My picking progress thread

Technique Critique
#43

Thanks, @tommo. Trailing edge definitely feels very comfortable.

Thanks @Montreal543. Here is a pic…hope is helps.

Thanks again, @Troy.

I had always switched up picking grips between UWPS and trailing edge, to try and find out what was going wrong with my picking. Now that I have the tools under my belt and I have a clear idea and direction, I’m sticking with trailing edge.

I’m gonna rewatch the Steve Morse analysis and woodshed for another couple of weeks.

Thanks again, everyone!

2 Likes
#44

Well, I haven’t posted in a while. I got a new guitar, a Les Paul, and it has taken me a while to get used to it as I had been playing the Suhr for so long.

I recorded a new clip today. I’m now using trailing edge all the time and I think trailing edge is maybe conducive towards DWPS? I know that when I held the pick in more of a regular manner I was an UWPS, now I find changing strings on an upstroke which would suggest I’m now a DWPS player…I think!

2 Likes
#45

Welcome to your life
There’s no turning back
Even while we sleep
We will find you

Acting on your best behavior
Turn your back on mother nature
Everybody wants to rule the world

:bear:

2 Likes
#46

Except for the end I feel you are holding back a bit. I think that les paul would like you to pick the yngwie 6s as fast as you did the tremolo at the end. You can do it man :sunglasses:

1 Like
#47

@tommo I have tried that, but it’s sloppy as hell. However, I will upload a clip regardless, probably at the weekend. :cat2:

2 Likes
#48

There is no hurry obviously, feel free to enjoy that Les Paul without the rest of us watching :smiley:

2 Likes
#49

I made this new video tonight. I had to go back to regular grip as I have a touch of osteoarthritis in my middle finger on my right hand and it was flaring up and holding the pick with three fingers was causing me problems.

I thought I was doing ok but, watching this video, I think I have taken a step back…

I’ve also been trying some DWPS today but it is terrible!! Even on a single string my movements feel super jerky.

2 Likes
#50

Nah man. Them close-up vids on the pick are a b****. Mine were making me mad for a while. Just keep checking yourself with the camera when you can. You will know what you need to tighten up from that.

On your DWPS is looks like you are economy picking. Cool mane. To echo what I’m told, You need to pick your mechanic and stick with it @aliendough Quit flip flopping around. If trailing edge kills the middle finger, you might wanna stay in standard UWPS. Stop FLIP FLOPPING!!! Hahahahahaha

Where the f*** is everybody at? Barbados? Happy f***** new year.
:bear:

#51

Hey @aliendough, don’t get discouraged! It seems the picking motion became curved again now that you changed the grip. You can try making the pick move along a straight-er trajectory, I think you can even make the picking motion a bit bigger if that helps. Your tremolo picking a couple of videos ago was spot on, so you could try to recreate that feel with the new grip?

3 Likes
#52

Thanks @tommo. You’re right about the curvature - I didn’t see that at all. I will try and consciously focus on making my picking line straighter.

The other problem I had with trailing edge picking was I found the pick made a chirping noise against the strings, which was really annoying. UWPS doesn’t have that, but it seems I’m a little slower.

Back to the woodshed.

2 Likes
#53

I wish I could be more help @aliendough I don’t know what to say other than observations.

:bear:

1 Like
#54

No worries, @Hanky_Pooh, I appreciate you checkin the video.

I’m a little disheartened because of the pain in my finger. I have a lump on it called a Bouchard node, which flares up and gets painful. I was happy with the way that my picking was progressing using trailing edge, but this has set me back a bit.

My doctor told me that the pain will die down in a lot of weeks / months, so maybe I can go back to trailing edge then.

1 Like
#55

If single string feels jerky, then spend more time working the single string stuff at a variety of tempos. Even work on just single note on the single string at different tempos. It may feel demoralizing to spend time on that, but once you lock in a consistent alternate picking motion that goes like butter, everything else should suddenly feel much much easier. One thing to focus on is making sure that the resistance you feel on upstrokes and downstrokes seems pretty much the same, because if it’s doesn’t, you’ll be trying to push harder in one direction than the other, which is not conducive to a fast “automatic” reciprocating motion. To that end, maybe experiment with how much edge picking, how deep a pickstroke etc, and just find a happy place for rapid picking of a single note on one string.

1 Like
#56

Sorry to hear about the joint issues! Are you saying these issues don’t cause you pain when playing with leading edge? If so, that’s a pretty good argument for sticking with leading edge. I don’t see any reason why that wouldn’t work for you. Your leading edge grip / setup looks fine.

Also, your elbow technique looks totally fine. There is no stringhopping there. It’s your wrist mode that has the stringhopping issues. So, couple suggestions:

  1. Potentially do more elbow. It’s already working. Why not do what works? You’ve solved the movement problem there. You’re up to step two which is hand synchronization. Figuring out some lines to play which are of musical interest, and not just the stock patterns, can make that a lot more interesting. Practicing music and not mechanics is why we all got into this.

  2. If it’s impossible to unlearn deviation hopping, then don’t deviate. Try some other movements. In the broadcast we talked about some of the forearm approaches that blend deviation with forearm. They’re pretty much nextdoor neighbors of deviation in that they look and feel somewhat wrist-y. Because these are larger, looser movements than you have been making, it could break the rut of the hopping movement. It’s hard to stringhop a forearm movement since it already is, to some extent, tracing that path, just doing so in a more relaxed and mechanically efficient way.

  3. Stop playing patterns like descending fours - for now - since they are not really one-way pickslanting patterns and are more likely to trigger your learned stringhopping behaviors.

I feel your pain here, and I’d really like to see you move past this point of basic mechanics — especially the stringhopping part, since it’s the textbook definition of plateau and breaking plateaus is pretty much why I got into this gig in the first place. And again, so much of this type of practice is boring and unmusical. I’d go nuts if I had to work only on picking motion for any length of time. Shuffling the deck here with some other approaches, especially with musicality, maybe we can break you out of the rut.

5 Likes
#57

Thanks @Troy.

With regards to my joint on my middle finger - I don’t get pain while playing leading edge, I would get some pain after I had finished playing, only on some occasions. Some days it would be worse than others. I’m just in the middle of a flare up at the minute but hopefully it will go away after a few weeks. When it does go away I can hopefully go back to trailing edge and work out something whereby I won’t get pain after I’ve finished playing, but I’ll see how the leading edge goes for the time being.

I need to rewatch the broadcast with my guitar in my lap so I can get a feel for some of these techniques.

As always, I appreciate your words of guidance. I will update in a few months.

1 Like
#58

I agree with Troy @aliendough especially if the trailing is what is causing the injury? If it is, I would definitely stop doing it and pick leading edge. Everything @Frylock is saying about the single string stuff is good advise. I think it’s good to work on a 2 string chunk over and over. Pick one that requires the proper string change. All you gotta do is connect the chunks down the road. lol, learning shred guitar sucks.

:bear:

2 Likes
#59

It’s been a while since I last replied to this thread so I thought that I’d update.

So, I started off as an UWPS and, over the last few weeks, DWPS has suddenly clicked for me. I think the Les Paul has made me change how I approach picking as the body is totally different.

I still need to clean up on actual DWPS motion and the finesse, but I think I’m doing OK and am happy with my progress so far… at least, I think I’m DWPS.

4 Likes
#60

i think you are sounding more relaxed in your playing. speed is a by product of time. it’s all about developing your internal sense or maybe instinct of music, and communicating it before you will see any sort of speed increase. now whether we can speed up as adults, who knows. maybe the only way for us is the metronome at this point since we didnt pick up a guitar at 7 years old. dont focus on speed, focus on the relaxed smooth buttery pace you got in this video, and find your voice in music. this website is great for technique, and some cool lick tricks. but use your ears stop looking at tabs, and sheet music. find a slow down music app and get to work on figuring it out yourself. listen to crown of thorns by yngwie on unleash the fury album, then find the video of him blazing through it on a live version. the only reason i know of this is because we had this argument at work that heavy metal is the devils music so i said man you should listen to this song crown of thorns. so the other guy who i didnt direct this comment to plays guitar who was on my side searched the song, and sure enough it starts playing this live version. and for some reason i was like whoa wait that sounds so much faster. and its faster because yngwie has communicated that song so many times on tour, at his house, etc. that he can naturally just play it faster. and he created this song later in his life so for him to speed it up means that we can gain some sort of speed increase in our own musical lick trick bag as adults.

1 Like
#61

Hi @bradenjensen. Thanks for the reply. I forgot all about this thread.

To be honest I’ve given up on CTC and picking technique and am concentrating on taking shortcuts to make things work and get my playing up to speed as quickly as possible. This basically involves lots of legato, hybrid picking and some tapping.

I was spending too much time thinking about picking, movements and not getting anywhere. I no longer understand the terminology used here and I’m not sure that I’m even physically capable of playing all alternate picking at fast speeds - maybe because of my frustration?

I can nearly play Bark At The Moon up to speed now! I could never play that run at the end before when I was picking most of it, so now I use a load of legato and it’s working out OK.

2 Likes
Jake E. Lee, Bark @ the Moon, pre chorus, 16th note riffs
#62

The best I could tell you from my own ability which is nowhere near as impressive as troy and the rest, is this. Don’t get hung up on speed, music isn’t about speed it’s about listening and transposing music out through some medium guitar piano whatever of how you feel or what sounds good to you. And if you want to dabble in maybe getting some speed find your sequence, play that one sequence, probably most likely 1 beat as fast as possible. Be it 2 note, 3 note, 4,5,6 7 figure out a way that is easiest for you to play it as fast as possible. I’m still only able to do sextuplets for only one beat at 120bpm this is very hard shit at this speed. Even sixteenths on one string is still like 170 maybe 180 bpm I’m better on just one string. Like I said slow down speed will come as long as you keep playing. When you burst 1 beat of however many notes with whatever pattern or sequence your hand will wind up and strike the string and eventually the thumb and finger get involved to finish off the rest its sort of
Like how a cyclone/tornado starts big at the top and comes to a point at the bottom focus on making the first strikes note dynamic with force and when finishing off the sequence tighten up your movements eventually on the last note of the sequence squeezing in to the finish line with a very small motion of movement from the fingers. Its a combination of wrist, and thumb and index finger or whichever fingers hold the pick. Focusing on one beat fast breaks it down to its root simple level of figuring out your own way and ability that you have inside of you. But this is just my own analysis of my playing so don’t take it to heart if you start focusing on this cyclone shit idea i concocted just play for fun :wink:

1 Like