Shawn Lane Dart Thrower Picking

Technique Critique
#1

I’ve been continuing to lean into pronated picking and noticed my pick slant is going back to trailing edge on its own, so I’m further leaning into that to pretty damn good results I think

I’ve mentioned before that prior to heavily retraining my playing I previously gravitated towards this

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bvxc2h5Fofn/?igshid=MWI4MTIyMDE=

My main drawback is still that I feel that palm muting isn’t quite as easy across all the strings with it, but for lower string riffing I can easily still mute just fine.

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#2

Sounding great! I might be seeing this wrong, but are you actually in a slightly supinated arm position? I think I can see a bit of the underarm :thinking:

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#3

I think that’s just the camera angle plus the angle of the strandberg? My thumb heel is definitely pushing on the bridge and no other part of my palm is, and my radius is touching too, but my ulnar side is lifted up.

Thinking about that one, maybe I’m more heavily supinated in my other form of picking that I thought, but now I’m not sure. I can try getting video from some more angles and see.

@tommo should this move to technique critique?

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#4

Cool video. Are you using economy in those licks?

#5

Indeed. Those are some pretty damn good results! Way back in the day I did a trailing edge grip. I’ve overhauled so much about my picking since finding CtC, but I threw that out early on. I’d thought I didn’t know how to do a dart thrower motion, but in another thread Troy mentioned I was using one. As per usual, what’s really happening and what I think is happening aren’t the same lol. Your post makes me wanna go back and revisit trailing edge and see if I can get this happening. Maybe first I should keep pushing forward with DBX though. Maybe. Little side projects are always fun.

Anyway, killer playing and speed! Keep it up.

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#6

No economy at all as far as I’m aware, it’s all DSX and it’s usually USX economy that I do without realizing it so I’m pretty confident there isn’t any accidental economy

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#7

The first descending scale you do around the 1 second mark definitely looks like economy, but if it works, it works. Nice playing!

#8

Agree, this looks more supinated.

Sounds great though, the tone and phrasing is giving me Chris Poland vibes! He also does trailing edge with similar technique from the looks of it.

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#9

I’m gonna try and get something similar recorded more up close and personal on the picking hand her momentarily

#10

Are you getting a magnet? It’d be super cool to see some of your stuff from those angles.

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#11

Awesome playing!

It does not look dart-thrower to me. That would produce a more USX trajectory, but this looks like DSX to me.

But it doesn’t really matter since the results are awesome and you seem good at instinctively choosing the right picking patterns for your motions :+1:

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#12

I am not using a magnet though I plan on ordering one whenever they are generally available outside of the original batch, strategically placing a phone mount near the fretboard and I think that’s also impacting my form a bit as well - but here’s an attempt at comparing what I thought was pronated form and what I thought was my lightly supinated form.

Each video is full speed followed by 1/3 speed

The second one feels like more effort than the first

Originally it bothered me that I instinctively have an economy escape for outside changes, now it seems like something to lean into more. It seems like it doesn’t matter which primary escape mechanic I use, I’ll throw in a double upstroke on DSX just like I’ll throw in a double down stroke I’m USX without really realizing it or planning anything out.

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#13

@tommo But wait - Troy explains 1003/DT at 46:00 in with the thumb heel anchored on the string, this seems like a DSX motion even more so than 902, 10’ would stick even further out from the strings on a down stroke than 9’

Also I want to point out you can still see the inside of Troy’s forearm in some of these, because of the filming angle - the distinguishing characteristic is that looking down at the forearm, the exterior of it slopes away from the body of the guitar. Mine does this when I’m playing in the form I used for the original video.

#14

For sure I could be wrong! I’ll take another look tomorrow :+1:

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#15

I think the second set of videos it’s a bit easier to see the outside of my forearm is pronated than in the first angle - still not ideal but you can kind of get a sense of it in the background

#16

Last thought before going to sleep: apart from the specific joint motion, were you expecting primary dsx or usx? You could test either with some good old 2nps on two adjacent strings starting first on up and then on down.

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#17

I was expecting primary DSX, which is what I think I’m getting in those videos, the portion that was pointed out as economy was descending which also implies it’s not USX.

#18

You know what’s crazy is I never went and listened to Chris Poland closely outside of some of his megadeth solos before this comment, and that’s a shame because he sounds friggin awesome.

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#19

Aha, I see the source of confusion!

By imagining throwing an imaginary dart (or a real one but be careful*), dart-thrower should be something like 10(upstroke) - 4(downstroke). So, even in a mildly pronated setup this should give rise to a USX picking motion.

the 10-3 you are referring to, in a pronated setup, is a double-escaped pickstroke where the upstroke is 10(dart-thrower) and the downstroke is approx. 3 (pure deviation, which would give escaped downstroke if you are pronated).

Hence, if you are doing DSX here the motion is probably not dart-thrower (or at least not all the way).

Another way to read this: I’m envious of your awesome playing here, so the only thing I can critique is: “it’s not the one you think! disqualified! :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:”

*CTC does not accept responsibility for where you throw your darts!

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#20

At least with my wrist, it’s more vertical than that. More like 10:30 to 4:30 or even 11 to 5.

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