I’m jumping full in to Cracking the code . I’ve been seriously working on alternate picking for about a year now (playing 27 years), and I still cant get it to flow live naturally, as I haven’t properly address technique and positioning. I almost lose ALL my picking abilities when playing live.
I definitely feel better switching on an upstroke, but i have some UWPS in there too i think. This is the first time in my playing that i’m putting serious effort into wrist motion as opposed to forearm. If these clips can shed ANY light I would be very happy to hear comments. FWIW I find the Pop Tart lick and the Yngwie 6 note patters pretty natural…the rest…
It’s hard to say anything about the actual mechanics of your picking from this perspective. But you seem to have found a motion that is really fast. That’s good! Only you can tell if the motion feels good though.
It’s also hard to say how well you actually pick these lines as the sound is both muffled and VERY distorted and compressed. There are good reasons for practising with that amount of gain, but it’s more for checking your muting capabilities, I think.
I would say that most of the times the syncronisation is spot on, but also times where it’s very loose and inaccurate. I would suggest using a less distorted sound and see how things feel. It’s terrifying but very good for you.
I think the main issue here is you’re not providing much direction as to the feedback you’re looking for. It sounds like you’re just kind of going for it and playing a variety of stuff here in no particular order. Instead, it’s more helpful if you’re like, ok, I’ve watched the Primer and I’m working on USX wrist motion, and here’s an example of a phrase that uses that, am I doing this correctly? That’s a question I can answer really specifically and quickly without having to guess.
We do have a section on filming your playing which has a few tips on camera setup. The “down the strings” angle is the one most players are used to looking at because you can see the pickstroke type (USX, DSX etc.) that way. More details on that here:
The angle you’re using here is also helpful but I would want to see more of the arm in the shot, which will tell us whether you’re doing forearm, elbow, wrist, etc.
But in general, I think the content of what you’re playing is the most important aspect. What joint motion are you working on here (elbow, forearm, wrist, etc.), which pickstroke type are you trying to make (USX, DSX, etc.) and what challenges are you facing. The easier you make it for us to critique, the better feedback we’ll be able to provide!
In general, I agree with @qwertygitarr’s feedback — your motion is smooth and fast, and your attack sounds pretty consistent. You definitely don’t have a stringhopping problem. Anything you learn from here on out is probably more about cleaning up a little by doing less noodling and playing slightly more structured lines. You want to know exactly how many notes are in the phrases you’re going for, and exactly which pickstrokes are being used for those notes, especially the string changes. Your playing can still be spontaneous, but that spontaneity will be cleaner because the individual phrases and phrase fragments you’re mixing and matching will be locked down tighter.
Otherwise the foundations here look and sound pretty good to me already. Nice work.
Thanks a ton for taking the time to listen and reply! there is definitely a lack of synchronization as some positions start to toll on my left hand, and I will practice more with less gain and see where it gets me…PS the muffled and compressed sound is mostly because you are hearing the laptop speakers shooting from behind the phone. When i film next I’ll make sure the setup sounds clearer.
Troy first its an honor for me to have you listen and give me any level of a positive review - thank you! So a few points: 1)I suppose my intent with posting these was to get a general idea of where I’m at and if there is something glaring i am doing right or wrong. eg. “you won’t get full speed or you can hurt yourself, too much forearm, etc” 2) Since joining here my intent has been to focus on wrist movement as much as possible so I am trying to see if the movement is fluid ( I know realize that much of what I thought was wrist movement was really 20 percent wrist 80 percent forearm/elbow). 3)I definitely struggle with USX more (I think most people do) 4)I have a very hard time replicating asceding picking lines live. In fact most speed picking live is very hard for me and I was trying to figure out if maybe changing my picking technique would resolve that as opposed to different guitars/positions/strap heights.
If any of these points can be addressed by the videos i made, please share your thoughts. And absolutely, it’s all about playing and creating structured and musical lines-so I’m glad I’m here. Now all that being said, I will look to make a clearer video over the next week or two. THANKS AGAIN! Ari
