Pick Grip Mechanics

Playing Technique
#1

Hi, folks:

I just renewed my membership after receiving Troy’s latest video. It got me trying to work through the EVH 3-finger grip in order to get rid of string-hopping. (There seem to be at least two variations of the EVH grip: One with the index finger under the pick along side of the middle finger; and one where the index finger rests along the edge of the pick to steady it and avoid slippage.)

Then I watched all 11 of the first group of videos on joint motions: 1 o’clock; 2 o’clock; rotating, elbow, etc. I’m trying to find the one that causes the least arm and hand tension. Oddly, I can do all of them quite fast, on just one note, except for the rotating one, which I can barely do at all. (One of the fastest, though, is one I haven’t seen mentioned: The thumb and forefinger do most of the movement, with the wrist doing the tiniest extension and flexion, and just a little elbow movement.)

The problem with all of these tremolo motions, though, is that they are very tiny. I play a lot of wide-interval jumps across several strings and even one-note-per-string lines, and the mechanics Troy has presented don’t seem to allow these intervals at anything even approaching tremolo speed. (Until recently, I’ve tried to morph the string-hopping into a Steve Morse-style shallow-scoop motion, but it always slips back into string-hopping.)

These motions also force me to pick near the bridge and rest my hand on the guitar. Since I need the freedom to change my attack at will, often, my hand doesn’t rest on the guitar at all, especially if I pick up by the neck rather than at the bridge. Sometimes, if I want to let the instrument’s natural harmonics ring out, my right arm doesn’t touch the guitar, either. Hand and arm just float above the strings.

Getting back to the EVH grip, however, I’ve been working with the the DSX and USX motions. (The most fluid formula seems to be DSX going from low string to high, and USX going from high string to low.) While there is clear speed improvement compared to string hopping, I still can’t approach tremolo speed.

Even if the solution is mostly a matter of getting used to the three-finger/pencil grip until I can move it where it has to go, how do I reach anything approaching tremolo speed while keeping the freedom to play one, two, three, or four notes per string, make wide interval jumps, pick nearer to the bridge, and let the harmonics ring when I want them?

Is there a particular lesson to which you can refer me?

Steve Posner

#2

Hi Steve, thanks for signing up!

Most joint motions don’t really have a “size”, per se. The size of the motion is just the result of how hard you push, i.e. how much muscular force you apply, versus how fast you play. If you keep the pushing force constant, and play faster, the motion size goes down. And vice versa.

Wrist motion is a good joint choice for moving horizontally across the strings, since the wrist joint operates in a plane that is basically parallel to the strings. As a result, it can cover a very wide swath of territory, up to all six strings if you have big enough hands. Steve Morse is famous for that type of playing, and he played a bunch of stuff like that in our interview. Here’s a good one:

I don’t have huge hands but can easily get four strings pretty quickly with wrist motion. I can probably do five with the right anchor position. And with only a very small adjustment I can get all six. Here’s some four-string stuff that includes skipping from the D to the high E, skipping the B and G in the process:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CG3lwImH-nf/

As far as speed, there should be not much difference between the table test and the picking speed. The table might be a few ticks faster, but for me the EVH pen scribble speed is similar to actual playing. If it doesn’t feel the same, then it’s a matter of experimenting to see what you need to do to get them to feel more similar. Try putting the guitar on your lap, or inclined Wes Montgomery style, and see if it feels more like the test.

The speed / fluidity is the first item of business. Learning to apply the motion to a wide variety of picking patterns is the long haul, and just to be clear, almost nobody is exactly as fast on 2nps and 1nps patterns as they are with patterns that contain more notes per string. So that is just the nature of the beast. But if you can get speed and smoothness happening just on simple lines first, you’ll be on your way.

Give that a shot and things are still not working feel free and link to a Technique Critique clip.

#3

Excellent response; thank you.