There are a few top players who have mentioned working on technique super quietly, unplugged, watching the TV*, it comes up enough to suggest there’s something to it (EVH, Lukather off the top of my head).
*There is also one story of someone who did this and snapped a tendon or something in their left hand because of slumping on the sofa and adopting a terrible wrist position, can’t remember who this was now, but remember safe playing posture at all times, people.
Playing unplugged makes you a harder picker because you can’t hear yourself unless you pick hard.
I’d be inclined to agree with you, but I think they specifically meant playing extremely softly so as not to be heard above the television (“But how can you know you’re doing it right??” I dunno, it wasn’t my idea but I guess you’d also be going so slowly and carefully that you can’t go wrong)
We’ve addressed the “TV Practice” concept in another thread, but my best guess is this a way of generating randomized movements that feel natural, in an attempt to try and figure out picking mechanics by feel, i.e. without teaching.
The old practice advice of endless “correct” repetition fails when the movement you’re endlessly repeating isn’t actually as correct as you think. For example, repeating hours of stringhopping isn’t going to do anything but injure you.
Instead, the “randomized” approach is a way around that by turning off your brain and doing whatever feels easiest / most natural. If there is some connection with “playing softly”, it’s probably because your playing technique feels more natural when you’re not killing the strings.
Keep in mind that this concept is a method for learning a new movement, one you cannot do currently. In other words, it is a motor learning technique. It is not really a technique for athletic training and getting faster. It also works best when you know what movement you’re trying to achieve, and continually evaluate whether the randomized approach is actually producing that movement.
Simply sitting on the couch doing “something”, and hoping that “something” will result is going to have a very low hit rate by itself if you don’t know enough to immediately identify when things are working and pursue those things in more conscious practice.
Yeah I was throwing it out there as a point in favour of practising picking softly on occasion, I’m not a big fan of the “veg out in front of the telly while idly noodling” approach.
Hey guys I did something different today. I loosened my pinch grip of the pick and allowed it to teeter totter, just a little, between my two fingers. It made my string changes a lot smoother.
Is this an illusion? I was alternate picking without hopping. So I started to look to see if I was swiping. Thinking maybe the teeter-totter property was just hiding a inaudible swipe… I didn’t see or hear any.
If there’s a pick grip thread on here, sorry for missing it. Is there something to what I’m saying or is it smoke n mirrors?
I’ve heard Rob Chapman suggest a loose grip. I use a “firm without crushing it” grip, and some folks like Guthrie Govan and Michael Angelo Batio seem to advocate a firm grip for the same reason they advocate stiff picks: greater control of the pick.
Sounds reasonable to think that loose grip could make incidental swiping less noticeable. I noticed a fair bit of pick “wiggle” in the Molly Tuttle interview (but I didn’t notice any swiping, so it might be a moot point), though that’s in the context of crosspicking on an acoustic with “medium” strings.
I seem to recall Albert Lee lets the pick wiggle a bit, though I could be mistaken.
LOL, dude you notice everything.
Teemu talks about this 1:18:00 through 1:23:00 of his interview. He has a special thick pick he uses for students that have a tight pinch on the pick. This is to train them to lighten up the pinch when getting back on a normal pick?
I’m not talking about letting the pick flap around. I lightened up just enough to “feel” the wiggle. Which can be pinched out when attack variance is needed.
Teemu also mentions that he loosens up for even more wiggle when he is trying to CROSSPICK. So I think it is interesting that Molly is doing a crosspick wiggle.
I was alternate picking 3nps scales pretty damn fast YESTERDAY when I backed off enough to feel a small wiggle. I didn’t see hopping or swiping. I don’t know what’s going on… I was doing the let it happen thing. ??? 
I WILL get my right hand caught up to you technical whipper-snappers. Mark my words! Hahahaha 
one thing we will never be able to come to is an agreement on what is loose vs. moderate. vs. death grip because they are all subjective terms. They can’t be measured quantitatively unless some starts putting some microchips in picks and we can see how many ounces? pounds? of pressure we are exerting when gripping it! 
Biggest change: I started practicing regularly again! Seeing the pick go diagonally in the first Yngwie lesson made my stomach go all funny… holy £$%^, it can be done!!!
Not trying to brute force everything is another big change compared to my high school years! Well… bad habits die hard so at times I still find myself “practicing a mistake” for hours 
The effect can be measured visually. Hold it tight enough so that X happens, or doesn’t happen, when the pick hits the string. Then you can film it and look at it.
Actually, Martin Miller’s technique helped a lot for me. It kinda helped me see that a ‘u’ shaped picking style can be used in an efficient way.
I’ve switched picking techniques so many times… but I think I’m gonna stick with his method.
This may or may not be relevant to what you are describing @Frylock, but I’ll throw it out there. I can get much more tone-full at this point with my strict alternate picking, relatively slow cross picking mechanic, regardless of level of obfuscation by effects. I guess I try to only “effect” my tone to the point where it feels easier to play and be inspired, but no more. I’ve foregone 2wps for now, in part, because dwps forces me to not be in the downstrokes on down beats, upstrokes on the off swing mindset. I’ve embraced being able to master articulations regardless of pick direction of the moment in a way that I might not had I gone straight to 2wps. Not saying this would be the same for everyone, but being forced to incorporate the necessary tapping (most probably use pull offs) and hybrid picking demands of strict dwps has expanded my world greatly while capitalizing on skills I already had developed through other means (e.g. hybrid plucked chord voicings). Ugh. Hopefully there is something of interest in the above. “Make musical sense.” ~ Jim Hall’s guitar case. Peace.
Thanks for the reply. Part of my hangup about wrist-oriented 2wps is driven not by rational musical goals, but by a Pokemon-esque desire to “collect” all the techniques. You make lots of interesting points.
It might sound silly, but the biggest change for me since discovering CTC is, that I’m practicing a hell lot more. CtC gave me this “Hey, now I know why it didn’t work and I’m confident I can make it”. So this is the biggest change for me. Of course, my picking changed, although I’m still far from where I want to go, but certain things have improved drasticaly. At least I can now judge wether something needs to be changed or if I just have to push harder as I’m already doing it right of there is nothing to be done wrong (downstroke riffing).
Thomas