Suggestion for picking technique

Playing Technique
#1

Hi!

Is there anybody that can help out me out? I am struggling to find a picking technique that works for a short lick. The lick is on the E and B string and is as follows:

E ----12-------------------------13---------------------------15---------------------------------17
B----------15----14----15------------15----14----15-----------------15----14----15---------

If I play the whole lick applying USX/DWPS/edge picking and play the first four notes as follows U, D, U, D, I assume I would need to apply “stringhopping” to play the fifth note (E13) with an upstroke? If I would play the fifth note (E13) with a downstroke I assume the “stringhopping” would turn up when I’m playing the sixth note (B15)?

If I instead would apply DSX/UWPS/edge picking and play the first four notes as follows U, U, D, U, I would not be in a position to play the fifth note (E13) with UWPS.

Would two-way pickslanting work/how? Is there any other technique that may work?

Suggestions appreciated.

#2

Many common options for this. Teemu plays something very similar to this in our interview:

If you watch this in slow motion you can see he’s using a wrist motion for the G string notes, and combination wrist/forearm motion for the isolated top note. This motion allows him to get over the string and hit the note at the same time. Then he goes back to the wrist motion to play the G string notes again.

You can call this “two way pickslanting”, but honestly I think that just overcomplicates things. And I say this as the guy who created the term! The simpler way to think about this is just that you’re using these two different motions — the wrist one, and then the forearm one for the isolated note.

You can also do the same exact thing Teemu is doing without involving the arm, or with less arm involvement, by using two wrist motions — one for the G string notes, and a different one for the B string note. That’s why when players like Steve Morse and Albert Lee play lines like this, you don’t see the arm twisting around.

Same approach either way, in concept. Two motions combining to play the line. For more detailed instructions on the wrist approach, you can check out the new “wrist motion” section in the Pickslanting Primer, which goes into the most step-by-step detail we have for making both of these motions work:

But no preferece here, ultimately. Teemu’s approach sounds great and he’s super fluid with it.

#3

Thanks Troy! I pick with the trailing edge and noticed that you added a section regarding this.

#4

We did add a chapter to the grip section, and also to the “Edge Picking” chapter in pick design. What we haven’t done is added a chapter to the “wrist motion” section showing how trailing affects, or perhaps doesn’t affect the motions themselves. Effectively, I would say it really doesn’t. It certainly feels different with the thumb bent that way, but it’s still just basically the wrist moving back and forth doing one of the three core motions - usx, dsx, or double escape:

Are you using wrist motion with this or something else? If it’s wrist, I recommend checking out the new wrist motion section and getting that centralized arm position that works for both USX and DSX string changes. Once you do that, you can basically access downstroke or upstroke string changes from that arm position, without much more than thinking about the pickstrokes and not worrying so much about the string change itself. You may or may not see some forearm motion when you do that, that’s fine and depends on a number of variables. But in your mind, it’s just downstroke goes one way, upstroke goes the other way.

#5

Thanks Troy. My trailing edge grip resembles the George Benson style as presented in Pick Grip - Chapter 7 - Trailing Edge Grip. The wrist is flexed with radical deviation/almost horisontal with the strings at the downstroke start. Further, the pinky is used for anchoring. I was a CTC subscriber a couple of years ago and based on the terminology used at that time I would refer to me as a DWPS also trying to apply UWPS. I recently started to subscribe again and have started taking a look at the pickslanting primer incl. wrist motion which you suggested. I think I am primarily using USX but sometimes it looks like stringhopping… When you refer to “centralized arm position” does that refer to the “approach angle” e.g. 60 as set out in the USX motion checklist)?

#6

By centralized arm position I just mean a form where you can have “dwps” and “uwps” without having to change anything about your form other than the way the wrist is moving. The key is using a tilted forearm of some kind, either prontated, lightly supinated, mid supinated, or max supinated. From any of those positions, there are always two different wrist motions you can make that will give you the two types of escape in an efficient manner.

The reason this is not stringhopping is that the tilted arm position allows separate muscles to be used for the upstroke and the downstroke. You can do a consistently fast USX motion, and switch to a consistently fast DSX motion, and back again, and neither one of them will be stringhopping. Here’s what that looks like using a leading edge grip and the lightly supinated arm position:

Approach angle just governs the amount of edge picking, and not the picking motion, so that’s not really what’s allowing the two escapes. It’s the fixed forearm rotation, and then choosing the correct wrist motions that match with that.