Hey all, I’ve been watching the vids, following along. Long time lurker, first time poster.
I definitely understand the intention of the technique and have tried adjusting my playing but i feel like I’m hitting a wall.
When i look at my own right hand, it’s hard to tell if I’m actually doing DPS correctly when i get to higher speeds. I’ve always been more of an UPS guy, just by nature, so i’ve been learning to down slant, using tips here, and some vids by the 'ol Uncle Ben. So playing slow feels fine, and looks fine, but when i speed up i still feel like strings are getting in the way.
a Riff i’ve been working on is the simple two notes per string pentatonic thing. I’m definitely faster than i was, but I’m now stuck at the speed basically in the vid(around 128bps). And, more importantly, it doesn’t ‘feel’ right to me. it’s not feeling natural. feels difficult, and sloppy, i have to work up to it every time, and strings are still in the way.
The main thing I’ve noticed while learning to down-slant is that it’s physically harder(for me) to pick on the way up, the up stroke feels harder than the down. I don’t know if it’s my pick angle, or I’m not used to it yet, or what, but it feels like it slows me up, especially in the upper frets and upper strings(B and E), and also when I’m picking more than two notes per string. Def feels harder to pick the up stroke. I’ve watched Troy, and it looks like you’re putting a lot of ‘muscle’ into your picking. Does this method simply require more ‘umphh’?
So here’s a quick vid.
The main question is, is this really DPS? It looks like it, to my eye. But, i still see what looks like hopping there too.
So, let me know whatcha think.