Hello dear friends… recently i’ve been practcing a chromatic exercise made well known by John Petrucci… I start with an upstroke using DSX. I noticed that strings no.4,5 an 6 are harder to pick when i try to get faster beecause they are thicker. it doesn’t seem to createa problem when i use USX because of the momentum created by my wrist probably…i tried different angles (with DSX) etc to overcome this problem… but also wanted to ask you what do you think is a good way to solve this problem
Are you sure it’s because the strings are thicker? Might it be that your picking hand is in a different position on those strings and the picking angles are causing garage spikes or some other hindrance?
I recommend you post a video to get more targeted help. Since you’re an MIM member, you can post a technique critique and get help from Troy and Tommo directly.
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The tension is approximately constant across a typical set of strings, so they should be somewhat similar. You can check in detail with a calculator like this, look at the tension column on the very right:
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John Taylor tremolo picking 16ths at 250 on a low B string in the Obsidian seminar proves string thickness shouldn’t matter so much.
Just a theory here and feel free to correct me
I assume it is also a fretting hand exercise
What do you think about your fretting hand,by that i mean with thicker strings you have to press harder to get a good note
In such case isn’t it more of a fretting hand weakness,thicker strings tire your hand faster and by that it puts a limiter in a way where your coordination tells you to slow you picking one to keep up?
Either way interesting topic
I’d dare to say the difficulty to play the lower strings has more to do with the angle of attack than your string gauge.
Do you relocate your hand as you reach different strings or does the hand remain in the same place?
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hello…my wrist tends to stay in the same location only moving up and/or down (tracking the strings). the pick touches the strings at where the middle single coil pick up is. i start on the 6th string and by the time i get to the 1 st string tip of the pick is approx 1 cm closer to the bridge ( creating an arc between 6th and 1 st strings)
a coupe of days ago i tried practicing in bursts, keeping my wrist very loose and only the tip of the pick touchng the strngs. this is allowe me to speed up easier but it is quite difficult to get even pick strokes and fluid string transitions especially on the thicker strings. i guess it will take some pactice and time. i don’t mind putting in the effort as long as i know if i am progressing in the right direction.what do you suggest?
I suggest you post a video. We can’t help until we see what you’re doing. Verbal descriptions aren’t precise or accurate enough.
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