Hello fellow reverse dart throwers,
I usually play with a trailing edge grip and it serves a purpose, however, I’ve been experimenting with other grips and motions to play the funk because, as everybody knows, life is pointless if you can’t play the funk.
The thing is that for the video I recorded for the Temu guitar kit that plays like a dream, I strummed some funky chords with a grip I never use and it immediately felt as nice and efficient as my usual grip but a lot more powerful.
So, I’ve been looking for answers and I think I found them:
- My new grip is a pretty choked trigger. I basically took the index finger out of the equation so the pick is basically being driven by the power of my entire hand.
The pick sits almost entirely perpendicular to the strings. I don’t think too much about edge picking as the path is not straight to the floor.
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Picking motion, in my own perception, is more horizontal than vertical, and the confusing terminology of up and downstroke does not offer enough context of how critical the X axis is to achieve a smooth diagonal pick attack. I’m more inclined to think in terms of neck and bridgestrokes. Also, I believe that confusion is one of the main causes of garage spikes problems with your picking because the terminology is telling you to aim for the roof and the floor.
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My pseudo-mnemonic reference to my newly acquired motion is: fingers against the top, and distal phalanges pointed towards the floor eg. if you look at the mirror, the hand motion wants to draw a U as opposed to a garage-spiky C.
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The single-string tests seem kinda trapped but I am working on USX patterns and they feel pretty natural (although the sync is not quite there yet) by simply making the motion a little bigger on string changes. Also, I’ve been able to squeeze some DSX changes here and there without thinking too much about it.
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The motion feels like forearm rotation with a lot of strength coming from the elbow. I can play strict elbow this way as well and it feels certainly different.
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I can get into Gypsy/Cory Wong territory by simply putting my distal phalanges against the top, which results in a more pronounced wrist angle.
Anyway, this still is a work in progress but I am super happy with this discovery, especially because it has a more powerful attack than my reverse grip, which might get a little brushy sometimes. Also, this is the first time I’ve ever felt confident to play the USX vocabulary.
