Yo Ron

[CorridorOfChameleons]

I got a couple important questions for you that have been troubling me for some time.

I've been playing for almost 12 years now and am respected by many and considered quite great.. but I have a guilty secret that goes unnoticed. My biggest problem is developing speed with accuracy- mainly when it comes to soloing and phrasing. I can take something and play it slow and build up to a degree, then I can play it real fast but there's this gap I miss in the middle and everytime I sit with a metronome I find it frustrating to clean up that gap where the the notes aren't consistent. What practice regimine do you feel helped you most when it comes to all areas of speed and therefore accuracy? Does it hurt to go a lot of time practicing without a mentronome? The only thing I find helping me most is picking harder and playing a certain lick slower and building up the pure stamina of the alternate picking motion in the wrist. I've been getting frustrated with the metronome and that isn't helping I'm afraid. Any help with this would be appreciated bro!

 

[nicosanchez]

I'm not Ron, but I have a cool tip for you. If you have long fingers (like I do), try to pick not using your wrist, but only your fingers. It can be difficult at the beginning, but at the end you can go waaay faster than using your wrist. If you want a small video or something like that, drop me a line, I'll be happy to help you.

 

[SupersonicRobotic]

make a video... that would be pretty sweet.
anything for guitar players to see is fun. id like to see it.

theres exceptions to rules in everything.
from throwing footballs to playing guitar.

 

[Taedium Vitae]

Using your fingers will, in my experience, quite possibly ruin it all for you, and it'll be a bitch getting back to using your wrist only.

Then again, not everyone plays the same. There's not a single guitar teacher that would approve of Pat Metheny's right-hand/picking technique for instance in one of his students...

 

[the_satanic_rabbit]

I have that same issue. I find it more difficult to play things at a moderately fast speed than I do playing things that are all out ripping. Playing things at the in-between speed really require a lot of control...it's hard to do. Try to make sure you are picking the same way slow and when you are doing it fast. Other than that, I have no advice, I still struggle a lot with this.

 

[Bobby_Blunt]

Keep practicing! It's the only thing that'll help! I got the same problem with both D.B on drums and the guitar! But practice those tempoes you struggle with the most, and it will gain you the most control!

Get over that hump and far away, tommorrow will probably be nothing like today!

 

[ronjarz]

...when you are picking at these different speeds, is your hand in the same playing position, or do you totally rotate your wrist when changing speeds?? I changed the way I pick after my surgeries back in the early '90s. Actually, I reworked both hands.

Before my surgeries, I couldn't really pick too fast (not that I'm a speed demon now), because I used a different type of left-to-right swinging motion with my right hand. And there's only so fast you can go like that. Now I use more of a twisting, shaking motion. As yes, I've also run into that difficult tempo that's right in between, and I find that the best thing to do is try to pick exactly the same at all speeds, then there won't be a mid point where you have to switch. Eddie Van Halen uses what he calls "triple picking" on faster passages, and so that means that for different licks, he uses different motions.

What works best for me is to have my fingers and wrist very strong. Give them a freaking work out. And don't put pressure on your string, or you'll get too much of that string scraping sound. I do this exercise bit by angling my pick all different ways while keeping my wrist motion the same, and pick on all strings.

But like someone mentioned earlier in a post, you've got to figure out what works best for you. We're not all made the same. Not everybody can have that perfect Yngwie right hand motion.

Even look at some fast as shit players like George Bellas and Michael Angelo. Those dudes use their whole arm. A "proper technique" no-no. They don't have text book picking motion, but it's hard to knock their playing. And yeah, Pat Metheny uses that back picking style, and again, can't complain too much about his playing. Even one of my favorite guitarists ever, Steve Vai, picks kinda strange. And of course, last but not least, the most wackiest picking style on a killer player... Marty Friedman!!

 

[SupersonicRobotic]

haha i was totally going to mention how weird Marty looks picking... its almost like an "underhand" style. has wrist or hand is really "cupped" looking. i never noticed it until i started seeing more live stuff from him.

 

[ACRONYM]

Mattias Eklundh picks almost like he's holding a pencil.

 

[nicosanchez]

make a video... that would be pretty sweet.
anything for guitar players to see is fun. id like to see it.

theres exceptions to rules in everything.
from throwing footballs to playing guitar.

ok the video is ready (really small video, remember). It doesn't have much quality, if anyone of you wishes to donate to me a $10000 camera, I'll accept it (LOL)

Video link

Another link (just in case)

 

[CorridorOfChameleons]

ok the video is ready (really small video, remember). It doesn't have much quality, if anyone of you wishes to donate to me a $10000 camera, I'll accept it (LOL)

Video link

Another link (just in case)

Neither worked .

Ron thanks for the tips dude.

I keep my wrist and forearm almost inert most of the time (completely motionless). I feel that generally when I pick the notes HARD and build up using my fingers and gliding the pick up and down I build more stamina and precision. It's just building it up fast and learning to relax and hit all the notes clean is my main problem in the long run. It's just a science that I need to learn to master which I think is the ultimate challenge with most stringed instruments. Mainly, with diatonic sequences and string skipping.

 

[nicosanchez]

the first link still works!, just copy the address in the address bar in your explorer and press go

 

[Barking Pumpkin]

ok the video is ready (really small video, remember). It doesn't have much quality, if anyone of you wishes to donate to me a $10000 camera, I'll accept it (LOL)

Video link

Another link (just in case)

Whoah.....nice technique there. That was actually really interesting to watch....are you picking from just your thumb? The only point I could ever detect any picking motion was when you did the slower picking and it was just your thumb moving. I'm a light-wrist picker, and I can't really imagine what it's like for the people with larger picking (forearm) or smaller picking from the thumb.

Maybe you could expand a bit on the technique for picking with just your thumb? I can't even really figure out how to do it.

 

[CorridorOfChameleons]

the first link still works!, just copy the address in the address bar in your explorer and press go

Shit man. I did that and what happens is the box comes up with the file and the ''open'' thing is disabled. I use Mozilla so I tried it on IE instead and it worked on the 8th attempt because of how slow it ran.

Cool shredding, the vid was kinda weird and slightly dragging with the graphics but I can see what you're doing there. Pretty weird and unusual to me but it seems to work for ya.

 

[nicosanchez]

when i began playing "fingers only", i realized that i was touching the body of the guitar with the other fingers, so i wasn't able to move the wrist. try also to pick ON the fretboard, because when you start using this technique, your fingers don't have enough strenght, and picking on the fretboard will give you more definition and less pick-noise. if i can get a better camera i'll make another video, longer of course.

 

[Barking Pumpkin]

That's a very interesting movement......do you see any advantages to using that over picking from the wrist?

 

[nicosanchez]

the thing is that i can go faster and consistently, and i don't get tired using that technique.