Ping Pong Sixes UWPS
If I naturally gravitate towards UWPS and do not want to start on an up stroke for this 6 note lick, is it technically ok to start on a down stroke and pull off on the last note of each string to preserve changing on a down?
I ask because I did this and played faster and cleaner than ever before. Since I am new to Cracking the Code, I don’t want to start any bad habits before I am able to get through this mountain of material.
When you do this you are making it a lot easier for yourself as the hardest part is obviously the string change and when you pull off to the last note you basically have double the amount of time to change strings. This is not bad from a musical point of view, however, if you want to practice your picking technique you are kind of skipping the most important part when doing this. When you don’t want to go for a dwps method but want to pick all notes, you can easily flip the pattern by using an upsweep on the first string change like so:
This is basically the old yngwie sweep trick but applied in the uwps-world where you can only sweep to a lower string. The only part where you really have to do a pull off in uwps-mode is when you start that pattern on the lower string:
But there is nothing wrong with starting this lick on an upstroke which puts you directly into the correct starting position, the other 2 approaches only manipulate the first string change in a way so you end up with an upstroke at the beginning of the 2nd pattern.
Thank you Maximal for your very thorough response. Last night I play sextuplets at 120 BMP which I have never done in years of playing with the pull off method. I will try strict UWPS tonight.
Another question is if I am doing 3 note per string run with 3 notes on each string (e.g., major Ionian scale), I have to either use a hammer on/pull off or a sweep pick? Is this correct since I don’t have an even number of notes in the chunk?
That’s really nice, those hybrid approaches can be a cool way to play fast without worrying to much about string changes. Don’t get discouraged by the pure alternate picking version though, if it feels a lot harder that’s probably because it really is 
Well 3 nps is really diving deep into the world of two way pickslanting, you can find some information in this video:
You can in theory pick only the first 2 notes, but this will not give you the mab/gilbert alternate picking sound. When you play 6 nps licks and use legato for the last note you still pick 5 out of 6 notes, but for 3nps stuff you only pick two thirds and in the most extreme case for 2nps licks you will only pick half of your notes which will create a much different sound than pure alternate picking. If you want to play 3nps licks with pure alternate picking you NEED twps (or maybe crosspicking but I can not tell you too much about that in a scale context).
For the descending one there is also a economy version that allows you stay in the uwps world but I can’t think of a way to get something similar in the ascending direction without dwps in an yngwie style.
Thanks so much for the info. I guess what I am hearing is that even though I am an UWPS player, I need to learn DWPS and employ both depending on the scenario so I can play strict alternate picking. is this correct?
I recall in the Volcano series Yngwie used the pull-off to avoid that when his pick was in the wrong direction. I guess he only pickslanted one way…
Just watched the MAB video. Going to give the rotation a try tonight and see if I can pull it off.
Troy is right about all these books that we had back in the day but none of this insight about pick rotation, DWPS, UWPS was discussed. I always figured some people just had it and others did not.
Cracking the Code should be mandatory at all music schools for guitarists .
That’s correct. Honestly, first things first. The most important thing is to verify that you can do one-way playing, and that the string changes are smooth, easy, and clean, with no jumping motions of the hand. Based on the clips you have posted, I don’t think we have actually done that yet.
The best thing to do, before you do anything else, is try some one-way uwps type phrases and make sure they are really working. These two are the simplest:
These patterns start on downstrokes and never change, so you can lock up the initial downstroke each time the pattern starts. Something like the Yngwie pattern does not work because the pattern is entirely on a single string, and always starts on an upstroke if you do it with uwps.
Again, the goal here is smoothness, no jumping motions, and moderate speed or faster. Give that a shot and make sure everything is working.
Hopefully this video is helpful in determining my pick slant. Sorry for the ruckus in the background. Getting close to bed time for my daughter…LOL
Thanks for posting! These look in the ballpark. Can you tell by feel / sound if you clearing the strings on the string changes?
The second thing I’d look at is the motion. Are you attempting any specific picking motion or just not thinking about it? Because this looks like elbow to me. The descending side looks more elbow to me, the ascending side looks like perhaps a combination of elbow and wrist. There is nothing wrong with blends of motions, lots of players use them. But it can be confusing when your motion changes as you play, because it makes phrases feel different and you sometimes don’t know why they feel different.
Have you watched the “Intro to Picking Motion” talk yet? That’s here:
Based on your current form, I’d take a look at the elbow and wrist sections and try to see if you can do this same phrase that you’re doing here, but with each of those motions. In the wrist section I’m specifically referring to the “upward pickslanting” motions used by McLaughlin and Andy Wood. That, or elbow uwps. You don’t have to choose one or the other just yet, but try to get comfortable with learning to do a specific motion deliberately, so that if you try to the play this phrase with elbow, it looks like elbow, and if you switch to wrist, it looks like wrist. Lots of uwps players mix and match the two, and you may eventually decide to do that too. But this is an exercise in coordination, and learning to distinguish what different motions feel like so that you can do them on command.
Then the next thing I’d do is find or write some cool phrases that work with uwps so you have fun stuff to practice. Meaning, phrases that use only downstroke string changes, and nothing else. This way you don’t have to worry about the motions, you can just play naturally and let them become habitual. There are a bunch of those in the Primer right here, just to get you started:
Good work!
Thanks Troy - Thankfully I am clearing the strings when using UWPS. As far as picking motion I dont really think about it. I noticed it was smoother later in the evening (less elbow and more wrist). I was kind of nervous with video taping myself and being evaluated so I felt stiff and not at all relaxed,
I will watch the intro to picking tonight. I dont know how I missed this one. Thanks so much for the feedback. This is the best site I have ever been a part of.
Roger
