I accidentally discovered that I’m a surprisingly proficient cross picker. I guess this has come from spending years arpeggiating open chords as fast as I could.
So now, should I work on directional picking to be able to play the blazingly fast yngwie or bonamassa style stuff? I find DWPS more comfortable, but I’m going to have to work on creating a more consistent, “flatter” pick stroke since my standard picking motion is very U shaped.
Any tips?
There is no “should”, but if you’re saying you have trouble playing certain lines because your current movement is not fast enough, then maybe there is something up with your current movement.
From what I can tell, efficient movements of any kind don’t really have a speed limit, per se. They just get flatter and/or smaller as you go faster, to the point where they get sloppy. If what you are currently doing has a hard speed limit, and that limit is below the point where it gets sloppy, it could mean the movement itself is not as efficient as it could be.
I’d post up a clip and we’ll take a look!
FYI I believe people use the term “directional” picking to refer to economy picking where you combine sweeping and alternate picking. I assume you mean alternate picking with a “single escape” picking motion, where only half the pickstroke pops up above the strings. This is what we’ve called pickslanting, or more generally, a single escape picking motion.
Thanks Troy. Yes, that’s what I meant by directional picking…singular pick escape. My mistake with the incorrect vernacular. I’ll get a video soon. Is there anywhere I can find info on how you did the “laptop approach” to filming your crosspicking segments? That view looks much better and it makes the motion happening a lot easier to discern.
I wouldn’t do that because the form will probably change. For feedback on your playing as it stands, I’d film the way you usually play. Just grab a plain old tripod, or anything else that’s steady, and set it up as follows:
Bright, even illumination is best, especially for 120fps video, which is the best quality video for fast playing because motion blur is minimized.
okay cool thanks! i’ll put something together later tonight or tomorrow. From my understanding thus far, I seem to cross pick when changing strings and maintain that U shaped, pendulum pick angle through most pick strokes.
A little while back you asked me to find a singular motion that would help me tremolo pick as fast as possible. What I found through that experiment was that DWPS in a more linear angle helped me get really fast trem picking.
So I have a fairly decent cross picking mechanic, i think, and a less than decent DWPS motion.
Try continuing with the X-picking… and seeing how far you can take it… and how smooth and economical you can make it. You’d be surprised how fast it goes if it’s done carefully.