Strunz and Farah

General Music Discussion
#1

Hi,

This is just a quick email to say how much I enjoyed the above interview which I watched yesterday.

I initially watched it as I had seen a clip where one of the players had been using 4 nps ideas allowing him to start each string with an upstroke. I have recently learned after many many years of playing, that I am, in fact, an upward pick slanter. Not only had I been picking in a way which clearly wasn’t natural for me, and struggling to get any relaxed speed as a result, but I also realised that I have locked myself unwittingly into seeing the fretboard as a series of 3 nps ideas, so every line that I have created has been 3 notes on a string before changing strings. The idea of playing 4, 6, 8, or 10 note ideas before changing strings has been nothing short of totally liberating for me, actually freeing me to create and combine single string ideas to create long flowing lines.

In addition to this, I have found that I am better able to develop speed when I’m sitting on a single string for that bit longer than three notes, allowing my fingers (and brain) to relax into it much more.

I have also found it fascinating to listen to how they throw out ideas which are excessively tricky and keep the pens which naturally flow for them. Obvious as it may sound, I have laboured at lines for many hours, unable to improve them rather than following the idea of binning ones which prove too tricky.

With all of this in mind, I can see many positive and exciting changes on the horizon for my playing, both in terms of technique and also compositionally/improvisationally.

My only regret from the interview is that I couldn’t ask either of the interviewees any questions; I’d pay to sit down with them over some beers and fire questions at them both.

Matt

P.S. I might be wrong, but I have a funny feeling that they met through a mutual friend which might have been my guitar teacher from London many years ago, but might be wrong on that!

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#2

Super nice guys, we enjoyed meeting with them. Ardeshir is active on social media in cultivating lesser-known Iranian musicians and often posts cool stuff on his Instagram so you can check that out too.

Re: “upward pickslanting” just keep in mind when looking at your own technique that what you want to observe is the motion path of the pick, not the pick and whether it appears slanted. If you are a DSX player, you will notice a diagonal motion path:

If you see this — even if the pick appears vertical or some other orientation — this means that for multi-string phrases, the last pickstroke on each string needs to be a downstroke. However if you do not see this, and the motion appears trapped or appears USX, then it doesn’t matter what the pick looks like. The path of the motion is what matters.

Also, when picking on a single string, the line you are playing has zero effect on joint motion speed. If you notice dramatic differences in speed when playing certain phrases on a single string compared to other phrases on a single string, it’s probably because you’re switching the joint motion to stringhopping. This will be obvious from looking at the motion. It will no longer appear diagonal, but semicircular and slow.

TLDR always observe the motion!

#3

Thanks for the reply; I’ll check out the DSX vid too.
I have spent years struggling with shoulder tension when playing; it’s like I continually have to be aware that my shoulder is tensing up when crossing strings or when trying to play really fast. I have noticed over the last few weeks that when I deliberately relax my arm, pick grip and shoulder, that the tension eventually goes and I shred more cleanly and easily. Relaxing, as a way to increase picking speed, isn’t new to me, but I historically had little success at maintaining that. Thankfully now, it appears to be working for me. At a guess though, the shoulder tension thing might have been happening due to spending years unwittingly trying to cross strings at high speed whilst string hopping. My studies and slog at shredding took place in the early nineties, before any serious investigations had even taken place into the mechanics of great players. I guess comfort on a single string might just be that there is simply no string changing (obviously). However, my brain does seem too prefer phrases that start on an upstroke.

I was wondering how I purchase one of the magnets too? I’m struggling to film myself with my phone in a tripod; can’t get the right angle.

I’ll also check out Ardeshir’s Insta channel too.