What is two-way pickslanting, and how does it work?

Some of these things may have been mentioned already, but in the context of Hank’s video I thought I’d post a couple things that helped me when I was shedding 902 stuff hard for the last couple weeks, things beyond “assume the position and do basic 3-string rolls:”

  1. Do bigger rolls. It helps with string tracking. Four strings is perfect to roll back and forth over, say, m9 chords with 5th omitted HINT HINT THIS CHORD SOUNDS GREAT

  2. Don’t be afraid to have a resting hand position that feels slightly pronated, if you’re naturally a DWPS guy. I had a hell of a time getting 02 “UWPS” licks to work until I realized that I was way too supinated and had to pronate my forearm on every ascending string change (i.e., garage spikes, I think?). It was more like 901 or something and it felt terrible. As soon as I said “fuck it, I guess I’ll try rotating thiswa-- oh there it is.”

  3. This one’s more general: WRITE. ETUDES. Come up with cool ideas and play them using the technique (regardless of whether they’re “crosspicking” lines or “1WPS” or “2WPS” lines). It lets you turn your analytical brain off and just pay attention to what your hands are feeling as you write, and builds vocab meanwhile.

Someone please yell at me if this is the wrong thread to drop this in.

4 Likes

These are great points!

Re: feeling more pronated, “902” is really just the one example we used in the lesson - and it works with the arm position I was using. If you are specifically using that motion, then yes the arm position that matches that is probably more pronated than you think! And this observation is on point.

However, more generally, any arm position should work. You’re just looking for the flattest picking motions that match that arm position. As an example, the Steve Morse / Albert Lee arm positions are much more supinated. In general I need to use a three-finger or middle-finger grip with those to reach the strings with that much supination. But once you do that, you can create your flat escapes in the same fashion.

2 Likes