Yeah that’s really weird that he would advise against that then. I will say the weird thing I’m seeing here is that his thumb doesn’t bend. It’s different than the “trigger pull” thumb index finger motion. I don’t even think I can do this thumb motion with a straight thumb
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Was playing around with that lick last night. Maybe I was tired and towards the end of my practice but it was hard! He plays it so evenly and smoothly. Playing that lick in D like he did is a weird spot for the fingers. Gotta try it on my better guitar
I’m only guessing but maybe it’s contextual??? Ex: someone on here posts a critique where they’re trying to do forearm rotation and it’s not working. They also post an attempt of elbow based motion and it looks/sounds/feels great. Anyone on here and Troy himself would obviously say “throw out that forearm motion, it’s not working. Your elbow thing is awesome, do more of that”
In that case it’s not Chris saying that the thumb/index motion is bad , just that for the player in question, it’s not working so do something else instead. Cuz yeah, otherwise that is pretty hypocritical lol!
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That’s what I’m thinking too. If what he saw wasn’t working well, then he might say that just isn’t gonna work… not necessarily talking about the joints in general though
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Very true. And could def be the case. I like Chris brooks to have bought a couple of his books. Enjoy those lick videos he posts. I really wanna leave work early and go work on that lick haha
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Does he talk about his own picking mechanic at all in his books, that you’ve seen? It’s kind of perplexing to me; I can’t mimic it because I’m not really sure what’s going on… I’ve done a brief scan of a few of his books on Amazon, just what was available to read for free, and the info on mechanics looked pretty general - but perhaps the good stuff is behind the pay wall.
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It’s been awhile but from what I remember, it’s good material like he knows his stuff, but it’s generally nothing you couldn’t find here or from his videos. What is perplexing about his technique to you?
Just his picking motion in general, like how he is using thumb-index. It looks to me like maybe (really pulling this out of my ass) flexor pollicis brevis for downstroke and abductor pollicis brevis for upstroke, or in normal human speech the muscles right beneath the thumb, and away from the guitar I can do this pretty damned fast. Can’t actually make it happen on the guitar, though. lol
Yeah that’s what I was trying to say abover. His thumb motion with the straight thumb, almost looks like a chopping sort of motion. I can do it with my thumb alone but not while hold a pick lol. I can do the bent thumb one just fine
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I have invested almost zero time in it, but this thumb/index motion is the only one (of the “main” or “popular”) motion mechanics I can’t do. I can do a wrist DSX, I am CLOSE to making wrist USX feel normal, I can do wrist/forearm blend USX, I can sort of do DBX, and then elbow DSX feels really natural. I can also do elbow trapped lol! and elbow ‘occasional’ USX lol (zakk wylde-ish). That thumb / index thing though…I just can’t generate any speed.
Rick graham does it very well too. Have you
Guys tried this Chris brooks lick yet. Curious what fingers y’all use for it
Oh c’mon he doesn’t count. Rick is awesome at everything lol
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That is the boat I’m in. I’m most proficient at DSX wrist, but I have varying capability at all the other typical motions (and I was very strong with elbow DSX at one point, but don’t use it anymore). But I straight up cannot make the Brooks style mechanic work, which leads me to believe some critical detail in its application is missing from my knowledge.
This is more academic than anything, I’m not desperately trying to master it… it just bothers me that I don’t “get it”. lol
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Ok so I have posted that Cesario Filho etude a few times on this forum. But even Cesario if you watch his older video compared to his newer stuff. He seems to kind of have a more Michael Romeo thumb, but now does more of the bend thing. The best way to try to perceive this technique is to realize the thumb is in control on the ascending phrasing, and the index during the descending phrasing. It would be best to just try to run up and down a 3nps economy scale with this technique, and do not change slant. Think of it as the thumb is pushing the pick through the string during the ascending phrasing, and during the descending the index is pushing the pick through the string.
Also during inside and outside string changes the index finger and thumb are going to be raising up. meaning the thumb (if right hand picking) will shift right and the index will pull back. Think of it like tapping the pick as the table tap test, but keeping the wrist heel planted, this is what the index and thumb will look like when changing strings. It will be more subtle, but that is the motion that will happen, of course it will be more of a curvature to the trajectory between point a of one string to point b of the other, but this motion in isolation looks like if you did table tapping test with it.
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I’ve even watched Andy James from Lick Library demonstrate the finger-thumb technique.
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Ohmura is insanely good at it, the speed and power he gets is crazy!
I really want to learnt it to add it to the toolbox so I’ve been watching this video religiously at the moment 
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It was the only technique I was actually seeing results from working with a metronome that I had setup to increase bpm over time. But the burn sucked! 
Took about a 1 to 2 weeks, but it was working. Could be why these guys are so fast, because the speed can be built up. Try it tell me if it works for you. All I did was just one note, one string for as long as I could stand the burn, stop, let the burn subside, and go up and up and up. Then I would start doing little fragments cause I would get bored. But that was it, and it was working quite well. And if you do Cesario Filho’s little middle finger plant on the guitar kind of thing, you can also get some extra momentum with it cause you can get better control.
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Can you link this? I would be interested to see
I think he only uses this for what he calls “snap picking”, which is two picked notes and 2 hammer-ons from nowhere. His actual alt picking technique is DSX wrist.
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No. I can’t remember what specific video I saw in which he was demonstrating the technique.