Hey there
so I’ve been playing electric for about a year now but my fast playing is still not the best
I’ve stumbled upon pickslanting about a few months ago, and I tried numerous picking techniques, including 3 note per string patterns and economy picking. However, I still feel like my picking is inconsistent and sometimes I just tumble across the strings
First off, when I try to play slowly to a metronome I usually try to play as lightly as possible, but then it feels like there isn’t enough grip to support the pick and it just gets caught up in the strings
If I grip harder to the pick it still won’t glide smoothly plus as I’ve noticed it will even wiggle around a bit
when I play fast it feels a bit smoother for me to play but it’s still inconsistent and after a while I get pain in my biceps/shoulder area
also, when doing economy picking it feels like the hard part is physically pushing through the pick to the next string (the sweep motion)
Post a video of you doing a tremolo on one string as fast as you can maintain and then people on the forum will be able to help 
With 1 year of playing under your belt I would still expect to see lots of picking inconsistencies because you’re still new to the instrument, I’ve been playing 11 years and I still like to work on my picking a lot 
hi
I recorded my playing
it’s not the best quality and it’s not a slow motion video, but I hope you can figure something out from it
https://www.mediafire.com/file/91x1869mxnmj5v9/VID_20220201_172514.mp4/file
Any chance you could upload it to YouTube as an unlisted video and share the link here? I’m always a bit wary of downloading files off the internet
here :3
Excellent! My first impression is that your primary motion (at least the way it shows up in your tremolo) is DSX = downstroke escape.
Do you find it easier to switch strings after a downstroke?
Im not really sure
I kinda feel like my upstrokes are underdeveloped
also this is the only scale pattern I practice with (notes go: down down down up), and I noticed that what might be slowing me down is that I occasionally jump back for one note on the previous string
as I mentioned my economy ascending patterns are difficult when it comes to the sweeping motion
and when it’s a descending economy I feel like Im just generally slow with the upstrokes
my picking is more directional, so the slant just goes along wether the scale is descending or ascending
also if I slant in a really big angle it feels like it’s harder to push thru
so like I rest the lower part of the palm on the bridge for anchoring and then supinate it for slanting
altho now it feels like DSX feels a bit easier
Completely agree with Tommo, looks like DSX!
Could you post a front on view doing the same thing so we can distinguish if it’s an elbow or wrist motion?
The important thing is that you have a fast picking motion that works! If you know a little about DSX you’ll know that you can freely change strings after downstrokes and use swept upstrokes while descending.
Personally I’d work on some single string phrases like Yngwie sixes to help get you comfortable with the motion before moving onto phrases that span more and more strings
You played acoustic before electric?..
yes
classical guitar to be exact
but I played with hands mainly
(and I got into a bit of flamenco playing too)
I’ve personally found it takes about two years to get comfortable with a new technique. It’s a long time if you want something fast, but not long at all for something that will support you for life.
In my experience all the conscious efforts you make regularly build into the subconscious eventually, be that bad or good. To me your playing sounds consistent. I think you should just keep going. That flow comes with time, you can’t force it. I’ve tried and it’s just stressful. Think how long it takes a baby to talk fluidly… a long time… and they are able to learn really fast.
The playing in your video is fine, just keep going.
To me it looks like when you tremolo you were using mainly elbow DSX with a little bit of wrist DSX (similar to Andy Wood when he goes to his top speeds) and then the bit between your two tremolos you switch to mainly wrist DSX
Both motions look pretty solid to me! Obviously you are a lot faster/more fluid with your elbow motion so if you wanted to take advantage of that you could try and consciously practice the the elbow dominant motion but you seem to be on the right path