I was going to search for this topic on the site but I see the search magnifying glass icon has disappeared , so while the search for the search icon goes on (like a spiral in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel…) I thought I’d post my an observation of a picking technique and see if anyone else here knows if this concept has a name.
I watched Eric Johnson playing quick alternate picking and it looked to me as though he was curving his motion path up the wound strings and down the plain ones, and reversing that pattern for ascending runs, so he makes a smooth arc over the strings.
I now use this curving macro pattern on one, two, and three notes per string runs and on sweeping, while using the micro movements in pickslanting and crosspicking at the same time. It seems to give my plectrum a little more space and tells my hand when performing, say, a pentatonic box one across all six strings and back that a smooth arc allows it to contact the first note of each new string in a stable manner.
Is this a technique that others have used, come across elsewhere? Does it have a name?
Sorry about the disappearing search, I broke it temporarily but should be fixed now
Not sure about the EJ question, you’re saying there’s a thing he does involving curved picking path but somehow different from what we talk about as crosspicking / pickslanting movements? Not sure I understand the micro / macro distinction, maybe a video example would help if you have a YouTube link handy!
See your ‘Andy Wood Interview - 46 Guitar Examples Supercut!’ and look at 4:10, again at 4:38, and again at 6:02.
I see an up and over arc: up the wound strings, down the plain strings, and then reversing the pattern up the plain strings and down the wound strings.
I have found knowing this pattern before I begin playing gives me a sense of what overall shape my hand should be making, hence the macro.
If I were to stick an imaginary spirit level to the back of my picking hand, where would the bubble be as I played various scales?
A flat path of picking on a six string box one pentatonic scale, say, would see the bubble on the spirit level not leave the two lines for the whole scale, because the picking hand remained at a right angle to the strings.
But a curved path would only see the bubble go between the two lines briefly between strings four and three.
I say an imaginary spirit level because I would expect if you tried to use a real one the jolts from picking a note, the micro, would interrupt the information you would get from the macro, the information taken from the spirit level would have supplied without those jolts.
Yes, he has a curved path… but he’s not a X-picker… he doesnt follow a ‘U’ path, instead he traces more of a ‘J’ or a downward tilted arch pattern. He has a natural DWPS form, where I think mostly from the wrist, but he also uses his fingers, where he says he pulls ‘up’ from the picking guard, which he says gives him the connection with the strings he likes.
The key to this… is that the wrist and fingers combine to give him a lot of of clearance, which is ideal for the reliable 2NPS runs he likes so much. But also… the additive effect of the two mechanics gives him a bit more ‘oomph’ when he hits the strings.
Just as a general rule… the more ‘clearance/escape’ you have from the strings… the easier it is to move from string to string… so it makes 2NPS runs, and especially 1NPS runs (assuming you are double escaping) so much easier.
I actually developed my current form trying to copy EJ. I suddenly was able to get his ‘style’ when I started using my fingers more. But it wasn’t until I saw M.Miller that I said… wait a minute… am I curving???
It turns out I was… but I wasn’t double-escaping, but after a few months of ‘tweaking the form’ and adding some more mechanics… I was able to double-escape. So ironically, although EJ doesn’t use X-picking… it was through his form that I ‘bridged’ into X-picking.
I have just added a wrist picking motion to my unorthodox one, and I’ve been trying to get my muting sorted out.
I watched Robben Ford, who seems all wrist to me, and his picking hand on the high E string goes up towards the neck pickup so his right hand is covering many of the other strings, and then he goes in a backwards diagonal as he moves towards the lower strings, picking roughly around the bridge pickup on the low E. I used this method yesterday and I can now alternate pick with clarity using all my amp channels (without other effects), clean, bluesy, slightly overdriven, and lead overdrive. So while this is a handshake-flat approach, its muting works through its diagonal path.
When I use my unorthodox approach, which is the my attempt at stealing Martin Miller’s forearm rotation, on two note per string pentatonics, then my hand is handshake flat throughout although I can curve it if I want. But if I want to play the same thing with my wrist and not use a diagonal picking approach, then I need a curving motion to get a smooth progression.
