So let's discuss about picking techniques...

[durangokid]

Hey folks!

so for the last 3 months i've been trying to figure the best way to pick for me, still no results, some guys says that picking with the forearm and a stiff pulse it's like cheating, i think that's not right, but it's not the best way, since you lose a lot of the control of your picking, i've tried picking with only fingers movement, mix between some techniques, but i keep coming back to using just the pulse for picking, like paul gilbert or al di meola, but then i can't speed it up using it, i keep going from pulse to stiff pulse, i've come across today that picking lightly, really gently it's way better too, so what do you guys think?
like, what's the best way for you to alternate pick, the best pick, diffrent concepts...etc

 

[Evil7]

This video has some good examples of using your wrist to get really great picking tehnique.. Resting your pinky on the body below the strings helps at first ... try not to angle the pick extremely.

 

[Laxdude67]

for me, I learned hand/picking position by just doing what came natural which for me was almost a carbon copy of bjorn gelotte of in flames. I anchor my pinky to the bridge pickup housing and almost curl my hand into an upside down U.

when I pick an ascending sequence, I tend to pick on a downward angle towards the neck of the guitar and vice versa when descending, which brings the meaty part of my hand along and mutes unused strings and noise. it works for me!

here's a good video of what I'm talking about. its a video he did on sweep picking, but i took the general idea of muting with the hand and changed it up a little. The guy is a fantastic instructor and gives some out of the box examples. (He gets to what i'm talking about around 5:30)



Hope that helps dude!
-James

 

[SirMyghin]

Pick with your wrist, not your forearm. I am not a big advocate for finger movement also, but if you can do it go nuts, I find it distracts me too much, aside from changing the pick angle when sweeping (and I am a complete sweep novice).

I hybrid pick a lot so my picking style is different than these guys, I do not anchor my picky. I generally playing low have the meaty part by my thumb resting on the guitar body, and use it to mute as I progress up the board. This allows my fingers to remain free should I want to use them for economy. This way my alternate picking style, and hybrid picking style remain completely compatible. It also means my fingers are not splayed out far however, closer to a loose fist.

 

[jymellis]

that video is awesome laxdude! that guy should be a public speaker! i also have alot of pick positions. prolly about 10. i also move my hand around the bridge as i palm mute.further onto the strings and the longer it rings out. farther back and it deadens pretty quick. i like both depending. i realllly try not to anchor though. as in holding a pup ring or high e string with my pinky. my classical teacher HATED anchoring lol.

 

[Deadnightshade]

Back in the day i used to pick relatively hard,with my pink against the body.This guy literally changed my way of picking.I also purchased the stylus pick to help me complete the change and avoid mistakes, and now i'm way happier with my technique.

I'm a bit lazy to practice for superspeed or generally practice according to a schedule,but i'm generally happy with the tone i now get from my guitar and i play with more consistency.Or,when i get rusty,i know exactly how to practice to get back to shape .
I pick really light and that gives me room to accentuate better when i want rather than be on forte fortissimo all the time

 

[jymellis]

/\ rg7420 \m/

 

[SirMyghin]

^^ Deadshade, that is how I alternate pick, minus the 4 fingers in part, and was trying to describe.

 

[Origin]

I just circle/economy in general, and obviously go full alternate if it's for something a little crazier. I used to have SHITTY technique, but I'm slowly, slowly improving it.

 

[tacotiklah]

This video has some good examples of using your wrist to get really great picking tehnique.. Resting your pinky on the body below the strings helps at first ... try not to angle the pick extremely.

While that last part is true in most cases, I disagree with never doing it. After having watched a Devin Townsend here on these forums and listening to his picking style, I discovered that picking in an angle that is almost slicing into your strings while doing heavy palm mutes gives your tone an ungodly amount of heaviness. In fact I even did this on my band's recent demo recordings with amazing results. (being that I made a heavy section of a song sound almost twice as heavy just by making a slight change in the way I pick)

 

[Kstring]

There is no right way to pick. You have to keep trying differant syles untill you find one that works. I pick with my wrist because its comfortable and i am more relaxed. I tryed to do the rest the pinky on the guitar and it didn't work for me, my playing got very sloppy and i had pain in my wrist. So i stopped that after a week and my playing started to get better.

 

[SirMyghin]

While that last part is true in most cases, I disagree with never doing it. After having watched a Devin Townsend here on these forums and listening to his picking style, I discovered that picking in an angle that is almost slicing into your strings while doing heavy palm mutes gives your tone an ungodly amount of heaviness. In fact I even did this on my band's recent demo recordings with amazing results. (being that I made a heavy section of a song sound almost twice as heavy just by making a slight change in the way I pick)

I am curious as to what gauge picks either you and he are using. As mine pick angle doesn't change sound much, unless it is flat vs angled about 150-20 degrees. Then again my pick is made of stone, so rigid in every sense of the word.

 

[durangokid]

thanks for all the videos and the answer!

so here is the deal, when i try to pick only with wrist motion, i can't speed it up, and when i speed it up, i lose control of it and start to blend wrist and forearm motion , so what should i do? practice from slow and gradually speed up till i'm confortable with picking with technique, or find another way to pick?

 

[Evil7]

Ive just noticed if I angle my pick very extremely I get a scratching sound that sounds sloppy for the metal i play... I try not to angle too much... Not saying its wrong.. i just dont like it..

To the op... I would advise practicing tremolo picking using the wrist .. and bend your wrist.. its hard to do this technique with a straight wrist..

Its not reallly something that you will pick up in one jam session.. so yeah start out at what ever speed you can keep the notes consistant then try to move faster..

You will get it ..... there is lots of good info in this thread already.. I would focus on the angle of the wrist and watching examples of the technique that makes the sounds you like.

 

[SirMyghin]

thanks for all the videos and the answer!

so here is the deal, when i try to pick only with wrist motion, i can't speed it up, and when i speed it up, i lose control of it and start to blend wrist and forearm motion , so what should i do? practice from slow and gradually speed up till i'm confortable with picking with technique, or find another way to pick?

As a bassist who came from finger style to playing guitar with a pick it took me a very very long time to get used to. You are going to have to start slow, very slow. You will get there eventually, before you are able to blitz 16ths at 180 it is going to be many months though.

 

[Furyfueled]

Well, as a new guy here (and a noob), i thought i'd contribute this, even though i'm no expert. Have you ever heard of Michael Angelo Batio? Of course you have, he is one kick@ss guitarist. In his DVDs he used to talk about something called PPS , which stands for potential picking speed. The idea is that you tremolo pick a note, any note, it makes no difference, as fast as you can. As you do that, you watch what your picking hand does (wrist or elbow, fingers etc) and you take the same rigid hand position and apply it when playing slow. The key is to have the same technique when playing both fast and slow. And thats how you develop speed, according to him at least. It seems to work for me though .
Hope this helped

 

[ittoa666]

Try to pick with your index and pointer finger.

 

[Deadnightshade]

Have you ever heard of Michael Angelo Batio? Of course you have, he is one kick@ss guitarist. In his DVDs he used to talk about something called PPS , which stands for potential picking speed. The idea is that you tremolo pick a note, any note, it makes no difference, as fast as you can. As you do that, you watch what your picking hand does (wrist or elbow, fingers etc) and you take the same rigid hand position and apply it when playing slow. The key is to have the same technique when playing both fast and slow.

This is correct,but only when you actually tremolo pick in a way that you don't sound sloppy.You can wack the hell out of the strings and be actually sloppy,although distortion will cover it,so when you try to use that technique in a situation where you actually need to pick an exact number of notes and alternate between strings,you may sound from sloppy to meh,depending on how fast you play