Hey guys. I took this brief video as best I could with my Iphone 6. The sound quality isn’t always the greatest but I think you can see what’s going on here. I alternated between how I normally pick, and anchoring my pinky to see if there was any difference. Normally though, I never anchor the pinky. Any response is greatly appreciated!
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Why do you think you are doing something wrong?
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I would start with using a metronome so that your notes are equally spaced out from one another. If you find it difficult to play at a particular speed, slow the BPM down until you can play it relatively easily and practice that until you can run through the lick easily. Then push the speed up a little at a time up to the edge of where you can play cleanly and practice there until smooth. Rinse and repeat.
The journey isn’t glamorous but you’ll be melting faces in no time if you keep up the practice. No one can do this stuff without a lot of practice. There’s just no way around it.
Thanks for posting! Generally I think it’s tough to respond to requests like this, because as @Hanky_Pooh pointed out, it’s not clear that there’s any specific thing “wrong” with what you’re doing, per se. If you’re working on picking technique I wouldn’t start with phrases like the Gilbert lick just because of the complexity of the motion involved. I’d start with something simpler like a pickslanting motion and make sure you can get that smooth on a single string. That’s kind of the universal “rock” starting point.
If you’re new to approaching picking technique in a more methodical fashion, we put together a little “getting started” guide which you can check out here:
You’d need a subscription to watch the video items, and I apologize for that - but if you take a quick scan through the written portions of this, the “goals” stuff at the bottom in particular is a first stab at what we think players need to get hands-on with to even know what technique they’re shooting for. A big part of that is demo-ing all the commonly used picking motions, understanding generally what they look like when done correctly, and choosing the one that you’re able to do “most” correctly as a starting point.
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Hey guys, thanks for taking the time to watch the video. Thanks @Troy !! I’m actually a previous subscriber (before I ran out of $ recently) and I’ve watched all of the starting stuff, pickslanting primer, etc. This content is outstanding.
I’ve been working on two way pick slanting, yet neither direction feels truly natural yet. I was wondering if there were any clear errors that you could find in my mechanics from the video above. I will post a better quality video with a metronome in the future. I need to get a better phone! 
I noticed in my picking motion that there is too much movement of my hand overall. I anchor my palm on the bridge, but it seems that the entire mechanism of my motion is too unstable. Hopefully that makes sense.
Hi Ryan! Thanks for the details. Yes, what I’m seeing above is that the picking motion doesn’t look habituated yet - meaning, it’s not memorized and consistent. It seems to start and stop, and there are missing notes.
Getting at least one motion together is the first step - not two-way pickslanting, not string-switching, just a basic one-way pickslanting motion.
The best way to address this is on a single string. If you can manage something like the Yngwie six-note phrase with some synchronization, you can use that for this. If not, just fret a note for now. The idea is to test out different picking motions to find the one that’s working best for you right now. We laundry list them in the “Intro to Picking Motion” broadcast, if you watched that. Don’t use a metronome for this. Just try to go fast with each motion, no click, just by feel. Which motion produces the smoothest most consistent results, with no dropouts and even pick attack? Elbow? Forearm? Wrist uwps? Wrist dwps? Pronated or supinated? And so on.
This is not an exercise, and you’re not going for massive repetition. Think of this as a test. You’re trying to find the motion or motions that works best, by seeing how the respond when you floor it.
For more details, check out @weealf’s great feedback in this thread, and how he addressed similar issues:
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Thanks @Troy ! I think DWPS using my wrist feels most natural but I’m not 100% positive if I’m using my wrist or my forearm. I’ll have to watch that video again and see if I can tell the difference. Are you able to tell at all from the video?
Hi Ryan! If you can’t tell whether or not you’re actually making the motion you want, then that’s work you need to do. This is not about massive repetitions and exercises. Play for 30 seconds, film it, watch it, see if you’re really doing what you are aiming to do. If not, change something and try again. Do not sit there and repeat broken motions for long periods of time hoping for the best. If you want your technique to change, you have to cause that change.
Pickslanting movements need a particular arm setup, a particular joint motion, and they should have an escape path - either the downstroke escapes or the upstroke escapes. Get one of these - any one, don’t care which - happening on a single string first and try and get it smooth. Use the short tests and evaluation method above to determine whether you’re doing it right, and pay close attention to the feel so you can remember what it feels like when you get it.
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Hey @Troy et al, here’s another video I did with a metronome. Maybe this may make it clearer to see if there are any mechanical issues I need fixing? I’m trying to employ two way pick slanting when necessary. Again I apologize for the low quality video, I need to get a better phone. Thanks!
Hi Ryan! Thanks for putting more time into this. Again, this isn’t really about issues that need fixing. What you are doing isn’t working for you, and you already know that. So you’re not going to “fix” this motion, per se. Instead, you have to establish a base motion where you know exactly what kind of motion it is, and it’s fast and consistent. That base motion is probably going to be a one-way pickslanting motion, since those are the simplest motions you can make.
Again, the best way to do this is with no metronome, on a single string, with a single note if you can’t synchronize the fretting hand at top speed yet. Using speed as the test, choose a motion you want to try and go as fast as you can. Go for it, floor it. Does it feel smooth and sound consistent? If not, change your approach and try again. Does it feel smooth? If not, change something else and try again.
Once you get something that feels and sounds like it’s clicking for you, film in 120fps video and verify that escaping is happening - either upstroke or downstroke escape, depending on the motion you’ve chosen. If the escapes aren’t happening or happening consistently, change something about your form and try again. Keep testing and filming until you feel like it’s clicking, it sounds smooth, and you can verify with video that the escapes are happening. As do you all this, you are attempting to memorize the feel of the good takes so you can reproduce them. Put the guitar down, come back five minutes later. Can you reproduce? If not, keep trying until you find that form again.
No metronome, no two-way pickslanting, no string switching, nothing fancy. Just a simple one-way pickslanting movement you want to work on, and slow-motion video to verify that you are in fact making them correctly. These tests are short, 15-20 seconds, something like that. The real work is paying super close attention to feel to spot when something is working, and doing more of it.
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Thanks, Troy! I’ll work on it and report back. I’ve got a few of the starting videos bookmarked and I’ll start there.