Short picking example

So, this is just a brief picking clip. These are some of the patterns that come pretty easily to me, but I’m really a novice at taking video of my playing, or even analyzing my movements in the way you all do around here. With the posting clips discussion that’s happening right now, I wasn’t really sure if I should post this here, so feel free to move it if that’s more appropriate.

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Nice playing! Powerful elbow motion with downward escape (UWPS). The transition to upward escape (DWPS) is very obvious in de ascending parts and the execution seems super solid. There are a few descending (upward) sweeps in the slower pars that I guess you are aware of. It all seems to work really nicely and sounds great!

Was there anything specific you wanted feedback on?

Otherwise I have a question; when using an elbow motion, I think there is consensus that your motion more or less is gonna be downward escape (UWPS) due to how the elbow joint works. So when switching into upward escape (DWPS), does that have to be a different motion mechanic coming into play?

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Thanks for checking it out! I’m looking for feedback on… stuff haha. No basically I’m just trying to find any sort of idiosyncratic things in my playing that are holding back my technique. Since starting to pay attention to the things that Troy’s analysis points to, ive gained at least 10 bpm to my top speed, so I’m pretty convinced that I should keep exploring this.

That said, and with no disrespect at all, I’m going to disagree with the idea that I’m using an elbow mechanic. I’m sure it’s probably related to video quality, but I definitely pick from the wrist.

Well, you’re playing great so just keep exploring! :slight_smile:

Yeah the point of view might throw me off. I guess I detect some elbow due to seeing the arm move together with the hand at each pick stroke. At 0.25 speed it might be easier to see. Troy has said that there are often combinations of motions happening which might be the case here.

At the end of the day it really doesn’t matter as long as it sounds this great and feels good and effortless to you.

Ok I guess these are the things you realize when you let other people look at your playing- there probably is some elbow in the movement. I took another short video from another angle. I slowed it down as well but am having trouble exporting the identical video to YouTube due to stupidity haha. I’ll figure it out- in the meantime, the straight view gives a better look I think.

There is a pretty obvious mistake in this clip.

And the slowed down version:

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Great playing! Yes, there is some elbow motion, and there is also wrist motion. Elbow and wrist operating together is common when it’s a downstroke escape type pickstroke, because that’s how the elbow moves. As @qwertygitarr points out, you’re changing up your form to access upstroke string changes - this is what we’ve called “two-way pickslanting” in various features on the subject. Did you learn this from us or is this just what you figured out on your own? Good work either way.

FYI unless you’re actually filming in slow motion, you don’t have to post a separate slow-motion clip. You can get the same result just by clicking the gear menu in the YouTube player and choosing 25%. However if you do have a 120fps mode on your phone, I recommend using it for much clearer video. When you slow that down, you’ll see a lot less motion blur and way more detail. Here are some more tips:

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Thanks Troy - I appreciate you taking a look. Also, I should say that I really respect your approach to analyzing playing mechanics, and from what I can tell this is a great community of guitar players. I’m looking forward to getting into the other materials you offer.

I’ll look at the video tips and try to fo a better job with the next video- once I figure out some more specific questions.