I took a video of my friend’s picking and was wondering what @Troy and others had to say about it. In the two different clips it looks like two different primary picking motions are used and two different pick slants. We have been playing together and working on our music for a few years now and as we get closer to finishing a bunch of our songs I was hoping to help him improve his technique and theory knowledge so he can more easily play some solos. He has good ideas, just not always the ability to translate them to the guitar since he has always primarily played more rhythm guitar parts. Anyway my plan is to help him get his preferred pickslant and motion mechanic solidified first and since I have spent months doing this for myself I feel like I can teach him what I’ve learned, but I first wanted to get others’ opinions on his picking as it is.
OK. I think he needs to stick with using his fingers on his right hand to anchor as he does in the first video. The second video has him abandoning the anchoring and it’s an absolute mess.
He needs that anchor provided by the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th fingers.The 3rd and 4th fingers are stationary and the 2nd finger moves but still provides some stability. That leads to the picking in the first video being much better controlled than in video #2. That control is crucial for playing accurately and with economy of motion. People vary on how important they believe economy of motion to be. Well, if you want to see a guy who anchors three fingers on the guitar and has incredible economy of motion, incredible speed, and tremendous accuracy, take a look at the 5 minute instructional video found in the following thread: Best Dannyjoe Carter Video Yet!
The video found in that thread shows what is possible when a guitarist develops his coordination, economy of motion and speed while using three fingers of the right hand to anchor.
Furthermore, I believe that your friend could improve his style that he uses in video #1 by relaxing more. It looks like excessive tension is keeping him from being able to move faster. That should be his priority right now - getting rid of unnecessary tension (not all tension - just unnecessary tension). It seems to me that he’s getting most of his speed from his elbow and that’s fine. He may want to add some more wrist and/or thumb and forefinger to that - he should experiment some with those things and see what helps him most.
As for pick slants, I don’t really get into that too much. If it’s important to you there are others here who like to get into that and can advise you on that but as far as I’m concerned, the style he uses in video #1 looks like it has potential for him.
Hi! Thanks for posting. When you cut off the arm, we can’t tell what motion is being used so it’s not really possible to say what’s going on here. You can just look at the “pickslant” because that only tells you a bit about the grip. And even then, the pickslant is affected by arm position too.
If you and your friend are playing a single escape (“one-way pickslanting”) phrase, do you want to make a downstroke escape motion or an upstroke escape motion? This matters because you actually need a different motion for each type of line. In other words, it’s not just the pickslant that’s changing, it’s the motion that’s actually different. For example, wrist players actually switch the way the wrist is moving to do each kind of phrase.
I know we haven’t been super clear on this in the past, so I apologize! We’ll have some new instructional stuff up soon which will make this crystal clear. Until then, I’d simply say, figure out what motion path you are trying to create, based on the kind of line you are trying to play. Then choose a motion that can do that path and work on it. Keep in mind that some joints, like the wrist, can do both types of escape and so you can consider them almost two different types of picking motion that you can learn separately, and eventually learn to switch between.
Yes the first clip looked the most promising to me too.
Sorry for the bad video. I didn’t think to keep the arm in. I think I need to brush up on the terminology too. I will have him just figure out a comfortable tremolo motion first and go from there.