What's the deal with that dude Spiro Dussias?

Like how tf does he make his chord sweeping sound like alternate picked linear runs?

What the fuck is going on there?

@Tom_Gilroy explain immediately what the fuck is this dude doing to get that sound.

Someone explain.

1 Like

I’ll have to spend some time analysing. Spiro is incredible.

1 Like

Lmao that lotr vid sums it up.

I’m confused and awed and shocked and bewildered at what I’m hearing and seeing lol.

1 Like

Holy hell, there’s another new thing I’m gonna have to try to learn so I don’t feel feel useless with the instrument LOL!

1 Like

This is an interesting article about his technique, it would be interesting to see Troy’s thoughts.

I think it’s equal parts the power of the stank face and hair in the strings :smirk:. (Aside: long-haired folks, does it never get stuck? It always makes me nervous when I see hair near strings because I feel like it could get tangled, like those classic spring-based chest workout things that would rip out all your chest hair.)

This looks a lot like my DSX except he can a) actually use it and b) use it on his lowest string. Someday maybe.

2 Likes

He is so damn good!

He gets such a tight and precise sound, which really makes him stand out.

I bet he has a super heavy noise gate to help him get that sound. It also sounds like he’s doing a lot of hammer on from nowhere.

2 Likes

His reference to a bouncing ball reminds me of how doubles work on drums but I’m struggling to see how it might apply to picking.

1 Like

I think everyone has different weird ā€œproprioceptive mnemonicsā€ to remind themselves of how to get their technique to work. I try not to pay too much attention to them :joy:

1 Like

As @eric_divers mentioned, it’ not a physically accurate description of what’s happening.

2 Likes

Lol he’s just saying it because it sounds cool.

Still though doesn’t explain how he gets that sweeping to sound like he’s not sweeping. I don’t think it’s a compression trick either. There’s clips of him getting the same sound with an unprocessed acoustic guitar.

Yes, his physics is wrong, but I think that he means there should be more and more changes of direction per second. I think he is saying it’s not really about hand speed but rapidly changing directions, hence the movement has to become small.

I suspect he’d say this: long motions are wasted, better to have already turned around.

For a given hand speed, go half as far and have twice as many notes per second. This is what he likely means by the ball… the speed is the same, the travel distance is reduced.

Yeah his analogy is just funny lol. The bouncing ball like represents kinetic energy or whatever directing it towards and reflecting off of stationary surfaces on either side of the ball - just doesn’t make real sense in terms of what he’s doing technique wise.

1 Like

The problem is, you don’t control the distance travelled. You control the magnitude and the frequency of the force that drives a forced oscillator. Higher frequencies result in smaller amplitudes (distances), but the reverse is absolutely not true.

4 Likes

You have a solid theory, but we must compare it to experiment to be confident. Given that so many distances are known (like string spacing, pick sizes, etc.), I’d love to know what xāƒ—(t) for the pick tip looks like from video. From there, we could do the derivatives and see if it really looks like the model that you proposed. I suspect that somebody like Spirio is so fast because he is focused on changing direction, and he is NOT behaving anything like a harmonic oscillator. I’ll bet there are violent ā€œbouncesā€ and then relatively uniform speed… but I’d love to see this turned into actual numerical data where one can examine it.

Another way we could get this is by using an IMU chip (say accelerometer and magnetometer) while somebody is picking, but video processing would be the ultimate, now there can be a Magnet App to go along with the mighty Magnet! (Troy can vibe code this, we know he’s multi-talented.)

Just to be clear here, a forced oscillator is not synonymous with a harmonic oscillator. Any cyclical motion driven by a periodic force is a forced oscillator. Rapidly changing directions through force is the forced oscillator case. The equations of motion may be more complex than the simple case I’ve described (I actually think picking requires two forced oscillators with a simple frequency relationship), but the principles would be the same.

1 Like

Well, 'aight, check this out, dawg.

First of all, y’all throwin’ too many big words at me, and because I don’t understand them, I’m gonna take 'em as disrespect. Watch your mouth and just help me with the sale.

2 Likes

Perhaps! I wish that there was data tracking the pick location in time, I’m curious about what the acceleration looks like.

The question is about details of how a pick hand moves back and forth, and if it looks like (1) a ball bouncing between a floor or ceiling per Spirio, abruptly changing direction, (2) a sine wave smoothly going back and forth, or (3) something else.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/53I_Wq7XBT4

1 Like