Sorry for the confusion, I’m just commenting on wrist motion because that’s what it seems like Jake is trying to learn. In wrist technique, only the hand moves and the arm is (mostly) not generating the alternate picking motion. If you are in doubt about which picking motion you currently do, and/or should be doing, make a Technique Critque and we’ll take a look.
The Andy Wood interviews and Olli Soikkeli interviews are good places to look for lines that don’t conform to USX or DSX fretboard organization, and have mixtures of 1, 2, 3, and 4-note-per-string fingerings in them. All the bluegrass interviews as well, of course, if you’re into that kind of thing.
Maybe I phrased something in an unintended way, but I definitely don’t feel arm-twisted! My last comment to you was more so me just confirming your response and reminding myself to try the one thing in there that I think I probably haven’t spent enough time with.
If something came off salty, it might be a combination of a little disappointment at not ‘getting’ this fully despite a number of years hacking at it + general fatigue from chasing around our 9-month old all day.
Nope, didn’t come off that way! I was just pre-emptively apologizing, because I write a lot of customer support emails.
Since you have young kids, one thing you can do is have them learn it and copy their motions. Because they are learning machines who, over the next few years, will become whole walking, talking, motor-skilling humans in the same amount of time it takes you and me to fail to play the arpeggio phrase.
@Tom_Gilroy I rewatched your video over the past few days because some details were echoing in my head and I wanted to check if I was remembering them correctly.
Turns out I had a misunderstanding about where the pisiform bone was, so in my earlier comment when I had said I tried this set up before, that wasn’t quite accurate. I was tooling around with things more this morning.
I’m probably going to have a few Q as I keep experimenting. First two are:
Once the tempo gets going, are there any cues I can use to help be aware of whether I am using wrist extension on the upstroke escapes? I noticed this happening a bit on slow mo, but A. hard to notice in the moment and B. even the visual stuff in footage is sometimes hard to analyze re extension vs rotation especially as I’m changing strings. I guess that’s two questions.
(3?) Obviously finger movement is unnecessary, but I find myself making small thumb adjustments sometimes possibly if my escape is very shallow/subtle and a little finger movement helps get the pick ‘up’ just a little bit. I think this might be motion from my knuckle (think plucking a berry off of a bush) but there might be other related joints making it happen. Any thoughts on this?
Regarding cues, there’s sometime to unravel here and I feel I have to do so carefully so I don’t give you the wrong impression.
As for noticing things in the moment, I’d really stress that looking for visual cues is much less important and much less helpful than consciously focusing on how movement feels. It’s ok to look at your picking hand now and then, but you need to learn to navigate through tactile reference and kinaesthetic feedback. Having your eyes glued to your picking hand isn’t going to help with that.
I have a process for developing this with students (and for myself), but essentially it comes down to starting with exagerated large movements and creating a “pendulum” which synchronises to your internal sense of rhythm. In this stage were looking looking for movements which have a large range of motion, which are powerful and allow for strong, clear accents but which feel effortless and have a low background of muscle tension.
As for visual cues when reviewing footage, that’s a different matter. With the RDT+Rotation blend, the forearm will be supinated on the upstroke and there shoud be a noticeable downward pickslant. If the forearm is neutral (radial or thumb side in contact with the bridge or strings) or there is an obvious upward pickslant, you can only escape through radial extension.
I wouldn’t want you to obsess over it right now, but generally I think that the fewer variables we have, the more predictable and consistent we will be.
Finger/thumb movement isn’t usually necessary, but it’s not entirely without function either; it absolutely can assist with escapes.
However, if this movement is only introduced at higher speeds, then no amount of lower speed practice will help to train it. Moreover, finger/thumb movement can interfere with the structural integrity of your grip. Also, the musculature of the fingers and thumb are more complex than simple antagonists, and many muscles of the fingers and thumb cross the wrist, meaning varying tension of these muscles could interfere with the kinaesthetic feeback of your wrist movement.
EDIT: I’m always happy to help review footage, or if you’re interested we might be able to come to some Quid Pro Quo arrangment regarding lessons if you’d be interested.
