My picking for critique

[Troy]

I don’t believe we talk too much about that in Teemu’s interview, but what we do talk about is developing dwps form, which you will need for this experiment. So I would watch that first and try get comfortable with the dwps anchoring setup and picking motion.

For rest stroke specifically, you can check out the Joscho interview — the rest stroke is a big part of Gypsy technique. You can also check out Chapter 22 of the Cascade seminar, where we talk about using rest strokes for playing pentatonic licks. That might be most detailed description of the technique that we have done.

You can definitely do rest strokes with upward pickslanting, and you can try that afterward if you want. Eventually, you may not need to use the rest stroke, or at least not think about it. This is really just an experiment to help you get the feel for the linear picking movement used for faster playing.

[aliendough]

Thanks again Troy. Much appreciated, I’m glad I took out a monthly sub to the site.

[Kean]

Hey guys, apologies for being a bit late to the party, and for rehashing an old thread with my first post on the CTC forum.

I really must give credit to Troy for the rest stroke idea. Watching Troy’s magnet clips, I noticed the rest strokes would happen quite often, but not always, on the first note of a string change. Here’s a couple tips I’d like to share that worked for me in my pickslanting development.

1. I started with DWPS and UWPS first before trying 2WPS. 2WPS, to me, is DWPS and UWPS with the rotation movements. I found that trying to develop the rotation movements at the same time as the linear motions DWPS and UWPS was too overwheming and confusing. I couldn’t tell if I was rotating efficiently or doing a curved string hoppy motion.
2. Exaggerate and exploit the rest strokes. Try rest strokes for every note you pick. This felt weird at first because I’ve been picking string hoppy / cross picky for so long. The motions felt huge and excessive. But when I’d record magnet clips and review them, the motions closer resembled the motions I’d see in Troy’s clips. Over time the new motions felt more natural. Now, I can consciously switch between crosspicking and linear pickslanting motions. Eventually, don’t think about rest strokes and just play. Record yourself to see if the new movements have stuck. Here’s a clip of the early days when I started messing with the rest stroke idea.

3. Record yourself, review, critique and compare. This is probably the most important tip I can give which is why I think this forum is an awesome idea.

Hope this helps!

[aliendough]

OH cool, you’re Kean from one of Troy’s videos!!

[Wheresthedug]

@milehighshred

What I have students do, AND ME , is start whatever you’re going to work on at 60 BPM. As soon as you play your exercise CORRECTLY JUST ONE TIME, bump up the metronome by NO MORE than 5 BPM. Keep doing this until you can’t get any faster.

EVERY TIME you start a practice session over, start at 60 BPM. It’s important to warm up into your higher speeds. Just like you need warm up sets before lifting heavy weights, you need warm up time before playing your fastest speeds on guitar.

That’s exactly how I do it. I start every phrase/exercise at 60bpm (sextuplets) and bump up 2bpm everytime until I hit my limit. Then I try to push trough that limit in very short bursts for another 10bpm or so before reducing to a level below my previous limit to ensure that the last thing I do is reinforce the correct version instead of leave my mind and muscles with the feeling of sloppyness.

I have definitely seen my picking speeds increase substantially recently - although I don’t have any evidence that this technique is the cause

[milehighshred]

@Wheresthedug

although I don’t have any evidence that this technique is the cause

If your playing has improved since implementing metronome work, I’d say that’s plenty of evidence

[Wheresthedug]

Nah, that’s bad science that is

I have been using metronome work for nearly 30 years and still hit a brick wall with 16th notes around 116 -120bpm. Although I could tremolo pick quckly and play 4 note per string chromatic exercises pretty well it all broke down whenever I tried to play anything musical.

While I know that I have implemented a short burst and pushing limits strategy and I know my speed has improved, I have also been practicing more than usual, changing various aspects of my technique, etc etc etc. I have no conclusive evidence of cause and effect to anyone specific aspect of the practice regime.

Either way, i am seeing some improvements so am happy with that.