Before I begin, I want to mention that on my model of phone, you can record slow-motion video in such a way that it will start at normal speed and then go to slow motion at a time that you choose in the app’s editor, so I recorded one video for each motion thinking that I would be able to just upload them with those edits included. However, the changes didn’t save for some reason, so all three videos are entirely in slow motion. Sorry in advance, I’m probably going to look into getting a newer phone for other reasons, anyways.
Since getting the Pickslanting Primer a couple of months ago, I’ve been working on the motions laid out inside and I’ve been getting some nice results. When I took all the motion tests (tapping the tabletop, scribbling, etc.) I got 200+ BPM 16ths speeds in all five motions, so I have pretty good confidence in myself to be able to bring any one of these motions that I’m posting close to those speeds. I got good with what appears to be the DiMeola DSX wrist motion first, followed by DSX elbow, followed by USX forearm(?). I’ve run into a few problems with particularly elbow and forearm motion.
When I perform the elbow motion for an extended period of time, I experience strain in my arm. Most times, it’s in almost exclusively the bicep, which makes sense to me considering what Troy pointed out in his video on the motion (the motion is similar to doing curls at the gym). However, sometimes, it’s the entire elbow/forearm region. It doesn’t start aching until after I finish playing, so it’s very difficult to nail down a precise time it starts aching, but the longest I’ve done the motion is probably around 10-15 seconds continuously and I experienced strain after I did it. It’s not painful and it goes away after a while but I just wanted to ask if this was normal or not, because I was under the impression that, as an end goal, these motions were meant to be effortless. It’s especially concerning to me because, as I pointed out in my introduction topic, before I found Troy’s channel, I watched a video from a metal guitarist named Al Joseph who said he got tendonitis from picking from the elbow, and regardless of whether or not that’s possible, I would like to avoid tendonitis, as I would imagine most people would. Below is the video of me doing elbow motion. To me, it looks like I’m doing it exactly like taught in the Primer, but please point out anything wrong that you see that you may think be causing the strain. I haven’t been able to measure the speed of my elbow motion, but normally it’s above 180 BPM 16ths.
If I’m not able to get rid of the strain in the elbow, I might switch over to my DiMeola, because it’s the next fastest motion I can do. The fastest I’ve been able to do it was around 170 BPM 16ths. As a personal goal, I’m trying to reach a steady, constant 180 BPM 16ths with any motion before moving on to more complicated things. Since I already reached above that speed with elbow, I would be satisfied if it weren’t for the strain I mentioned earlier. Below is the video of me doing DiMeola wrist motion.
Since both of the above motions are DSX, I wanted a USX motion so that I could be able to do those kind of lines later down the road, so I experimented with what I think is forearm motion after seeing the in-depth video on Olli Soikkeli’s picking technique and I was able to get that up to a speed slower than my DiMeola, but still faster than string hopping speeds. When I tried wrist motion in the supinated arm position, I got the same speeds that I did for this motion, so I went with this one because it’s what Soikkeli seemed to be using. Below is the video of me doing the “forearm” motion. It’s the one I’m least experienced with so far, so it’s a little sloppy in the beginning, but I hit a stride about 20 seconds in. Let me know if what I’m even doing is forearm motion, because I’m not sure. I don’t see any movement in the “wiggle zone”, which is why I ask.
Lastly, I wanted to develop a fast double-escape to be able to do complicated string shifts later on. Whenever I try doing the motion based on the arc it makes, I get string hopping, which is why I at least remember somewhere in the CTC material Troy saying not to do that. I’m aware that DBX is not going to ever be as fast as something like DSX elbow without serious, serious work, but I was wondering if there was a specific motion, based on what I’ve shown here, that’s capable of doing it relatively fast, or if that’s just something that I have to discover on my own with experimentation shifting between the different motions.
Also, let me know if there’s anything else I need to mention that I either forgot or didn’t think was important enough to include.
Thanks in advance!
