Thanks for posting! This looks great. What is the problem you’re trying to fix here?
Try not to worry too much about the “pickslant”. The way you determine what kind of picking motion you’re doing is by looking at the way the pick is moving. You’ve done a great job with the filming angle here so you can see clearly what the pick is doing. When you play those first three notes on the first string of this phrase, which way is the pick moving? Are downstrokes going up in the air, or are upstrokes going up in the air, or are both going up in the air?
The answer in this case that downstrokes are going up in the air. This isn’t downward pickslanting, this is what we used to call “upward pickslanting”. But again I wouldn’t look at the pick, and I wouldn’t call it that. I’d just look at the motion. Since the pick is moving in a way where downstrokes are going up in the air and escaping, we now just call this a “Downstroke Escape” motion. You’re using wrist motion for this, so the video that describes what you’re doing is here:
If you give this a watch, it should look familiar to what you’re doing here. Further, if you have to play a single note on a string and do it smoothly and quickly, what does it look like? Try filming that and look at it. Does it look like this motion? If so, then you know what you’re doing.
The key to this motion is that it requires phrases where the last note on each string is a downstroke. So for example if you try this phrase, it should feel pretty smooth:
Give that a shot and see how it works out.
The phrase you’re playing in the clip above is a three note per string scale, and obviously in this kind of phrase there are moments where you have to switch strings using an upstroke. If you look at what you’re doing at that moment, you’ll notice the motion changes. This is a little helper motion you’re making to help the pick get over the string on an upstroke. This is very similar to what Brendon Small does. Take a look at and see if you can see what happens around the seventh note where he has to do the upstroke - watch in slow motion if you need to:
What you’re doing looks very similar to what Brendon is doing here. This is a very common approach to scale playing and it works fine.
Your grip also looks similar to Brendon’s in terms of the small pick exposure you’re referencing. I don’t play this way but for high gain scale stuff it’s probably fine. For things like bluegrass I don’t like it because my fingers hit the strings and stop the sound. But for metal type stuff it’s not a big deal. You can always just use a little more exposure if you want. It won’t affect your motion substantially. It’s just something you have to tool around with.
In short, everything looks good here. There’s nothing wrong with what you’re doing, specifically, you’re just learning more about why you do what you do, and maybe that will help you feel more in control.
