The four states that a pick can have

Playing Technique
#1

I drew a figure that I though was interesting enough to share. I think that the pick can have four states (at rest), where it can be (a) trapped or free, or (b) DWPS or UWPS, hence 4 (= 2 ⨉ 2) combinations are possible. I draw arrows on the enclosed diagram where each arrow represents a single pick motion that hits a string and makes a sound, and one can follow the arrows around to see the legal pick activities.

Fig. 1 shows the two free states and the two trapped states.

Fig. 2 shows the two DWPS states and the two UWPS states.

Fig. 3 shows double-escaped picking (aka cross picking), note the pick slant flips back-and-forth (it seems to, but is that true?).

Fig. 4 shows DWPS, note the loop at the bottom, that’s sweeping (the pick stays trapped).

Fig. 5 shows UWPS.

Fig. 6 shows 2WPS, I think that the switch between them happens while the pick is trapped (at least for how I do it).

Fig. 7 shows two hypothetical new lines that I think exist, this is basically something like a rest stroke and then rotating one’s forearm to change the pick slant to get ready for an escape.

I think this is about right?

IMG_0268
IMG_02684032×3024 1.56 MB

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#2

Hey there, pardon my confusion and the dumb questions… but I’m just trying to understand the diagram… What are the dots representing? are they contact points on a string? Is the line a string, and fig 1 is horizontal string, and fig 2 a vertical one? Thanks, man!

#3

I only know about two states:
a) lost
b) still in your hand.

Jokes aside,

I believe it could be represented by vertical and horizontal axis, where Y is either free or trapped and X is either DWPS or UWPS,

so:

  • fig 3 shows transition between DPS and UPS while pick is free;
  • fig 4 shows transition between pick being free/trapped while DWPS etc.
#4

Please accept my apologies for a terrible explanation, it is often the case that somebody doing something thinks it is really obvious when in reality it is merely only obvious to them. I’ll explain the entire picture. This is a general type of illustration called a “state diagram,” and it represents four abstract states where the pick is at rest: (1) upper left is DWSP pick that is free, (2) lower left is DWPS pick that is trapped [inside the strings], (3) upper right is UWPS pick that is free, and (4) lower right is UWPS pick that is trapped. The place that you put the dots is up to you, but think of them as being labeled: Being too lazy to describe each one, I tried to arrange them in a way that made sense to me (pretty much attempted by Fig. 1 and Fig. 2). Now let’s consider regular DWPS as an example:

The pick always is DWSP, so it can only be on the left. (1) is where you start, and (2) is where you’re trapped. The pick usually goes back-and-forth between those two states, but sometimes one does a sweep, and that’s going from trapped-to-trapped, and that’s the little circular loop on (2).

These figures are also missing a START label on each one, and in this case it was also “obvious” (sorry), it should start one at (1) or (3) if it makes sense.

#5

You are right! Fig. 3 is cross-picking (I think the pick really does transition in terms of its orientation, and I had never thought of that before trying to draw the picture). Fig. 4 is indeed the classical “DWPS playing style.” (More bad English on my part, I use “DWPS” to mean how the pick is held, and also “DWPS” to mean “the playing style that we call DWPS.”)

#6

…and, if you probability-weight them, essentially all picks are lost picks.

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#7

…and, if you go full quantum, all states (however improbable) exist (including lost and found) in the pick-wave function, and it is only our observation which makes it a pick.

As such, jokes on you pickslanters for your picks are not real and thus I demand a full refund.

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#8

I would go even as far as to say “all picks are lost until proven otherwise”.

Now, back to the topic:

I don’t quite see the point of overthinking it (but I mostly play furious tremolo-picked lines and feral scale patterns, so I might be wrong) - for me (at this point at least) it is really quite intuitive to slant the pick in whichever direction, allowing for easier escape. Granted, I am not the fastest player out there, but I do believe that overthinking and overanalysing it will do more harm.

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#9

Really, the secret is there is no pick.

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#10

Sorry, I also forgot to mention that this is not an invention at all, it’s just a compact summary of many of the CtC discoveries.

(Fig. 7 is a little hypothetical, however.) I’m sure that most people would vastly prefer descriptions in English with videos, but once one gets the idea, it’s interesting to see more compact summaries, like the above. (Er, interesting to some people!) :rofl: