Technique in your DNA - 'Unnecessary' reversion to 'Primary' pickslant

Playing Technique
#1

@troy,I’m really starting to make some significant progress with my 2WPS - it is great. I can dissect licks methodically and play them more efficiently and cleanly and can also employ 1WPS pretty well too. However, these are planned licks. I was thinking the other day, how can I get 2WPS to be fully intergrated into my guitar DNA, so that I can play pretty much anything I want- on the fly with 2WPS. I got thinking about primary pickslanting and whether I should always try and get back to it as soon as possible? For example, a long Paul Gilbert pattern that travels up and down 2 string pairs all along the length of the neck can be done with 1WPS only. Would it be better (in terms of taking advantage of chunking already established) that after moving across the first string change (where I have done the ‘up, down and rotate’), should I revert back to my primary pickslant even though this isnt strictly necessary? It seems to me that it would be the natural thing to do… Is this the main function of having a primary pickslant? (Sorry if this is obvious to everyone and I’m being dumb!)

I apologise if the above doesnt make sense, I probably should record an example to better explain!

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#2

If you’re asking me, I will say that there is no such thing as “playing anything you want on the fly”, because everything is at some level rehearsed. From any fret on the board, there are a number of places you can go, and every note you play in a phrase multiplies these possibilities. It is impossible to work out those possibilities in real time, on the fly.

I get that good improvisers experience a sensation of novelty when they play, but even then, the best of the best still make comments to the extent that only a small percentage of the time do they succeed in playing something they don’t recognize. You can check the latest Andy Wood clip I just posted for yet another example of a great improviser with “play anything” levels of 2wps and crosspicking skill, walking us through the process of tossing out picking patterns that are less smooth and choosing ones he thinks are easier. Everyone does this, no matter how good at picking they are. It is the way of things.

So whether your technique is one-way pickslanting, two way, crosspicking, or like most people, some blend of all of the above, it doesn’t matter. It’s not a picking problem, it’s a guitar problem.

If you want to be a great improviser, choose a technique, any technique, whichever one you are currently best with, and begin building rehearsed and semi-rehearsed lines that connect to each other across the the fretboard. Then start mixing and matching them and their parts. Over time the feeling of “rehearsed-ness” will go away, and you’ll start mixing and matching smaller parts of things, as Martin Miller describes in the improv interview we did.

But try to separate out the mechanics aspect of this, because once you’re good any of these techniques, you already have enough tools to start playing.

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#3

100% agree that improvisation is quite rehearsed, and your post above is great advice - will take on board and many thanks for replying

Again, it all seems to come back to “get it any way you can by gravitating to what works”. Although it feels strange trying to get something to feel natural via unnatural means (analysis vs pure feel), I’m loving the progress that I’m making and its all thanks to CTC (and my trusty metronome!)

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