My Technique Critique Diary - Alternate Picking Assistance

@kcyrowolf Do you feel this is a detractor for you? I feel like at the speed you’re playing in the video, my fingers are more involved, and as I near the top end of my speed, they just naturally stop moving as much (at least from what I perceive).

Honestly, while it does absolutely have visible USX it also seems to feature a bit of DSX so, analyzing it and judging by the speeds you’re showing here, I’d guess it’s probably closer to the type of motion you’d use to play some double escape licks and/or cross picking.

I’d wager even, that if you were ‘forced’ to go to warp speed trying to play this way, you’d likely veer towards whatever in-baked single escape motion you might already have, or find you’re running into a speed limit. No bad thing, what you’re doing appears perfectly acceptable to my amateur analysis but just something to consider, depending on what kind of licks you’re looking to play.

1 Like

Absolutely. As the speed increases using this form/motion, I find my thumb/index move more, with increasingly larger movements. This basically ends in a trainwreck, with missed pick strokes and hitting surrounding strings.

1 Like

I was thinking the same :slight_smile:

It appears that the pick “wants” to do a bit of DSX at the end of (most?) pickstrokes. So this may not be the motion you think it is!

The experimental test is always the same: see if you can speed up this motion on an un-mistakably USX lick - like the pentatonic stuff you were doing here. If it works… it works :smiley:

I think you’ll have better results by trying something different - like a 3 finger grip or something (just a random idea to mix things up).

I had a go with a ham-fisted three finger grip. While feeling strange and unrefined, it also feels like my grip on the pick and the motion is more controlled/solid.

Having said that, you can still see the pick moving away from the body slightly. I think this is a baked-in 902/802 motion that I need to be aware of, as it’s obviously not needed when picking USX.

(I’m guessing this 902/802 motion would be more at home in DBX territory.)

1 Like

Thanks for giving this a shot :slight_smile:

Can you show us what happens when you do the tremolo at full speed with this motion?

What you are looking for is something as smooth and fast as your DSX

1 Like

Here is an attempt at tremolo with the three finger grip. To be honest it didn’t feel controlled at all when I sped it up.

Before recording the above clip, I started experimenting with rest stroking higher up on the pick, with the idea being that the tip of the pick would remain closer to the string on a downstroke.

I found this gives the sort of the resistence that you experience with the tapping tests Troy demonstrated recently with the smart phone (or any suitable object). If that makes any sense…

Here is the motion I was experimenting with at a slower more controlled speed. Notice where the pick is resting on the next string, along with the tip of the pick.

Here is an attempt at tremolo picking with this motion. It seems the DSX motion is creeping back in a bit.

That was quick :slight_smile:

Sorry one extra request: could you add the full speed videos alongside the slo mo? They’re good to evaluate the big picture stuff like speed, sound quality and smoothness.

With the slomo we can then look at escape paths in more detail- but this is only worth doing if the normal speed vid shows enough speed and smoothness

1 Like

Does this help?

I can see with the second grip that my thumb/index is starting to get involved again…

Perfect thank you! These movements look usable for the intermediate speeds you are demonstrating here - but you are probably aware that they are nowhere near the DSX example you posted here - the difference is night and day:

I completely agree. I just recorded a clip of another motion I’ve been experimenting with which uses a flexed wrist, with the fingers brushing on the pickguard/body as a light anchor point. This is the closest I can get to my DSX wrist/elbow speeds and it feels pretty smooth.

What has prevented me from pursuing this motion further is the inability to mute string noise or palm mute with it…

1 Like

This is great! I vote for working on this motion + the DSX one.

Working on = playing actual music using them, keeping the tempo reasonably high so that the movements look the same as these.

I know, I know, the muting is not where you’d like it to be. But these are still great entry points in the realm of efficient picking! As you get more confident with them, you may be able to tweak them a bit to add the muting

I think you’re right. Thanks @tommo, really appreciate the input!

1 Like