Right hand technique - problems with three note per string scales

Playing Technique
#1

Hi everybody,…

I m playing on a Gibson and a Godin multiac duet ambiance nylon

My main problem :

Playing a scale starting from e low string to e high string / three notes per string

I try to find a position to be relaxed…
I choosed to be like joscho…
My pick is on the middle of my thumb , my arm is floating with a open hand resting lightly on the guitar…(no pinkie like carl miner)
In this position my pick is naturally in a position of downward pickslanting…so when i do alternate picking my pick offers too much resistance when i switch string below…I use for the movment a rotation of my forearm.

So i tried like Carl Miner…pinkie to be more flat on the string with the pick and a back and forth / flexion extension movment but to gain speed it’s seems impossible to me…

And with the two methods i described it’s always very awkward between/inside the G and B string.

So i tried to anchor my hand on the bridge near the e low string and not moving my forearm only the wrist…I changed the position of my pick more on the tip of the index and thumb like albert Lee. But it’s worth when i want to reach the higher strings…i feel really uncorfortable.

So same thing but anchoring on the bridge between the D and G string. It’s seems to be a little bit better but nothing more.

To finish i tried in each position two way pick slanting and as usual it becomes very difficult on the higher strings B and E.

I play always diagonnally on the strings. Never vertically. ( i notice people do that when they anchor on the two first low strings E and A. It’s ok to play the other one but to avoid muting E and A you have to rest above with your thenar eminence. Descending it’s ok but ascending you have to go acroos and it’s weird)

I am totally stuck !!! :smiley:

Thank you for your answers !!!

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#2

Hey, thanks for posting! One suggestion would be trying with a more neutral pickslant. Have you tried the “double escape” wrist motion, combining DSX and USX so you escape on all pickstrokes? See the wrist motion section:

Also I think it would be a lot easier to get you helpful answers with some video, as it’s hard to really know what the issue is without seeing it :slight_smile: Give this a shot if you can, we have some details here on how to make a #technique-critique post and film your playing:

1 Like
#3

Hello there. I used to anchor my pinky like John Petrucci. Very recently (3 months back) I switched my picking technique so that my whole hand floats. I keep my fingers curled in a relaxed manner (very similar to how Paul Gilbert picks) and the heel of my palm rests on the bridge in such a way that all strings lower than the one I am currently playing are muted.

The biggest change I have made is that previously my thumb and first finger were free to move and not in contact with the second finger. So the motion I previously made came from both wrist deviation and finger deviation. I felt that it made my picking inconsistent. Now my thumb-first finger is always in contact with my second finger which in turn is in contact with my ring finger. So my fingers now form a single unit and the motion is almost exclusively from my wrist with the exception that sometimes I make some motion at my thumb joint to escape the strings especially during one note per string crosspicking. You can give this a try.

The thing I had to relearn is string tracking with a combination of arm movement from the elbow and shoulder joint. Earlier I used my anchored pinky to track the strings.