I think downwards pickslanting is starting to click

Playing Technique
#1

I forget exactly which video Troy made this particular observation, but it was something to the effect that pickslanting actually had less to do with the angle of the pick, than it did the picking mechanic and the pick coming up and away from the guitar on upstrokes. I’ve been thinking about/watching for that more closely over the weekend, and I think it’s starting to come together for me.

It’s still not perfectly consistent… But, it’s eerie how effortless string changes suddenly feel, it’s like there’s no resistance in your pick stroke. It’s kind of crazy. I know that the whole premise of Cracking the Code sounds a lot like a fad diet or a clickbait article or something - “Guitar teachers don’t want you to know this one weird trick that helps you pick faster and cleaner!” - but sure enough, the mechanics make perfect sense, and you can kind of feel it, as your pick stops getting hung up in faster runs. Makes you want to practice! :smiley:

EDIT - I guess, in a nutshell, the single biggest thing I’m surprised to notice is that alternate picking always felt like something I had to have my arm tense for to do accurately, yet when things are flowing, suddenly the more relaxed my picking hand is, the easier it is. That’s exactly how technique SHOULD work, so I don’t know why I’m so surprised, lol.

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#2

Sounds if you are on the way man! :slight_smile:

Indeed this place is simply great, I hope honestly this is the start of a new generation of teaching.
The big change to me is that the main focus is not on instructions but on information.
You get a precise view of the problem in pretty much all apsects involved … from muscles to brain.
Then you get a ton of options how to solve the problem but even if you don’ stick around with them - now the door is open to find other ways to solve the problem, simply by knowing it.

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#3

It’s weird for me! I rejoined CTC about 2 months ago after a few years hiatus. I started with the DWPS video basics and also worked on the Eric Johnson videos. Because I’m an Uber driver full time, I don’t get to practice as much or as often as I used to or would like to. However, like you Drew, something has been clicking for me as well. I picked up my guitar yesterday for a few moments just to warm up my fingers and keep them familiar with the strings, both fretting and picking. What has been weird is that each time I pick up my guitar, even for a short time, my hands seem to make subtle adjustments that I didn’t necessarily make the last time. And these adjustments seem to be very natural. But yesterday was a breakthrough day for me. I was able to play a three note per string scale in a circular run through all six strings effortlessly and with a pretty good speed. It seemed accurate and precise with good tone on each note.

The evolution of my picking changed everything. I, at first, was picking using forearm motion but changed it to wrist suppination. This also caused me to make adjustments on the way I hold the pick with my thumb and first finger. Think Yngwie! I have noticed now that it doesn’t take me but a few minutes to get warmed up. Oh, and because my picking has become more precise, it also caused my fretting to become more precise. It seems my fingers move in a more spider-like fashion.

Now, I’m not saying I’m playing Yngwie fast! But the speed is coming at a more rapid pace these past couple of months. I’ve really been working on these basics. I notice it has helped in my rhythm playing, too. I don’t care what anyone says…@Troy has been on to something for many years. Finding a good teacher is hard to do. I’ve taken lessons from Greg Howe and other big names. They were great teachers if you want to play like them. However, I want to be ME! So I determined in order to do that, I had to go back to basics and correct bad technique. That’s what Cracking the Code has done for me. It’s kinda like this: if you desire to be a 200 mph race car driver, you better understand a few things like wind dynamics, steering dynamics, fuel consuptiom, and so much more. I hope that makes since.

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#4

Bingo, this. Definitely not to downplay the role of practice - it still takes a lot of practice to build technique, and it’ll be months yet before this stuff is entirely fluid, intuitive, and second nature to me. And, I figured out pretty quickly that I also had some synchronization issues that needed/still need attention.

But, alternate picking is also kind of a mechanical problem to solve, and starting with the right blueprint can make things a LOT easier. I guess I’m posting this as much for anyone else trying to get their heads around these concepts - when it starts to click, you’ll know. You’ll just feel the resistance drop away.

Honestly, the biggest cause of lag at this point now is my fretting hand, particularly my pointer finger, getting it accurately on to the next highest string in time for the second note of the six note sequence.

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#5

Drew, I had, and sometimes have, the same issue with my fretting hand. I had fly away fingers. I slowed down a bit and worked on the spider approach. It’s actually not that difficult once you get the hang of it. I would first work on single string exercises; let’s say you do a three not on one string using 12<10<9 frets using 4th<2nd<1st finger combo on 3rd string. Playing a triplet format, first pick 6 notes 12th fret only in triplet fashion 123456! Then do the 12<10<9 twice in triplet fashion. Practice using little finger movement and using DWPS technique. It may seem a little strange at first but you will eventually bring it up to fast speed. Concentrate on spider like motion with fretting. When you feel comfortable, move to 4th string in sequence using UWPS

—12–12–12–12–12–12–12–10–9--12–10–9---------

By the way, I learned this from YouTube teacher, Claus Levin. It works!

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#6

It’s actually not the fixed-position stuff I’m struggling with, or even moving along a single string through adjacent patterns, but either moving from a lower string to a higher one (which is starting to come together), or, especially, larger position jumps. Something like this:

|-12-8-10-12-10-8-------------|
|-----------------9-7-8-9-8-7-|
|-----------------------------|
|-----------------------------|
|-----------------------------|
|-----------------------------|

…repeated. This is obviously an egaggerated example, but IMO if I can get those jumps cleanly at speed, then tighter ones should be easy (and, the picking is no harder for that than for a simpler frettinghand version).

#7

This is the entire concept! The pick’s visible orientation is totally secondary, and very often doesn’t look like what you think it’s going to look like, especially for uwps players and crosspickers.

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#8

Yeah, I think I initially missed that in the Season 1 videos. :rofl: It got a lot clearer in the Pickslanting primer stuff, and then the mechanics just needed some time to percolate before it started to feel natural.

I’ll say, it IS a damned cool feeling when suddenly you find that fast picked runs feel effortless. So, thanks for the work you’ve put in documenting this stuff, man!

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#9

…or, I guess, to elaborate, I think I just assumed that if I increased my slant, then the “escape” movement would follow. It was only when I started consciously thinking about hand position and picking motion and shifted my position a tiny bit that things truly started to flow right.

The things I think about in PT, lol.