I’m serious with that question. When using UWPS I usually start with an upstroke and even when playing on one string it feels awkward if I start playing with a downstroke. I even recall Shawn Lane saying that it’s a disaster if he starts picking on a downstroke.
May the reason for that be that only upstrokes should cause muscle tension? Your pick is already above the string after upstroke so you can just loosen your hand and make it fall on the string because of gravity. Is that what makes picking hand relaxed?
I think its just what you get used to. But after a while you are more relaxed no matter what.
Im the opposite, I start 99.9 % of my phrases on a downstroke lol
We’ve talked about that scene here a few times. It doesn’t have anything to do with downstrokes or upstrokes being hard or easy. He’s talking about a phrase that uses a combination of alternate picking and sweeping. The phrase is specifically designed so that all string changes are either alternate picked with an upstroke, or a downstroke sweep. It is the same formula used by Yngwie, Eric Johnson, and so on. When Shawn reverses the picking, the string changes no longer work out and that’s why he says it’s a “disaster”. He’s not giving you the technical explanation because he’s not aware he’s using escaped upstrokes and sweeping. That’s what geniuses can do - operate by feel. But that’s what’s going on.
No, you’re still firing muscles on both pickstrokes. We’ve measured these things several different ways, in a laboratory setting, and also with consumer EMG devices. There is definitely muscle contraction happening on both, and they are similar/equal in force.
Honestly, usually when things don’t feel right, it’s because you’re not doing the motions correctly. And that’s good news! It really just means an adjustment in technique fixes things.
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