Help with picking technique (video inside)

[Erik]

Hey guys,

I have problems with speed and I think my picking technique (I'm wholly self-taught and not particularly good) is fairly shit. I've progressed to the point where I no longer use my arm muscles for trem picking and so forth, I only move the wrist, but still I seem to build up far too much tension and not really be fast enough for my liking with the style of picking I'm using now. Most good players I see seem to hold farther from the tip of the thumb and seem a lot more relaxed than I am currently -- I need some help basically. How can I improve?

Here's a semi-shitty video that should show how I currently pick:

http://nw.ath.cx/~erik/picking.mov

Help muchly appreciated.

 

[Hopkins-WitchfinderGeneral]

hmmm, a few things:

1: do you warm up before you play? i know it sounds fucken lame but i always pick more fluently and jab around less when i've been playing for a while.

2: try this... start off trem picking really slowly and concentrate on making your forearm relax, slowly build up speed but make sure your arm stays in that relaxed state.

dunno if that'll help you but there ya go

 

[ranma187]

Use a metronome. start slow and work your way up. your speed picking hand position must remain the same playing both slow and fast. I i start at 90 or 80 with 16th notes depending on the difficulty of the excercise. i raise two notches and see if there's a problem with any of the notes? maybe a few. so i go back one notche and play the excercise and go up 2 notches and play it. then one down, 2 up etc. and i do this until my top picking speed. usually around 170. so i slow back down 2 120 bpm and continue the up 2 notches and down one. until i reach my top speed again. (which is usually higher than last time). remember to take short breaks if you have to. if you strain to much you will injure yourself. and usually after a 5-10 min break. my wrist is still quite strong but also relaxed.

 

[Erik]

Cheers, going to try those things