Cool, will do so in the next few days! Very happy to put my magnet to good use, and it’s been very useful to look at, I gained a lot of confidence by realising that I can do certain movements!
My research is in light-matter interaction (quantum optics). One of the many applications of quantum mechanics we could say!
Great. Now that you have attained pickslanting mastery, it’s only a matter of time until you develop a Predator-style light refraction invisibility suit, and hunt the rest of us down. Please be merciful.
Predator - one of my favorite movies. Incredibly, the first half is action-adventure, the second half straight-up science fiction.
Ahhh… now it makes sense. The true reason why you are able to play with such precision at high speed, is your mastery of quantum mechanics.
Maybe you can share your formulas with us on probabilistic picking.
I tried to do this with a sequence of Yngwie 6s starting on an upstroke in a Magnet-friendy key (F-), using ye goode olde 120bpm click.
Even though the string changes all align with my (perceived?) UWPS, it was harder than expected to pull this off clean-ish and in time! I guess having the upstroke on the downbeat is going to be a bit strange at first.
I did a few takes, and here is the best I could do this evening (including 8x slow-mo). There are quite a few rest strokes on downpicks, and possibly some swiping (which I can totally live with)! I may not be as UWPS as I thought!
Amazing. So hard to see the uwps …so u start with with dwps …down up than rotate ? Thanks
@Tommo is using very little forearm rotation here - it’s almost all wrist (and elbow?). So if you’re looking for forearm movement, you’re not going to see much of anything. This is similar to how Andy Wood handles certain scalar sequences. It’s still two-way pickslanting because the path of the picking motion is changing. That’s the core concept of “two way” pickslanting - that you have different picking motions and you switch between them. It doesn’t matter what actual arm or hand movements you use for those motions - only that you’re not using the same motion all the time.
The more I watch Tommo’s form… the more I think he does use finger/thumb movement to help navigate through the switches. It’s definitely a thing of beauty.
As a side note… I think his elbow mechanic not only helps out with speed… but also helps provide a bit more force when he hits the string… which gives Tommo his awesome clean sound.
@ForeverSATCH,@Troy,@hamsterman, thanks again for the compliments!
Indeed I do feel like I use the elbow and I like to hit the strings quite hard, which is one of the reasons why I recently moved to 0.73 tortex picks - with a stiffer pick the whole thing sounds and feels far less pleasant.
In the last video I was convinced that I was doing UWPS all the way (6 notes per string starting on an upstroke), and yet as Troy pointed out I am actually doing some sort of subtle TWPS - in fact it seems to me I am keeping a neutral orientation for most pickstrokes - this goes hand in hand with my love for the feeling of rest-strokes. (I am pretty sure I’m swiping as well on occasion, but no biggie).
Hey Tommo. I am curious if your TWPS technique allows you to do outside/inside transitioning for other types of patterns.
Ex: patterns that switch from 2nps to 3nps. ex: blues scales, caged patterns, etc.
or the gilbert 4 note rotation pattern starting with both a downstroke and an upstroke and in both directions?
I am just curious, because I felt like I was never really able to master TWPS unless I had > 3 notes on a string for adjustment.
I second that! @tommo, I’m curious about how you’d play a fours pattern as well using TWPS, when the pickslant changes at varied intervals. For example, the descending fours pattern that Carl Miner plays (although here he crosspicks it):
https://troygrady.com/interviews/carl-miner-2007/clips/fours-desc-tk1/
Damn dude…that sounds and looks GOOD!!
Hey all, I’d be happy to try and record some mixed nps stuff when I get the chance, unfortunately I’ll be away from guitars for a few days 
But I can anticipate that I can’t play those things as fast as the good old 3nps patterns, probably I can get to around 150-160bpm 16th notes for things like caged patterns and inside gilberts (unless you allow me to swipe like a motherlover 
). These things are definitely more challenging.
Awesome, and no hurry. Yeah, everyone has a ‘bias’ towards certain xfers… but 160 is nothing to scoff at for your weaknesses.
Just curious, but has there been any more discussion of “theoretical top speeds” of crosspicking compared to pickslanting? If there is, what would the mechanical reason be for the relatively lower speed limit?
Well yes, somewhat.
It’s around 10 to 11 notes per second.
On crosspicking, you need to escape completely the string on every pick stroke. It either requires a really flat pickstriking radius which has the side effect of needing a very long pick stroke (à la Steve Morse). Or, if you want a shorter pickstroke, you need more athletic power/stamina (à la Rusty Cooley), and when poorly executed you can experience string hopping.
Linear pick-slanted approaches (DWPS, UWPS, TWPS) requires you to escape the string only in one direction, and sweep/economy picking doesn’t even require you to escape the string at all! Well, minus turnaround points with odd numbers of note per string.
It depends on the form being used for x-picking. Some methods have definite speed limits, but others don’t appear to. I can easily double escape past 200 bpm 16ths… but I can’t play 1nps at that speed, because I still lack the tracking skills… but I’m optimistic I can overcome that… I’ve come a long way.
But a double-escape method is useful for more than just 1nps lines. It’s really helped speed up my caged patterns, and it’s perfect for 7th arpegios. Also, I’ve almost completely stopped economy picking… which really helps me with timing, dynamics. But I am sure it’s different for every player.
I finally managed to do a little clip which is not just scales up and down… well not too far away from that though 
It’s a section of the erotomania solo which contains a sort of ascending fours pattern on the middle two strings. There are a few instances of TWPS with only a note on a string, but the tempo is not too crazy (probably between 150 and 160). For the usual mysterious reasons, I can play it cleaner with inside picking.
I’m still working on other things like blues scale and pentatonic TWPS patterns, but haven’t managed a good take yet… hopefully soon!
Looks great. It’s quite rare to see someone play those types of patterns cleanly like you did.
As far as the inside picking… I’m in the same boat. And yes, most people feel that Outside picking is easier for them, but not me.
I think it has something to do with our mechanics going either with or against the inertia of the movement. With my X-picking… I couldn’t let this anti-outside-bias continue. I’ve found its pretty much impossible to do unusual, X-picking type movements without feeling equally as comfortable with both switches.
The weird thing is… I didn’t know my bias was so severe… especially since I could do 3NPS runs fairly well… and those alternate inside/outisde. But 3NPS scalar patterns allow a bit more time to adjust between string changes.
I’ve spent about 5-10 minutes a day doing 2NPS ascending/descending using only outside picking… that has helped quite a bit. It’s still not quite up to speed… but its getting there. Also, I’ve spent time trying to play a lot of phrases that I’m comfortable with, but starting on the opposite pickstroke.