Learning to hyperpick

Playing Technique
#1

Hi everyone. I’m interested in learning how to hyperpick, and I wanted to share my process and some issues I’m having, and hear about some of your experiences.

As alluded to in the new “Testing Elbow Motion” video, it seems like hyperpicking is based on a motion shared by gamers called jitter clicking. Here’s a video on it, in which a guy points out that it’s based on or built around tensing the brachoradialis:

“I’m tensing [my forearm–pointing to brachoradialis] up to the point where my entire arm stars vibrating… It’s important to note that you’re not moving any of your finger muscles.”

With this in mind, I’ve been experimenting with this tool as a motion test:

I think that pressing a spacebar makes it a little easier to match to the angle we use when picking than clicking a mouse. So far, I tend to get between 9 and 11 presses per second in 5 second trials.

In the video above, the guy recommends doing pushups beforehand, which I guess could prime the tricep for the extension component of the movement. I’ve also experimented with doing hammer curls beforehand (just enough to get a pump). I haven’t noticed any speed improvement from either exercise, but I imagine they could be helpful for people starting to do the movement–if only to get a feel for tricep extension and flexion with brachoradialis tension.

Now for the pitfalls: the top comment in the video above reads “When I try to jitter click, My whole body starts having an earthquake.” In a comment, Troy said: “I tried to get the hyperpicking motion to happen while stuck in traffic the other day. But I just tense up and nothing happens.” I’ve also been having this issue, in that I seem to be incorporating unnecessary muscles which slow down the movement. A lot of people seem to counterproductively involve the deltoid muscles, but I’m having trouble getting my back to chill out. My shoulderblade gets pulled back and my lat tenses, and it slows my movement way down.

Can you guys try out that test and let me know what you get? What, if anything, helps you do the movement faster? Apart from the brachoradialis, where do you notice tension? And if you’ve had any luck reducing that excess tension, how did you manage?

#2

24 notes per second, or 12 round-trip motions per second, is the fastest guitar picking we’ve filmed, which is John Taylor’s clip here:

But I don’t really consider that any different from 10, 11, or 12 notes per second in terms of the ability required to do it. To reach any of these speeds, you need to be triggering the hyperpicking motion. And once you do, there may be small variations in speed, but they’re so small that they are less important than learning to be smooth with the motion. So if you can already press a button or tap on a table at any of those speeds, you are most certainly hyperpicking. The name of the game after that is figuring out how to do it on command while doing something musical with it at specific speeds, rather than just the fastest one you can muster.

The various methods of tricking yourself into doing this, using curls, doing pushups, are interesting if they work. I have no experience with anyone doing that. However I will say that I have witnessed people do hyperpicking on their first try ever, and it didn’t require any kind of physical prep or warmup.

@Adam on our team did it in the office one day while not even trying to demonstrate a picking motion. He was making a joke, which I no longer remember, about trying to hold really still in a stiff kind of way. When he mimed a person being awkward in a very rigid kind of way, his arm started to move rapidly and I immediately recognized it as hyperpicking. We picked up a guitar and filmed it, and it was indeed 20+ notes per second as far as the motion. He was missing the string half the time and it wasn’t at all smooth, but the motion was there.

As you point out, I have occasionally experimented with trying to make it work for a minute or so and haven’t experienced it. However, I will say, and this is hilarious, that I can do it with my neck / head. This is something Adam pointed out that he could do, and as soon as he said that, I was like, oh yeah! I used to do that as a joke when I was younger, make your head vibrate back and forth really fast by tensing your traps and/or other neck muscles. I can still do it, completely on command, with no tricks or warmups. I can also tense those same muscles and * not * move. And I can’t really explain what the difference is.

So… if the neck trick is the same as the arm trick, I can say 100% I haven’t done with the arm yet. Not sure if it’s a physiological limitation or just a thing I haven’t figured out. But if you’re saying you can already do the motion with the arm, then I wouldn’t worry too much about trying to do it faster — you’re already going super duper fast. It’s more about doing it for long periods of time, smoothly, on command.

Edit: FYI when you want to link to YT video, place the link on a line by itself with a blank line before it and after it. That will allow the forum to expand the link for easy viewing / clicking. You can also hyperlink specific words, as you have done. But if you can do the blank line method instead, it helps so the forum can do its little expansion and make it more obvious to readers where the link will take them. Thx.

#3

Troy, thanks for your response and for the formatting help. That’s hilarious about the head motion, now just hold a pick with your mouth–Rusty Drooley.

I’m not worried about increasing my peak speed at the movement, only about keeping it up. The excess tension seems to build as I push to keep the speed up, and this inevitably slows me down within, say, 10 seconds. I wonder if John Taylor or your partner have had this experience, where the at first the movement’s fast but very inconsistent owing to tension.
I plan to play with it for a few weeks and see if I can fix this, and I’ll post with results then.

#4

Classic - I wish my arm could do what my head/neck can do. It so funny and my kids find it hilarious.

#5

It is normal for the relaxation to increase as you become familiar with a motion, and to be able to do it for longer periods without tiring or losing the coordination. At least with the motions I know, it feels like more of a coordination thing, not an athletic thing. So it’s not unique to hyperpicking. But we did see this with John Taylor who can start the motion immedately every time and do it for 20 or 30 seconds straight.

It’s more obvious with some motions, like the EVH tremolo motion, especially since it’s a motion that even total beginners can learn, like a guitar trick, even if they can’t actually do anything with it besides play a single note. With that motion, sometimes you freeze when trying to start it. Or you can start it but it just stops for no reason. Or it slowly morphs into wrist motion or some other joint like elbow as you get tired — likely because you’re not doing it totally efficiently yet. As simple as a single repeating motion may be, I think longer sequences still need to be memorized to be done without flip flopping like this.

So I would give this some time and try not to do anything causes strain or discomfort. Knowing that this motion relies on more physical output perhaps than others, I would treat it with caution and not sit there and work on it for more than a few minutes at a time. If you’re doing it correctly, and keeping an eye out for when it’s working, even short sit-downs here and there should produce occasional improvements that you can actually notice. If it doesn’t, then maybe you need to do more experimation to find those improvements, i.e. rather than piling on minutes or hours.

1 Like
#6

I can do the head spasm thing too, on command. Perhaps putting a pick in my mouth could create a new picking mechanic… :grinning:

#7

I was gonna say “Hendrix already did it”, but I think the judges will say holding the pick in your mouth is different enough from picking with your teeth (and Hendrix wasn’t even the first to do that, though he made it famous).

The key question is: will you lean over the guitar, or use an extra strong harmonica-style neck rig? :wink:

1 Like
#8

Yeah, I’m fairly certain that if I put a pick in my mouth and spasm my head, all that’s gonna happen is I’m gonna swallow and choke on the pick… probably smack myself in the face with the guitar too… :rofl:

1 Like
#9

I tried it, and yes choking is a distinct possibility, because you can’t stop laughing when you do it.

1 Like
#10

Hahah my legs “hyperpick” when I’m playing an acoustic gig seated and the nerves kick in lmfao.

Found the only way to quell that was to focus on REALLY flexing my calf (I.e. one half of the vibrating nemeses)

As someone with anxiety and panic attacks I’ve constantly had to find ways to stop “hyper picking” motions lol

1 Like
#11

“He died doing what he loved…”

2 Likes
#12

Aww man tell me about it, I’m a fellow panic disorder sufferer and my arms certainly shake during an attack. Too bad I can’t seem to get it to happen with my arm (or head, for my own amusement) when actually trying to hyperpick!