good day. Here’s my video. I am trying to work on the said suggestions for downward picking. It still feels very strange to me. I can also pick like this about double this speed but the technique is exactly the same. I figured for viewing it would be better a little slower. I hope someone can give me some news about this because I really feel dumb putting it on here. Ha. I just want to stop sucking.
WOW! Double this speed would be ridiculously fast! I think everybody wants to see that!
As far as the picking motion goes:
I am not 100% certain, but I don’t see the pick coming up above the plane of the strings on neither the downstroke (DSX/Upward-Pickslanting) or the upstroke (USX/Downward-Pickslanting). This would mean, that this motion in this setup doesn’t work for string changes, and would need some tweaking. Troy talks a lot about the wrist offset, the radial/ulnar offset and all this stuff, all worth checking out. If you can really pick that fast, you have quite some potential to explore!
Maybe @tommo or @Troy could give their opinion?
Don’t worry, there is lots and lots of videos like this up here. And from professional players too!
Well I’m not sure it’s double the speed exactly but the effort is double I know that. Yea I have major string change issues as I’m sure you guessed. Like I said. I’m trying to implement the wrist supination and all that but it’s still very unnatural for me. It’s hard to do and continue to do right now.
And another theory I have is since my picking is so trapped and awful I’ve never developed any hand synchronization because I can’t string together many notes without a mistake. Does that sound accurate? Honestly. I can’t even play a major scale 2-3 times without totally missing notes.
What about single string stuff? Thunderstruck intro or something like that. Or the infamous Yngwie Sixes, just repeating on one string? I know, boring scales and all, but that at least should work with your picking
This looks like downstroke escape to me. Look at the pick at the top of upstroke and note where the point is. Now look at the furthest extent of the downstroke and look at the pick’s point. Are they they same height? It looks like the upstroke is more trapped and the downstroke is less trapped. Meaning, you’re picking along a downstroke escape path. You’re not going far enough to actually escape but that doesn’t matter because you’re on a single string and there’s no point in doing so.
The simple thing to do is just play a DSX lick and see what happens. Paul Gilbert sixes are a simple pattern for that - it’s six notes per string but using a 3nps fingering. But any phrase is fine as along as the last note on each string is a downstroke.
How did you film this, did you make a Magnet? For a lick like this single string example, where you really want to see the escape path, one thing that can help is to center the camera on the string you want to look at. Here the camera is much lower, centered on the low E string. If you redo the single string example, place the camera lens right on the string you want - this will make the perspective more balanced.
In general, if I’m playing a variety of things and I might use all the strings, I usually place the camera dead center between the D and G strings. This way the entire view is centered. I only use a more specialized camera position if I know for sure I’m only playing on certain strings, and I want the most centered perspective I can get on those strings.
I have a small gorilla grip tripod I used @Troy it wasn’t easy to get it to hold and not grab all the strings too. I do think I’m starting to get the downward pick slant motion, That’s why you can sort of see it, when I’m looking I’m double trapped but less trapped on the up. Also my pick is very pointed… when I play multiple strings now I sometimes hit strings on a change. I am making improvements. I just need to adjust to the new stuff I saw in the primer. My wrist isn’t there yet. Like I said. 24 years Of playing wrong to erase
@7th11th I can only get up to a certain speed for the sixes. And it’s not fast at all, mostly because of my synchronization issues. Thunder struck us easy for me. Like I said. I can chug, gallop to most songs, creeping death, tornado of souls. As long as I’m on the low e string I’m fine. You know what’s always plagued me. Weezer sweater song. Or ain’t talking bout love, When I have to pick down and up repeatedly or jump over strings. I trip the whole way. I’ve always struggled. I see how these techniques would help that stuff. I’m excited.
I love sweater song!
You certainly don’t need alternate picking for that though.
I think the basic CtC-concept to work on hand Sync is simple repeating patterns on a single string, eg. the sixes. So if you have troubles there, it is definitely worth working on. The idea behind it is to first make sure that both left and right hand are doing what they should, and then get chunking going for the higher speeds.
There is tons off stuff on this site where the concept of chunking is explained in great depth.
I like to think about it like this: I can yell “Yngwie’ Yngwie!” much faster than I could ever spell “y-n-g-w-i-e”
@Troy was talking about the inverse of what you are saying here. He observed that your downstroke is less trapped, and suggested to try a lick to test that. You are talking about DWPS here, which means free upstrokes, so the exact opposite. If I were you, I’d give Troys suggestions a try. So, downstroke escape means every new string starts with an upstroke.
Ok @7th11th maybe my brain and body haven’t caught up yet to each other. I’m thinking of this one lick I play and I know it’s easier for me to descend than ascend. So Troy might be right. Maybe I’ll do another video too and center my camera more. Also my stupid brain crossed sweater song and my name is Jonas. I’m losing it lately. Might be a bad time to start working on this. Ha
I made another video. I couldn’t get the camera in a more central spot but I added another clip of me playing. I think it’s pretty clear I’m an idiot. Sorry you might have some obligation to watch this @7th11th but if there’s any starting point you see for me let me know. Other wise I’ll just stick to trying to learn downward pickslanting because I want to be EVH and or Yngwie so that’s where I’m going to go.
Hey there! I still don’t see a tendency for escaped upstrokes in your 2nd video. So, an Yngwie-style System with this picking motion seems unlikely to me, at least at this point. I do think I see a little bit of wrist flexion/extension and the downstroke slightly lifting as Troy suggested. This might become even more pronounced, if you’re not trying to go for DWPS.
EDIT: And a hint of elbow?
Ok. This is me just playing as I have over the last 2 decades. No Troy influence here. That’s why it looks so bad. I’m working on the USX (is that what it’s called now?). I’ve also decided to just rewatch every video on YouTube too. Since today my actual practicing was a disaster. I figure if try to train my mind.
I don’t know why you’re saying that, because it doesn’t look bad at all!
You have a pretty solid, smooth DSX motion going there. I know it’s not what you want, but let’s not ignore the fact that you have something that works! If you were to embrace the DSX motion and learn some licks that fit it, you would be flying.
If you want to learn USX picking, I think you need to try something radically different. Different motion, different hand position/anchor, different grip – anything! You’re not going to get significantly different results from trying almost the same thing.
There’s a well-written post by @Troy that touches on this (toward the end):
I don’t understand what it is you think “looks” bad about this, and I’m not sure why it matters what it looks like if it sounds fine.
Like, to me, Steve Morse’s technique looks absolutely awful but it sounds incredible so what does it matter?