my way of playing faster lines is very similar to Vinnie Moore’s picking technique around the Minds Eyes era. I bought the first Alcatrazz album when it came out and while trying to learn as many of Yngwie’s lines as I could, I found that I could play lines, like the intro to the Jet to Jet solo, using more of an elbow motion mechanic…at the time I didn’t know how Yngwie was doing it and found that this way worked for me.
I just kept working on my picking and ended up doing a lot of lines similar to what Al was doing. I had a great teacher and he showed me some great Di Meola type runs. Around 87 I heard Vinnie Moore’'s album when it came out and loved it! I saw him give a clinic that fall and noticed when he played faster picked lines it looked very similar to the way my right hand and arm looked when I played faster things. he even mentioned that he would glide his little finger on the pickguard when he was playing. I did that also…if kept my pick the same height on the string and I could just use the very tip for a more even tone. After seeing his clinic I left feeling really good about the way my technique was developing…“if it that is how he does it must be ok”, I thought to myself, lol.
I thought I would post a few things that I do or think about when I play a more elbow type of motion mechanic… Here are a few tips that help me.
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I try not to squeeze or flex my arm really hard when I am picking fast. I just let the motion happen and don’t fight it. If I squeeze or flex while I am playing, my arm gets really tired and I get worn out, lol. When I am playing more faster type runs it sort of feels like my arm is just floating along and I am just feeling the rhythm of the line. Without that squeezing or flexing motion I can play for long periods of time and my arm never tires
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.Don’t be afraid to use big movements ( I have heard Troy talk about this). They will get smaller as you increase speed, but trying to make them really small on purpose tends to increase the tension in the arm. Just let the elbow move naturally.
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I rest the upper inside of my arm on the body and pivot off of that area. I glide my little finger on the body…gliding more on the nail and my other fingers just sort of fan out. The little finger is what I am using to stabilize everything. The bottom part of the palm below the thumb lightly touches the lower stings I am not playing.
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Don’t forget the left hand The left hand is really one of the most important factors. I do a lot of muting with the left hand. If I do any swiping (which I am sure I do a little bit) I never really feel it. if you feel tension in your right arm when you are playing…a lot of the times it is because your left hand is not keeping up and you might be thinking it is your picking hand, which can cause you to start squeezing or flexing your right arm which makes everything worse.
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I always feel the pulse when I am plying. I like to feel fast lines as phrases and that really helps me think of things in chunks and it keeps both hands really tight and working together. When I play a fast line I almost imagine I have a piece of string between both hands and when I am playing it is nice and tight between the two hands. I can feel it instantly if one hand starts to get a little off from the other and I just imagine I am tightening up that string again to get back on track, lol. it might sound kind of funny to describe it that way, but no matter how fast I am playing I can tell if everything is in sync by the way it feels between both hands. When it is totally in sync the tone is really smooth and even and I can hear it. Almost like a little space between each note, even at fast speeds. That is what I always try and go for…a nice even tone with accents where I want them.
6; Record your practice and listen back to it later. Really listening to your playing and being honest with yourself is the best way to improve and get to where you want to go…which for us all is great tone, note choice and phrasing!
I hope you do not mind me sharing some of my thoughts, I am really loving the site very much!. If these little tips help any of you that are interested in experimenting with more of an elbow mechanic that would be great! Here is a little video I made for the forum today showing my picking mechanics. Just me improvising over some simple chord progressions. Thanks!
