Is minimal pickslanting possible in all scenarios?

Playing Technique
#1

Minimal pickslanting appeals to me, since I feel pretty inept when actually having to play with UWPS. I’m significantly less coordinated, and have worse technique than when I’m doing DWPS, and as mentioned in a previous thread, I think that my lack of coordination while doing UWPS is slowing me down significantly. However, I’m not sure I could get away with minimal pickslanting in all scenarios. For example:

lick3

This sort of mix of scales, pentatonics, and chromaticism that all still fits well within pentatonic boxes is typical of the sort of thing I tend to improvise.
For this lick, if you did the first 3 notes on the low E string with DWPS, you’d rotate on the 3rd note (the C) to prep for the string change. Wheras with minimal pickslanting, you’d want to rotate back to DWPS on the next note, the D on the A string, it doesn’t seem to make sense to actually do that, since you’d need to just rotate back on the next note, the E on the A string.

Same thing goes for pentatonic runs like this:

lick2

I’m not sure if I’d just have to suck it up and use UWPS when I encounter licks with only 2 notes per string. But if there were a way to use minimal pickslanting to do this, I believe I’d be able to play much cleaner and faster. Any ideas?

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#2

It depends on what you are trying to acheive. I have always wanted to be able to do pure alternate picking - I’m used to doing it, so the yngwie/Johnson mechanics using pull offs to force an upstroke feel really awkward. So 2WPS is what I am spending my time on. However, in a lot of ways I wished I could do the yngwie thing as it sounds super fluid when done well, maybe one day, I’ll work on it. Have you thought about using a DWPS mechanic?

Regarding 2WPS, I have weaker UWPS, more specifically the upstrokes when moving to another string are less coordinated. To improve it, I worked on a chromatic 4 note per string exercise starting on an upstroke and always with UWPS. Once I got used to that, my 2WPS inoroved greatly.

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#3

That’s what I sometimes do [consciously].
To me it feels like some clip where Troy played “Gilbert exercise” (which is Michael Angelo’s exercise) or something similar and described a “grabbing” motion. In your first example, I would “grab” that D (yes, I realize :sweat: ) and I would still be in DWPS right after it.

I can’t comment how “good or bad” this approach is.

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#4

I have always wanted to be able to do pure alternate picking - I’m used to doing it, so the yngwie/Johnson mechanics using pull offs to force an upstroke feel really awkward. So 2WPS is what I am spending my time on. However, in a lot of ways I wished I could do the yngwie thing as it sounds super fluid when done well, maybe one day, I’ll work on it. Have you thought about using a DWPS mechanic?

I also want to do pure alternate picking. I was trained for a very long time that always, always, downstrokes happen on strong beats, upstrokes happen on weak beats. I don’t think I can easily train myself out of that. Things like sweeps feel very weird to me. I think I’m more likely to have success with UWPS than to stray from the strict alternate picking approach, although like you, it is on my bucket-list for me to someday try to get down.

#5

I forgot to say, you could re-engineer the fingering of licks to make the pickslant changes more managable… especially licks in songs that you will always try to play the same way.

#6

It doesn’t have to be alternate picked.

The number one rule is that if it sounds good then it is good.

Of course you should work on your 2WPS- and thus your UWPS/DWPS. It will come with time- it helps if you use a similar motion mechanic for each of them so you while you rotate between the two you also don’t have to change different mechanics- Wrist Deviation is my personal approach (I naturally do Supinated UWPS- so it is a mix of Deviation and Extension)

Alternatives would be Economy Picking that strings change (Doing DUD- DU)

Doing a hammer on so that you only pick 2NPS.

You could also try swiping the string changes, but with that many swipes in a row I don’t know how clean that would sound.

You could also crosspick it adding an extension motion into the lower half of your DWPS to clear the string.

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#7

Gospel truth right there! Good post dude.

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