I tried the Van Halen approach to tremolo picking with not too much success. I am unsure of how to play with the elbow. Do you just keep your wrist stiff and your forearm still and try to move from the elbow?
Yes that’s right. It’s not something I can do easily but everyones different.
I don’t really understand this idea of playing guitar with your elbow. I don’t see how it can be done.
I think plenty of people do use it and get good results like @gabrielthorn.
Just a thought as well have you checked out @Pepepicks66 ‘para-diddles’ exercise ?
Could be useful in this situation to try a few different D D U U things and build up some good control on the upstrokes.
1 Like
I watched his paradiddles video. It gets kinda confusing as he gets further into it. I can’t keep the strokes straight. If he could have put a dividing line in there. Like the first one is D D U? Then put a dividing line separating the next one which is D U U from the first one.
I’m mainly picking using my elbow. My wrist is not stiff, and I also use my forearm on upstroke string changes. I’m not sure if this paradiddles thing is something I’d use in the beginning.
I think if you read it like
D D U U repeat
Or
D U U D U D D U repeat
It makes sense.
I am doing the simpler ones every day and it does seem to help my control.
Of course there will always be a difference in sound between the downstroke and upstroke.
@gabrielthorn So you rotate you forearm to change the picking angle for the upstrokes ?
@357mag Might be worth taking a look at gabriels videos on his thread to see how the elbow thing looks if you’re interested in reproducing it at all:
Yes, that’s how I get around string changes on upstrokes, especially on descending lines. On ascending runs, I swipe a lot 
I also don’t think I’m a good example of picking technique.
There are tons of videos on that thread. The ones I saw looked like the guy was using mostly wrist and forearm, not the elbow. I did see one that may have been the elbow. Seems like a weird way of picking using your elbow. If I could get the feel of it. Seems to me I would have to keep my wrist and forearm still and concentrate on moving the forearm and hand using the elbow back and forth.
Yeah but where does one end and the other begin? That’s why you need division lines. D D U? Or D D U U? You got to listen to what he says in the video cause there are no separating lines in the text that was posted here.
@357mag if you click on the actual thread, it will have each paradiddle on a different line. Here’s the list:
D D U
D U U
D D U U
D U D D U D U U
D D U D U U D U
D U U D U D D U