Pickslanting advice

Playing Technique
#1

I’m sure this must have happened to at least someone here.

I’ve been trying to incorporate downward pick slanting to everything I do in my practice routine, but the slant feels so odd against my muscle memory and everything I’ve done on guitar before that I always inadvertently switch back to the almost straight degree angle I’ve always used with my pick. It bugs the hell out of me because I know that straight angle has done more damage than good, but when I try to fix it my right hand just fights against it. So far I have tried to work through it, but it is unspeakably annoying to see my hand switch back to the old position over and over.

I know I have to just keep working on it, but I would like to know if anyone has had this experience and how you worked around it.

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#2

I’m in the same boat as you. Even my tremolo got worse!!! (Not that it was good to begin with). If i do it freely, it is kinda ok, but with the metronome my right arm tense up immediately!

So i’m starting from scratch. Trying to find a DWPS position that works for me. But i can’t find one that feels natural to me.

I’m also trying to switch from elbow to wrist playing, because i feel my tendons are getting overworked all the time.

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#3

Yep, it’s me. Almost zero angle pickslanter. I try to do DWPS, sometimes I have a feeling like I caught it… but as I speed up I return to my old mechanic. However, the very process is interesting. I use my webcam to watch as I’m transiting from one way of picking to another.
Seems like there’s no short ways. I believe that it would be easier if I hadn’t guitar experience at all.

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#4

Yes, that would be nice, a clean slate. Sometimes i’ve got the same small eureka moments, but when speeding up it is gone. I’m also rethinking my way to practice. I used to pick one or two excercises, and stick with these for weeks, but this approach does not seem to work.

Now i’m trying to work in small blocks of three minutes, and do five or six excercises. And repeat this three or four times.

Then i try to work more on soloing and transcription. The hard parts become a new drill for the next day and so on…

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#5

This seems to be a problem for me too. I will try to do what you are doing with the 3-minute blocks and see how it works.

#6

Maybe you just need a more time. I don’t know how mucth time did it take for me - to feel natural with downward pickslanting. Mabe one and half year. Troy said he worked with DWPS ten years before he start to learn UPWARD and TWO WAY stuff.
We have an advantage to use his experience and go the beaten path. But it doesn’t mean that Troy give us a magic spell which work immediately.
From my experience - I watched Volcano seminar dozens of times in order to clear the things out. Even now I use to wach some chapters again. After that cascade and antigravity was much easier to understand and work with, despite the fact that Volcano stuff is my main goal for now.

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#7

This is probably the answer I was looking for. I don’t why I was under the impression that switching to DWPS would constitute a faster transition, but seeing how hard it has been, thinking of it in terms of a year-long (or longer) endeavor gives me hope and a realistic perspective. Thanks, man!

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#8

Yes indeed, thanks!!! Staying on the right path will be easier with this knowlede!!!

As for breaking up in multiple smaller excercise sessions, it helps saving the elbows a lot!!! :relaxed:

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