Two Way Pick Slant troubles

Technique Critique
#1

Hello all,

I’ve been trying to incorporate two way pick slanting in some areas because I think it’ll be better for me in the long run but am struggling when using it in some but not all areas.

The video I posted has 3 parts. The first two parts are the same lick played as quick as I can play it clean (ish) and then very slow. This is the one I struggle the most with. I’m not sure the slow part is necessary but I figured if I’m doing something different between my quick and slow speeds and y’all can point out, that might be helpful. The third part is a different lick that I struggle with, but I don’t struggle with it nearly as much as the first one. Basically, I don’t feel like I’m progressing with the first lick and I do feel like I’m progressing with the second lick so I thought it would be a good idea to post both in case I’m doing something wrong with the first lick but doing it right with the second lick.

Please let me know if there’s anything you can think of that might help me out :slight_smile:

Note: It’s currently 10:35 PST and the Standard Definition is available on YT but it says the High Definition version is still processing so maybe wait until 11:00 PST to see the HD version.

#2

It looks like there is a mix of arm and wrist while you change picking motions. I wonder if you focus on just going with wrist. Also, there appears to be big changes between your two picking paths - can you make a more subtle USX and DSX so that the difference between the two is negligible?

#3

I think that would feel a lot more comfortable but I’m not sure how to pull that off. Idk how to go about changing my pick slant/escape without dropping my thumb which I think is the arm movement you’re referring to. Unless you’re saying I should be angling my hand more as I switch strings rather than moving my hand and arm vertically. If that’s the case, I could give that a shot but I figured that would give me inconsistent results across the strings.

Maybe? I’ve been doing such big movements because it feels necessary in order to clear the string. But I’ll focus on smaller movements and see if I still clear the string.

#4

It looks like there is a bit of flex in your wrist which may be driving the need to ‘drop the thumb’ so much. When I change escape path, my forearm rotates slightly…so little I don’t think about it, wrist motion continues the same. I might press my thumb into the pick to change angle and clear the string…point is USX to DSX is a very subtle movement for me.

Doing this with words is so challenging. I recognize your movement because it looks alot like one I used to use that felt really inefficient. Does it feel inefficient to you?

#5

I just played around with trying to rotate my forearm rather than just dropping my thumb and can’t really see the difference so it’s hard to see that it’s improved but it feels a little better so I think that’s a step in the right direction.

What I’ve been doing has felt extremely inefficient for the first lick but not so bad for the second lick. The second lick gets better and better as I warm up while the first lick is crap the entire time. Maybe that tiny difference in forearm rotation has been happening with the second lick more so than the first lick.

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