Questions re: 2WPS for primary elbow DSX player, and string shift timing

Playing Technique
#1

Two more or less unrelated questions here.

  1. I’m finding it tough to go back and forth between ascending and descending with string changes due to the timing of when I move my arm up/down to change strings. As a DSX player, it feels natural while descending to make the global arm shift at the moment that I hit the new string (if that makes sense). So a 4 note per string pattern descending would be: Up, Down, Up, Down, then Up to hit next string (with simultaneous arm shift to line up with next string in the same motion). Ascending would be: Up, Down, Up, Down (w/ arm shift in same motion, then Up on next string. This feels right in each case on its own because of the economy of movement and changing strings with respect to stroke direction, but together it is tough to string together (pun intended) because from a rhythmic standpoint the arm shift to another string doesn’t land on the same note in the 4 note sequence when ascending vs descendi. Hopefully I’m describing this in a way that makes sense. How have others navigated this? Perhaps it just boils down to more practice.

  2. As a person who does elbow picking at the really high speeds (vs wrist 2 o’clock at more moderate speeds) with DSX, I’m having trouble figuring out how to incorporate 2WPS for odd numbered runs per string. How have other elbow pickers navigated this? I’m having trouble figuring out how to incorporate a USX as a modification to elbow picking at really high speeds. If my high speed DSX was wrist I think it would be different, but since it’s elbow based (which by nature involves a shallow DSX) it seems like a tougher nut to crack. What does a world class picker like Rusty Cooley do with his odd numbered runs to get around this?

Appreciate any insight you guys can give me :slight_smile:

Thanks!

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#2

I’m using a slight rotational movement to do the string shifts after an upstroke. It works more cleanly on descending lines, on ascending runs sometimes it turns into a swiping motion.

#3

I’ve started experimenting with swiping on a descending fours pattern. Feels very odd at first. Clean string changes in general are pretty tough for me. When I’m at really fast speed I feel like there is always a flubbed or skipped note when making the change. I’m trying some exercises of just doing a moderate tremolo on a string and then going up and down a string and just keeping the strings muted so I can clearly hear the percussive hit on the string and going back and forth and seeing if I can make it seamless. Feels like that might be a good building block exercise for string changing at really high speed.

#4

Swiping doesn’t really work on descending lines with elbow motion as far as I know.

#5

Isn’t that fundamentally what Michael Angelo Batio does though? IIRC, in that segment of Antigravity Troy talks about how he uses swiping exclusively on all descending lines and only does the 2WPS on ascending lines.

#6

Do you have tabs?

I think as long as the changes are on the outside of the strings, swiping “works” regardless of the joint used to drive the motion. Whether or not it feels good to each player is probably a different matter :slight_smile: I know we’ve got footage of Michael Angelo swiping when he descends (outside changes though) and he’s got elbow in the mix when he goes his fastest.

#7

I’ll have to check. It should be one of the clips on the swiping segment of Antigravity

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#8

Ah okay, I’ll re-watch those clips then, sorry for the confusion.