Question about Dart Thrower Motion

Playing Technique
#1

Hello everyone !

I’m new here and happy to have found you. I’m a player who naturally uses a dart thrower wrist motion, and I’m confused about how this motion is treated in the Cracking the Code material.

In the Pickslanting Primer, dart thrower and reverse dart thrower are mentioned and defined, but I don’t see a section that actively develops or trains dart thrower motion, in the same way that:

Reverse dart thrower + Forearm/wrist motions are demonstrated in detail in the Picking Motion Tutorials section.

This makes me wonder:

  • Is dart thrower intentionally not trained directly, only identified?
  • If someone already has a working dart thrower motion, should the next step be to focus almost entirely on escape motion (USX / DSX / DBX) rather than trying to develop the motion itself?

Right now, dart thrower seems to be acknowledged conceptually, but not developed pedagogically in the same way as other motions. That’s what has me confused about my development path.

Thanks for your help !

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#2

I guess you could argue that none of the motions are really developed or trained via the CTC material and are simply identified and explained.

Irrespective of your primary motion, you should always work on your tremolo (unless you’re cruising at 200bpm+ with ease) and then of course, working on both USX and DSX lines if your aim is to play anything you would like on the fly.

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#3

I think they are probably planning adding a DT section into the Picking Motion Tutorials in the Primer but it’s just not something they have done yet.

I’ve been working on DT for the last 6 months or so and I switch between tremolo practice and learning fiddle tunes. Probably should put more time into the high speed tremolo stuff as that’s what really made my USX motion click. Even though my tremolo is DSX it seems transfer over to the DBX stuff well and make that playing all feel nicer :slight_smile:

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#4

I deliberately trained the DT motion during the pandemic period. Several upscaled videos of Shawn Lane’s playing were released around this time, and I was able to identify the wrist motion he used for the majority of his playing.

I had used RDT-based picking movements for almost twenty years at that point. The DT movement felt totally alien on guitar at first.

I made this video on dart-thrower motion a couple of years ago.

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#5

Thank you for your replies! Very interesting video also, I’m glad you shared it! I’ll definitively work my tremolo + USX/DSX. I think it’s way better to be versatile with both USX/DSX.

#6

Hey everyone,

Thank you for your insightful comments. I was wondering if it’d make sense to think about dart wrist motion as favoring down stroke escape and reverse dart as favoring up stroke escape. I’m having trouble understanding how to use a dart trajectory with an up stroke escape motion. Let me know if that makes sense to you all. Thanks!

#7

Yeah for DT USX you have to use a trailing edge grip, this is the motion Shawn Lane used :slight_smile:

@Troy showcases it here:

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#8

I was wondering if it’d make sense to think about dart wrist motion as favoring down stroke escape and reverse dart as favoring up stroke escape. I’m having trouble understanding how to use a dart trajectory with an up stroke escape motion. Let me know if that makes sense to you all. Thanks!

In general, my impression is that, if anything, it’s the other way around. I have to actively pronate pretty far for a naive DT pickstroke to even work for an upstroke escape, let alone downstroke. (Disclaimer: I don’t actively practice DT)

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#9

@Scottulus Is this your setup as well? I saw the 3 finger trailing grip in the melodic minor run videos

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#10

Not necessarily.

I have switched to mostly DT and I use something closer to a normal pic grip.

I’ll try to get some video of it, I just need to figure out how to get my phone to stay still.

EDIT: got a video. My apologies for being filmed sideways… and it mostly being bad.

https://youtube.com/shorts/hmncAfCmTCo?feature=share

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#11

@AustinK Yeah, very close to my setup! I lean towards pronation and of course, DSX is my thing. 3 finger grip, trailing edge.

#12

Thanks everyone for your answers.

If I understand correctly what Troy is doing here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WshE4FWkLdo&t=571s) is neither dart nor reverse dart, right?

The movement would seem to come from the forearm rotation, but his palm is still resting on the bridge, even if moves away at some points.