Reverse Dart Thrower help

Playing Technique
#1

Hey y’all - after reading a lot of the crosspicking conversation and trying some supinated crosspicking I’ve realized that the “reverse dart thrower” movement is the hardest for me. In particular, it feel hard when the upstroke is 2 strings away from the down stroke - like the 4th note of a 3 string roll, again in the supinated position.

I’ve also tried a little of the supinated upward pick slanting and that feels a bit weird. I think I have a problem with the angle of the reverse dart thrower movement because it feel/sounds like I am hitting/poking the string with tip of the pick.

Correct me if I wrong but I feel like this movement is pivotal to getting the supinated crosspicking going - right?

As I’ve practice this movement feel like I’m a little bit better at it - any other tips? thanks!

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#2

This is one of those “post a clip” scenarios!

I don’t perceive “reverse dart thrower” as a specific thing that I do when I play a roll pattern. I just do the complete movement, which is a smooth back and forth motion of the hand. i.e. I cannot feel or percieve its component parts.

Ergo post a clip, we’ll see what the movement looks like. If it’s not smooth, we’ll help you get it smooth.

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#3

Finally getting around to posting a clip - sorry for the lack of quality in the video - hope it’s watchable. This first clip is supposed to be crosspicking with the supinated arm - not sure if I’m still stringhopping. I tried to max out my speed but it got a bit sloppy. The video should start with normal speed, then 1/2 speed and 1/4 speed.

The next video is me trying to do upward pickslanting in the supinated position. I can tell from the video that’s not what I ended up doing - it’s either crosspicking or string hopping.

Observations? Advice?

thanks!!!

2 Likes
#4

This looks great - you’ve got it!

The second clip is the same motion. Notice how, if you look at the pick, you can clearly see it tracing the curved pathway. But if you rewind the clip and look at your knuckles, you almost can’t spot the up and down component of the motion at all. It just looks like back and forth wrist movement. It’s a bit of an illusion, but that’s one of the little tests you can use to tell when you’ve got this working properly. Which it appears that you do.

Over time, I’d just pay attention to smoothness. The forearm is quieter and the motion is a little smoother in the second clip. If you can get the roll pattern movement equally smooth and quiet, with the same “can’t see the up/down” quality of movement, it should feel even a little smoother. Just think about wide left/right movements and try not to worry too much about getting over the string.

Nice work here!

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#5

Thanks so much for the feedback Troy! I am psyched that I’m getting the motion better. I’m definitely stuck at this particular speed - still perplexed at how to build speed? Maybe I’ll develop more facility when my motions smooths out?

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#6

Speed looks good here, I really wouldn’t worry too much about that. I think a lot of people would like to confidently be able to play these types of rhythm parts at the speed you’re demonstrating. Instead I would focus on eliminating the stray motions which will make the whole thing more smooth. You might gain some speed out of that too, but more importantly you’ll be able to do this with the most consistent note attack possible, and the least possible effort, without really feeling any sort of strain in the movement over sustained lengths of time.

You might need some trial and error for this, at different speeds, to get things totally ironed out. Filming helps, or mirror practice, or just looking down at your hand occasionally. Again, focus on wide left/right and don’t worry too much about getting over the string.

We’ve been saying ‘902’ for this but that’s just an approximation to get the concept across. It may be that there are slightly different versions of this, some flatter than others, which are a little faster. Like a 9-0-2:30. Doesn’t really matter what you call the numbers, just so we’re clear on the concept of the movements being different on each side of the zero. So in other words, try seeing if you can get a slightly flatter version of this happening, in conjunction with your smoothifying practice.