My technique with upward(ish) slanting

Technique Critique
#1

Hello Ctc friends!

Since i found Troy’s channel in youtube, i realised that there is whole new counterpart to my right hand technique. I have developed my picking in to favoring upstrokes, i believe Andy James uses similar style too. Now that i realised that i’m no longer limited to only down-stroke string changes i have been working my downstrokes quite a bit. Trying to make excercises where there is even- and odd numbers on a string now and see how it goes. Right now i can play alot faster and with more relaxed feel. It feels to me i need to pick harder when going to new string with a downstroke. Maybe in time it will come with more ease.
Here is a video of my playing. Here I am only using upstrokes to change a string.
Any other upslanters here? And have you been able to absorb downward pickslanting to your playing?

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#2

Great playing! A little hard to tell from this distance but your form looks like textbook wrist deviation escaped upstroke motion. As we’ve discussed on the forum over the past few months, at some point we’ll probably stop using the term “pickslanting” to describe picking motions, since the pickstroke and which way it escapes is clearer in terms of describing what the motion is actually doing.

So… you’re saying you don’t typically play this way, and you usually use a downstroke escape motion? What does that look like, same arm position or different?

The next time you sit down at the guitar, if you feel like filming this again from closer up, it would be cool to take a look at how your form changes those two modes. In other words, same phrase, once via upstroke escape, then reverse the pickstrokes and play it again via downstroke escape. Camera angle is good here but a little closer up so that pick/string contact becomes visible.

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#3

Thanks!
So this is the way i use to play and still play. I am practicing hard now those Yngwie licks, they felt unnatural to me before and it’s now obvious to me why! I’m currently working on that descending 3 octave A harmonic minor run, which i saw you rip on the “get down for the upstroke video” on Youtube.

Another thing which i am trying to learn from him is the economy of motion, his pick hand moves so little and it looks so effortless! I believe it comes very easy from him, that is what separates him from many, i like to see he’s live videos, he absolutely rips everytime i watch him play and what confidence he has!
I will post a video of my “downslant” picking progress when i have time.

#4

Ok, bear with me I can be a little dense. In the clip you’ve posted here, is the last note on each string an upstroke or a downstroke? If it’s an upstroke, then you are already doing downward pickslanting. That’s what I meant by the “pickslant” term being confusing. The pick does not need to appear slanted for the motion to work. However the pick does sometimes appear slanted, and that’s kind of a different thing.

Short story I would not make any changes to what you are doing yet. This all looks very good and some of the best players out there use precisely the motion you are using. Try not to get too hung up on moving a lot or a little - that doesn’t really matter. What matters is that the motion you are using is smooth, synchronized, clears the string changes properly, and so on.

#5

Ok no prob! And thanks!
So the last note on each string is a downstroke and the next string starts with an upstroke. This is how i tend to play in faster runs, though i’m now starting to create more lines where i start the next string with the downstroke, and slanting the pick helps me with this alot! Before i avoided it when i played fast. Just need to work that out more still.
I also can play double picking lines alot faster if a start with in Upstroke and do 2 note per string stuff.

#6

Ok gotcha. So your current form is on target and yes this is similar to what Andy James does. The next thing, which we have figured out only relatively recently, is that when you use the arm position that you are using here, you don’t actually need to “slant” anything differently to do upstroke string changes. You just need to make a different picking motion. If you can figure out how to do upstroke string changes without changing anything about your current form, then you will have essentially a centralized setup that can work for both upstroke and downstroke string changes.

There is more on how to do this in some of our recent instructional material, but to summarize, I would simply recommend that you definitely not change your picking motion to something “Yngwie”-like because what you have currently is actually somewhat more flexible down the road as you develop both the downstroke and upstroke sides of this.

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#7

Your playing and pick attack sounds great to me! Also your picking motion seem super smooth. I’m a little in awe of you people that can do the deviation motion without getting any rebound motion happeing in the fore arm. Looks super comfy.

It’s also funny that I could have swore that your motion was DWPS and not the opposite because of your setup. it goes to show that it’s not easy to dissect anyones playing without close up video.

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#8

Yea, i will work on my downstrokes, i’m not gonna change my technique, i will try to absorb the downward pickslant, or some way to make it easier for my string changes. I’m currently working on tje solo “sometimes i feel like screaming” and i play the fast parts of the first solo with 3nps patterns and therefore i need both strokes to change strings. Will post a video later. Rock on!

#9

Thank you! Yeah looks can be decieving, hah!