Picking shortcuts to make life easier

Playing Technique
#1

These days when I am picking music that has combinations of (say) quarter notes and eight notes, I pick at quarter-note speed and use HO/PO to get the eighth notes that I would otherwise be unable to pick—I make no effort to dramatically change speed, or to pick at eighth note speed and treat the quarter notes as (say) downstrokes.

I have mixed feelings about my current practice; on one hand, it’s easy, a huge benefit, and the rhythm is actually really good. On the other hand, I feel guilty about slipping the “legato” in to patch limitations in my picking ability or sense of rhythm. The easiest work-around would be to pick at eighth note speeds and just skip the string much of the time, but that seems like a lot of work for not very much benefit.

Any thoughts about this topic? Thanks!

#2

If you like shortcuts, you will love economy picking. :smiley:

I don’t think there is anything wrong with your approach, you will find some great phrases if you are having fun. My eyes were opened big time with the rest stroke, and legato. It definitely helped me to keep a tighter sense of rhythmical flow during those hammer on and pull offs inside the phrasing.

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#3

The Sails of Charon is one of my favourite solos of all time and Uli picks the fast phrases in it incredibly weirdly, pick-legato-pick, it kinda sounds like a blues shuffle and it accents the phrases in a really cool unique way

Ben Eller demonstrates it in the video below (he also got a comment from Uli confirming that this is the way he plays it)

Uli makes it look incredibly effortless

My point being, I think it all comes down to what works, and what you’re happy with! :grin:

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#4
  1. No need to feel guilty :smiley: if it sounds good it’s good! We (guitar players) are weirdly obsessed with this idea that we should be doing difficult stuff otherwise we are cheating or something. But more often than not, I find that what comes easiest also sounds best.
  2. If I’m understanding it correctly, this approach has a vague resemblance to Josh Meader’s picking system (can’t argue with the results :smiley: ):
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#5

I don’t like that ben eller lesson, as it fights against the way gypsy jazz traditional rest stroke keeps all string changes on down in a more true one way escape. This might just confuse kgk more if he already has problems with picking.

#6

Amazing, it’s apparently the same basic trick if I understand what Uncle Ben is saying; I need to see the sheet music / TAB to be sure (on his Instagram).

#7

But, here me out here…that song is not a gypsy jazz song :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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#8

Well he was stating he had limitations in his picking so I figure if you start introducing against the grain musically descended inside string changes on an upstroke escape fragment that will probably confuse him even more until he gets more comfortable with an one way escape first.

I honestly took off from the laptop this morning, and stopped, thought to myself what if Uli Jon Roth was doing half rest strokes to get to a double down… sat down, and analyzed, but nope. That would’ve made me laugh if he is was doing that maneuver, but I was let down.

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#9

Here is a more complete explanation as to why I don’t like what is going on, and why Uli did what he did with an inside string change during the fragment.

It is totally valid why he did it to sidestep it not quite working due to the way the finger would be sliding during the fragment, however you can still do the motion but you have to reconfigurate the fingering to do it. Like if I was to use this idea inside a 4s sequence I would encounter this sliding which you can do, but if you need it to be more in line you can just reconfigure fingerings around top example will be with a slide bottom without. I know this Sails of Charon isn’t in 4s, but that slide shift would’ve happened if he didn’t do an inside string change during the upstroke of the fragment.

In red you will have to adjust to a different fingering in the red box with the outlined fingering underlined in red, as well as the box in blue will also change, and the green box represents that pattern you will notice if you keep going down the sequence, those 3 green box fingerings will just repeat but you will do the first fingering group twice.

Screenshot 2023-01-26 at 17-14-15 Edit Untitled Soundslice
Screenshot 2023-01-26 at 17-14-15 Edit Untitled Soundslice917×479 38.4 KB

As I said earlier maybe too quickly this would be possible with rest stroke doing it during a string change except you wouldn’t do an upstroke when changing string. The first initial down stroke in the fragment would be a half rest stroke (think more free stroke) to a pull off or hammer on, then a downstroke string change for a double down maneuver. An upstroke string change as shown in that Uli breakdown of the phrase goes against the grain with my technique, and if you are having speed problems will definitely not help you as you should try to focus more on a one way escape approach first to simplify things.

I sure hope I explained that right as it can be very tedious making sure I didnt screw up the wording on all of this mumbo jumbo. :sweat_smile:

I also probably should point out that after every downstroke I rest on the string so as the hammer on or pull off occurs i rest the pick on the string below, if on the high e I kind of use the ring finger hitting the wood as the cue that i am at rest. You can clack the wood and rest on the wood if you have to at first, but it would be better to probably start in the middle of the strings so you can actually come to grips with resting on a string during these initially picked legato type fragments.

I am now going to take my analytical cap off and toss it into the garbage disposal. :sweat_smile:

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#10

Here is a simple example of a case where I play something on one string but just have to pick at eighth note speed and then HO to get that annoying sixteenth note.

Screenshot 2023-01-26 at 21.47.15
Screenshot 2023-01-26 at 21.47.151170×354 11.5 KB

This snippet should be familiar to most, but if not,

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#11

While I knew this was the theme for Peter Gunn, I’ve never actually watched that - I did, however, play a fair amount of Spy Hunter as a kid. :wink:

As for the technique, if it sounds like you want it to sound, then it is good! It might not cover all the bases, but continually searching for the easiest way to do something is wise… and something I probably should do more myself. haha

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#12

I bookmarked a thread on this here forum where someone had Soundsliced ‘Sails of Charon’.

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