Mattias Eklundh’s technique

General Music Discussion
#1

Here is a cool video of Mattias warming up for a Beethoven gig. He’s playing some really beautiful melodies and has a really nice tone in this clip.

What’s interesting is his alternate picking technique - he seems to play with a standard grip but, when he switches to fast alternate picking lines, he holds his pick between the thumb and middle finger and uses what I think looks like elbow mechanics. His picking is very clean here and Sounds even more impressive with the semi clean tone. Would like to hear some input on his technique.

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#2

it’s really hard to tell, but doesn’t really look like he’s incorporating DWPS??

#3

That’s because this is upward pickslanting. You can see that his forearm is not supinated as dwps requires. Instead, it’s pronated, i.e. flat against the guitar body. This is the same form used by Andy Wood when he plays electric, and the movements you’re seeing here are very similar.

This includes the occasional 2wps rotation when he needs to move from an upstroke on a lower string to a downstroke on a higher string. The fast EJ-style 2nps lines in the first few seconds of the clip are a good example of this. It’s downstroke and pulloff on the top string, then down-up (rotate) on the lower string to start over.

The faster elbow-appearing stuff is also uwps but not as clean, so I wouldn’t spend too much time trying to pull that apart. The wrist stuff is great and looks good like Andy’s does. For in-depth slow motion look at pretty much the same form, you can check out that interview.

And in general, @aliendough, your main challenge is really unrelated to this. Your mission, should you choose to accept it before the Mission Impossible cassette tape explodes, is to get those uwps elbow and wrist movement happening fluidly with those single-string patterns, and as I believe @tommo has recommended, maybe some two-string patterns as well. Doesn’t have to be totally synchronized with the fretting hand, just has to be fast and fluid. You can clean it up later once you start to replace the stringhoppy movements that are holding you back.

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#4

Looks like UWPS to me. Got that same John McLaughlin setup where the thumb-side of his palm clings to the thicker strings and body of the guitar. I play the same way, just not nearly that well :stuck_out_tongue: The middle finger thing is interesting though. Looks like he built his toolkit on “whatever works” and got great results

EDIT: And the master himself beat me to it!

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#5

Bingo! This is right on.

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#6

I’m working on it :wink: It’s a shame that I don’t get so much time during the week, I’d love to be able to play guitar as a full time job!!!

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#7

That’s fine, and perhaps even ideal - this isn’t school and there is no deadline. A little bit here and there, over time, is how you make things habitual, and avoid injury at the same time.

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