Hi all. Questions on 2 way slanting movements

Playing Technique
#1

Hi guys and gals.

It’s great to be here. I’ve played guitar for 10 years, and my picking technique has never been up to my standards. Troy’s videos have seriously helped me already, and I haven’t mastered any of them yet.

My natural position I adopted was a pretty heavy downwards pick slant - I got this off a guitar teacher of mine who played gypsy jazz, but adopted gypsy technique to electric. I generally swept when moving to higher strings, and did a combination of hampullslides when descending to free my pick.

The entire bane of my guitar playing could be summed up in 2 movements. Moving from a downstroke on a higher string to any stroke on a lower string. And one note per string descending lines/arpeggios.

So enough backstory - I have two questions. First - I use a pretty heavy downwards pickslant with rest strokes. The 2 way pickslanting move with the rotation upwards to change pick orientation mid stroke to upwards pickslanting movement (you know what I mean yeah?) is a pretty big movement for me. I haven’t attempted to get it to speed yet, but would I not be better off lowering my picking angle technique a touch to make that movement smaller (smaller = faster right?). But I love that feel of heavy rest strokes, I can create nice fat clean tones, and every time I do a downstroke it feels like I’ve come home and sat on a big soft couch. It’s very comfortable.

Second question. If 2 way pickslanting pick orientation is changed every note (for example, pick every string descending pure alternate picking), it becomes a circular hop type motion, clearing every string with no rest strokes. Which is essentially string hopping. Interesting. So that rolling movement when switching pick orientation is essentially string hopping, with the hopping motion coming from rolling the wrist/forearm. So should we aim to switch pick orientation as little as possible, to not allow this to slow us down? Or do we only switch after repeated notes on a string, which allows us more time to rotate the arm while picking on one string before we change string?

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#2

Same boat as you man. Best way to practice is to sweep arpeggios. This will force you to upwards slant and downwards slant.

#3

“So that rolling movement when switching pick orientation is essentially string hopping, with the hopping motion coming from rolling the wrist/forearm.”

No. Absolutely not. String hopping is not a rolling motion. String hopping involves moving the pick straight upwards by using the muscles in the wrist to make the pick move in a vertical direction so that it clears the strings and then once having the pick above the strings, moving the wrist sideways to get to your destination. The upward pulling of the pick by the wrist muscles puts tremendous stress on the main tendon running through the middle of the wrist. This is a fairly slow way of switching strings and greatly increases your chances of getting tendonitis.

#4

If I were you, before I worried about modifying anything about my existing technique, I’d try applying my current technique to the material in the Yngwie and Eric Johnson seminars. Once you get through those, you might feel more empowered about what is possible with the technique you already have. You may still might decide to pursue 2-way pickslanting, but it would be a shame to start tinkering with your motion mechanics before you get a grasp of how much is possible with what you already have.

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#5

My take, is, yes a shallower default pickslant angle probably makes 2wps easier, but you don’t have to pick that way all the time. If you like the feel of heavy rest strokes, use them for everything except specific licks that require 2wps.

#6

In general, unless you’re doing something that is intensively 1-note-per-string (where “crosspicking” is the most elegant solution), the most efficient approach is to change pickslant only when you have a string change that can’t be accomplished without a pickslant change. Note that judicious use of “swiping” and legato mean that unless you have an aesthetic reason to do 100% strict alternate picking, you can often cut down the need for slant changes even more.

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