@SlyVai if I were going to personalize this a bit for you, what do you want to see that you would feel would benefit you most?
Well that’s a hard question.
I do like to play a lot of alt picked stuff and have been working on the EJ USX, YJM USX style for a while so that’s my goal, to improve playing those kinds of licks and runs, and my straight 3NPS scale alt picking sucks so improving that would be good but again I think it’s my left hand that’s a problem there.
I worked on using my thumb and anchoring last night and it seems good just I need to get the thumb movement right so examples of that would be good please.
My other goal is to sweep better but I suspect that the problem with that is my left hand again, I can sweep pretty good going up (upstrokes) but it’s the down sweep that is always a problem.
Thanks for the help anyway it’s much appreciated.
Wether you use an inward diagonal picking trajectory, or outward diagonal trajectory is not really all that relevant honestly, unless you plan to just pick in those ridged confines. Ideally you may want to use a form of DBX or secondary escape regardless of what your primary escape is, so you aren’t really confined to what you play. If one trajectory feels easier or better to you to use (inward or outward) use that one, but I wouldn’t view it as USX plays Yngwie, and DSX plays 3 notes per strings, ideally you should be able to use either for anything, and whether is USX or DSX is more a matter of what your hand likes better.
Okay, I’ll focus on the thumb thing. It’s not a rocking back and forth movement where it looks like the pick angles and flattens. If you do it correctly it looks like primarily wrist translation from a distance.
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If usx playing like EJ or Yng is your thing, that’s great, keep working on that . For 3nps, sweeping ascending is an option but descending, to pick all notes you would need a secondary motion. What that is depends on how you pick, what joints are used etc. There is a lot of detail on this in the primer for reference.
You could alt pick ascending also if you want, it sounds different than sweeping so useful to be able to do. Either way , it will require a secondary motion to escape after the downstrokes, or escape during the downstroke I should say!
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@Fossegrim pointed it out already but yeah your thumb is definitely working against you.
Pretty good explanation on this, I can make a quick video if you’d like as well. At this point I’m pretty sure I rely a good amount on finger movement.
Ok chaps thanks, after re-reading what @Fossegrim wrote I think I get the idea now with how to use the thumb and I’ll work on that for sure !
I have some videos of you guys picking and using your thumb so I can study those. This is good I’m excited to have a plan of action.
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Just a quick update.
Good news, it seems to me that this thumb thing is working well and together with anchoring more with my little finger I seem to be more precise and accurate in my picking tonight. So thats great I feel like a breakthrough is on the way there.
Bad news is my left hand is screwed. It’s not hurting any more than usual, but I’ve noticed the past week it’s been a real effort to get it moving. I’m not sure if it’s just me over thinking it knowing I’ve got problems with it anyway, but from what I can diagnose that is whats holding me back from speeding up. It’s a real worry because it makes me feel really useless as a guitarist. It’s like when I was playing with my band and had a bad gig because for some reason my left hand was not on its game. It’s always been my secret weapon and now it’s failing me.
I’m tempted to give it a rest and see if that helps. I’m certainly not giving up though !
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The more I worry about a technique, the more of a balls I make of it. I reckon it’s just a psychological ass pain. Try not to dwell on it
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Likely just psychological. Could be physical too though. You might just mentally need a break. I know I cant play worth a damn on the days I’m just not feeling it. I either work on something easy or switch to one of the other numerous things that need to get done in life that are necessary but never seem to have time for. I would actually be a good player if I could spend all my free time on just guitar, or had the desire to.
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Well we’ll see I will give it a break today as I don’t have the time or energy anyway, but it does worry me knowing my hand will get worse and worse as time goes on, wondering when it will get so bad I can’t play anymore. I’m not saying the sync issues are down to my arthritis, I think I’ve probably always had bad sync… but it’s certainly not helping.
@Fossegrim, from what I have seen you are a great player anyway, there’s a lot of different types of ‘good’ and ‘great’ and you’re definitely one I would class as great, from what I have seen of your playing.
Do you take anything for the arthritis? The nac and hyaluronic acid could help. Powdered collagen too.
You never know what medical science will have concocted by that time. If we have now knocked out Alpha-gal for a successful cross species organ transplant, I’m sure by the time your joints deteriorated we’ll have something for that too.
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The doctor hasn’t prescribed anything because to be honest he hasn’t 100% confirmed it is osteoarthritis but he’s pretty sure it is. To be sure I need to have a scan and that isn’t forthcoming at the moment.
Anyway I started taking the Curcumin and Krill Oil specifically for the joint swelling problem yes and I will look into NAC thanks.
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@SlyVai Something I’ve been doing recently is putting my pinky (and others) on the hole left by removing the volume pot. I know you don’t like it’s position either.
I find it a reall good refence point. Yngwie malmsteen does the same thing essentially, just cupping the volume with his pinky. Tho I’ve always worried about turning the volume down unintentionally doing that anchor.
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Let’s just say there’s a reason Paul Gilbert doesn’t have his volume pot there.
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Interesting, ok, maybe I will take the volume pot and put it in the neck pickup tone pot position, I never use those tone controls anyway, they are always up full.
I think an anchor is not something you always do. It’s more like a reference point, a part of the guitar that you can feel well, and get a refence for where the strings are by feel.
A proper picking technique can work totally floating, though to get that floating picking tight you need a good leverage point and an anchor/reference to keep your picking on track
Like an anchor of a boat doesn’t always keep the boat in a single place, but it gives the boat an area it can float around without losing it’s place
I think you felt this by holding the whammy bar? @SlyVai
I watched this before from Shawn Lane, he talked about holding it a bit.
Yes I did and was trying it again tonight. It limits my escape motions but that might be a good thing as I think my wrist gets way too twitchy and I need to hone those motions anyway.
I’ll take a look at that Shawn video looks really cool.
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@WhammyStarScream @SlyVai I was actually watching this video the other night! Hard not to want to pick up the guitar and play while watching it.
I think he anchored his wrist or forearm even when he didn’t use the whammy bar. Then again he was so unreal I wouldn’t be surprised if he could play without anchoring just fine…
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That all depends on how you define anchor. If you are counting palm muting or just muting unwanted strings with your picking hand as a form of anchor, than it is done pretty much always, unless your hitting some big open chords.
With Paul, it can be an easy thing to miss, because the way he does it is optically subtle, and not visually obvious like Yngwie or John Petrucci. I use it to keep my hand in a position that will mute pretty well, which is also likely why Paul does too I imagine. But yeah, the reason he doesn’t have a volume control in the typical place is because that’s where pinky finger lives, and he would be bumping into it otherwise. It’s also no accident he uses a standard trem. These are typically a little easier to mute on because they have a bit more of a steeper break angle, and more of the string exposed over this angle. Floyd’s are a little more difficult.
Yngwie on the other hand wraps his pinky around the pot and uses it as an extra anchoring point, along with his ring finger on the pick gaurd. It’s also a strategic placement for when he needs to roll down. You can do this too but it requires a heavily greased pot so that you don’t bump it all over the place.