Hello,Troy, my name is a. J. And i am a totally blind guitarist. I have been practicing my speed picking technique, and wanted to know what is pick slanting? And can you describe to me how to do this technique? And what motion mechanics are? Thank you.
Hi AJ!
In short, pickslanting is the tendency to pick along a diagonal pathway, instead of straight up and down. This allows one half of the picking movement to get out from between the strings and lift into the air, which makes it easier to switch strings. The pickstroke that goes up in the air is called the “escaped” pickstroke, and it can be either the upstroke or the downstroke depending on which type of pickslanting you use.
“Motion mechanic” is just our term for the picking motion itself, whether it is generated by the elbow, wrist, forearm, etc. You could just substitute the term “picking motion” if you like.
More than that it would be difficult to explain in a forum post, however we have other vision impaired viewers like @BlindGuitarist who may be able to give you some feedback on how they were able make use of some of these concepts with essentially audio-only access to our material. Because of this, we try to keep in mind that not everyone is going to be able to watch or see things like our animated material, and this is one of the reason why we tend to do a lot of voiceover narration. Any other suggestions we’re always happy to listen.
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Hi AJ.
I find Troy’s verbal descriptions of the various motions quite adequate, but I completely understand that terms like parallel, perpendicular, or saying something like “tilt the pick 20 or 30 degrees down or up” can confuse people whose spacial concepts aren’t particularly strong.
My advice would be to pair up with someone sighted who has a good grasp of these concepts, and, this is the important bit, knows their right from left, up from down etc. and can tell you what to change in your hand position in real time. Find someone willing to connect in real time via Skype or similar platform that involves video. Show them what you’re doing and they can quickly say “no, tilt the other way”, etc.
I think that a couple minutes of that could clear things up for you quickly!
Asuming you have an iPhone, prop it against something on your desk and set yourself up, with your guitar in playing position, maybe a foot or two in front of the phone’s camera. The rear camera is usually higher quality than the front-facing camera. Having some light behind you may also help. Of course, the person to whom you are talking can tell you where to best position yourself, so they can see clearly what you’re doing or not doing.
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Hello,Troy,this is a. J. And i read you’re response to my question. And i wanted to Know do you use the pointy part of the guitar pick you’re using or the section of the pick that is the wedge of the pick? Just be for the point? To sweep across the strings? Because i have experienced getting my pick stuck in between the strings i am playing. By the way, here is my picking technique i willl describe for you, that i use when playing a pentatonic scale. Starting with down up strokes on the sixth string, and some times i end up ending the scale with either an up stroke or when i play that same pentatonic scale, i end with a down stroke. I also have been teaching my self how to sweep pick. And i also wanted to mention, that i recently obtained a copy of ingwe malmstein’s trilogy album! And i listened to it, and i figured out that ingwee’s playing technique is really really fast even when the rest of the musicians are playing a slow song. I just wanted to know do you think that his playing technique of playing fast is just his style? Or is he just able to play that way? With years of practice? And patience?
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Thanks for the information. I would like to know do you have any audio of you playing a few solos on YouTube? And yes i do have both an iPhone, and ipad. Which both have voice over installed on them. And i also have a few guitar recording apps, on these devices, that allow me to record my guitar signal in to my phone, and ipad. The apps i have on both devices are amplitube, garage band, amplitube, and irig. And amp kit plus.
AJ, Amplitube is accessible with Voiceover? that’s news to me!
Anyway, no I don’t have clips of my playing online. That’s not pertinent to the discussion. I was suggesting that you pair up with someone sighted via Skype, FaceTime video, etc. so they can coach you one on one about what pick slanting is. Do you understand what I’m saying? Someone looks at what you are doing and tells you what to adjust about your hand position, to help you figure out the difference between upward and downward pick slanting? Perhaps someone sighted from the forums here would be willing to volunteer some time to explain things.
How much of Troy’s stuff have you checked out?
Perhaps, start with Pickslanting Primer, and also check out his video entitled Guitar Anatomy - The Four Fundamental Movements.
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