it was crazy how much his (early example) picking looked like mine. Really an eye opener and his "speed cap" was/ and is basically exactly where I max out. Very cool stuff Troy thanks. I have signed up to your site...it's really amazing for people who haven't checked it out. The "guitar pro" style interface but with the picking patterns and tempo are so helpful to work on things. I really like to know if I should be doing an up or down stroke on things and can get confused at times depending on the patterns!
Thanks for signing up! Glad the case study rings true. Our focus recently has been translating all this knowledge into concrete teaching, and we're excited about the table tap tests and case studies to help make motions really work for people. The interface you're referring to is Soundslice - it's awesome for linking up tab and video.
Same for me. I once started to get guitar lessons because I knew something was off with my technique, but she was just focused on learning chords etc. Well thanks to corona and other stuff I stopped going there. Also my brother warned me that I am picking wrong but I kinda ignored it because it felt comfortable for me. Well I guess it's time to finally work on that problem :D
@@troygrady please help me man my alternate picking was good and I was flying and then I didn't practice for like two days after mastering it for quite a while i just couldn't do it again and I find myself doing this often in guitar and I don't understand its really hurting my esteem when it comes to my instrument and I sometimes feel like I should just give up and I won't ever be able to be a shredder
@@zenvo5841 I would try and set more consistent attainable goals! Don’t just aspire to ‘shred’, look at what you can play today (not yesterday or last week) cleanly tempo wise, then make your goal that same exercise a few BPM faster with proper technique. Also let go of any ego you might have as well, doesn’t matter if the tempo you can cleanly play is ‘slow’ in your opinion, be honest in your ability. If you regularly attempt it you’ll improve, keep bumping up the tempos and suddenly being a shredder will sneak up on you as opposed to being this yes/no criteria that you feel you can’t currently achieve! :)
I have played guitar for over 12 years and this ONE video has helped my to take my technique to another level. Thanks for the effort and passion you put in every lesson!
Lol! I remember the first time I saw the Impellitteri video "Stand in Line"; I was like, What the mother f@ck?!!! The fastest thing I had ever heard prior to that was Yngwie's solo for I Am a Viking. I was blown away, and devoted all my time after hearing Stand In Line to trying to be able to play that fast. I remember hearing or reading an interview with Chris Impellitteri, and he made mention of doing cocaine around the time period of that album. So, aside from spending years learning technique, maybe coke DOES help, lol!
This might actually be the best 101 video you've ever made. It's hard to find a great video to show people to demonstrate this, either it's too long or just not to the point enough. This one trims the fat. Thanks for this
I’ve played guitar since the age of 12. Only in the last few years had I taken a few lessons to learn some techniques correctly. My instructor actually mentioned this lesson. So glad to see it finally. It has improved my playing light years! Thank you both!
Troy, you have always been the real deal. Seriously, I can’t describe how much you helped my correct my technique. I now surpass some of my friends who have been playing 5 years longer than I have and they are just now, understanding the nuances that goes into playing and pick slant techniques
WOW did you make this video just for me??? Everything you have said is spot on and that’s EXACTLY what my right hand LOOKS and has ALWAYS felt like for 32 years
This is one of those rare guitar instructional videos that actually teach you something valuable and functional and isn't hyperbole or full of useless fluff. It seems so obvious yet I never thought about how focusing on string hopping is counter intuitive to speed and consistency in wrist movement Very well explained and detailed, thank you!
Excellent, thanks. I coined the term "stringhopping" a long time ago in college when I was trying to figure out why my hands felt jumpy during string changes, i.e. literally "hopping" from one string to another. I had no speed issues while playing on one string, just while moving across them. At the time, I had no idea that stringhipping was a motion that a person would actually try to do on every note, even when they're playing on a single string with nothing to "jump over". It was only over the last ten years when we started Cracking the Code as a teaching business that we realized how crazy common this problem is. A very high percentage of people who complain they can't play fast, or "aren't wired for speed", especially if their maximum playing speeds are very low, are actually doing a stringhopping motion when you simply look at their technique up close. It was hiding in plain sight all this time.
Interestingly, it turns out it's actually not about minimizing the motion. You can make a very small stringhopping motion and you will still experience massive fatigue, and a very low speed limit around 120bpm or so. By comparision, Gypsy players can make giant strumming motions over 200bpm. The reason stringhopping is inefficient is because the downstroke and the upstroke use the same muscles, so it's almost like doing "all downstroke" or "all upstrokes". The muscles don't get to rest, so even though the pick is going back and forth, it's not really "alternate" picking, i.e. the muscles are not alternating. Here's a longer, nerdier explanation ( ruclips.net/video/LdLq0IVTXMc/видео.html )
@troygrady I have exact problem, i practised to get over years to get minimal motion but didnt think about this and i can see nkw there is still this hoping,my max 16th notes is 140bpm and its not really usable. Is there a picking that is best for single string picking, to get speed to play trilogy suite 5 by yngwie? or should i said to get 170-180 bpm 16th notes.
3 or 4 years??? I spent my twenties trying to play fast enough to cover the '80s rock stuff and neoclassical stuff that I loved to listen to and came up far short of ever succeeding. I played from time to time but with my work schedule mostly left my guitar and its case for decades. About 6 months ago I came across your video breaking down Steve Morse's picking technique and for whatever reason it finally clicked and now 6 months later I'm playing Extreme, George Lynch, Yngwie, Vinnie Moore, and both Randy and Jake's stuff from Ozzy. The crazy thing is that the more songs I tackle the easier it becomes to learn new ones. To me the bar was set at into the fire where Lynch's ascending six note pattern was about 230 BPM per triplet. Now that I can play that I can see the potential is even beyond that If I feel like putting in the work. Then again, maybe I'll pick up this PRS I've been looking at and just spend 6 months learning SRV stuff. Little Wing and Rude Mood are high on the list of songs I've always wanted to play....
I remember a couple years ago when I saw somebody post a negative video about Troy and I immediately assumed the guy was just too lazy to watch the videos and put the methods to work. After watching so many of Troy's videos and slowing down to a snail's pace then relearning with the correct technique and slowly building up my speed, I can say definitively that I was right on point about that guy. Taking the time and effort to do the work like Troy teaches gave me the biggest gains I've had in my 30 years of playing guitar. It works. I know now from personal experience. It works.
You just unlocked a new tier in my picking with this video. I had hit a literal wall and you helped me smash right through it... Now I have a new problem, my left hand can no longer keep up with the new speed. Time to retrain my hands to sync up
Good problem to have! That's the next level. Chunking is the answer. Try repeating patterns that start on downstrokes, and only focus on the downstroke while ignoring the other notes. If the downstroke is locked, the rest will lock up.
I wish that I had found your videos faster, Troy. I used to play exactly like the individual in the video, with tension in the forearm which eventually translated to tension and pain in the shoulder.
Hey Troy! I love the amount of effort you put into these videos. I have to ask- have you ever considered doing a close look at different fingerpicking techniques? I'm having a hard time keeping consistent time with finger style acoustic guitar while standing up... sitting down seems to be fine
We haven't, because we're not done creating all the teaching material we need for the picking stuff. It's one thing to know how things work, and it's another to figure out ways of teaching it that regular people can use, ways of testing when it's working, and so on. We still have a lot left to do on those fronts.
I've always struggled with gaining and keeping, picking improvement, even though I practiced more than anyone. Your videos helped me understand some of the things I needed to change. I am recovering, and getting better. Thank you.
so this is great on a single string but what happens if you want to try alternate picking arpeggios? ( one note per string or something like that) and i mean quick for instance 120 bpm? you cant go with this technique you will hit the other strings how would you do this?
@@madden7732 you dont have to make it bizzare " no matter what" i was mrtlry asking because i had a specific piece in mind Steve Vais Eugenes Trick Bag the arpeggio section was alt picked by him
Eric Johnson was economy picking when you said he was alternate picking. Its an important detail for people who haven't learned more advanced guitar. I think economy picking would of been an perfect and if anything a must have in this video. At the same time I really really enjoyed this. Could you tell me how I find out my max speed for 16th notes clean
I love your content. It’s really insightful stuff! I was a Cracking the Code member for a couple months awhile back. It’s greatly improved my sense of picking and problem solving for speed. This makes me wanna see what new content you have in store!
@Troy Grady so I'm just discovering that this applies to me. For me, it feels like the difference between a wrist based motion and an elbow/shoulder based motion. Some additional flexing of the pecs and shoulder stabilizes my forearm against the guitar so that my elbow can be use with a straight wrist. Te bicep and tricep become the two alternating muscles doing most of the work. I think that starting with heavy metal guitar tends to lead you into stringhopping naturally because the palm muting also encourages wrist anchored motion.
Wow, the YT algorithm has strangely met me in the rut that I'm in with my playing with a rope to get out of it. I'm working on a REALLY fast solo from Mark Tremonti and I can't match the speed because I'm out here bouncing like a rabbit with my picking 😭 I'm going to try this out and honestly, Troy might have just gotten himself a new customer. Thanks for the INCREDIBLY helpful content!
Seeing this video, a world opened up for me because I didn't realize the V I was making with the pick, I saw he did like the guy in the video you said was better, I did that and it eliminated the unwanted V problem for me. Then, since I am learning fast horizontal scales like Malmsteen, swept pick, I tilt in a pick in a slightly different way because otherwise this happens: I do an arpeggio and the notes whistle at me, I play a scale in horizontal and I realize that the notes do not they sound like I expect. Anyway, thank you again for the video.
I've been playing guitar for 20 years an I struggled with playing fast. I spent 100s of hours practicing chromatic patterns and scales to a metronome but never managed to play fast cleanly. The absolutely biggest break I made was just a few years ago when I watched a video by Berth where he talked about playing with a closed grip. Me coming from a Rock Dicipline school had always anchord my pinky bellow the bridge pickup but after changing my grip to a closed hand made me a shredder in just a couple of weeks. My left hand has always been strong but the right has always struggled to keep in sync. If I could give any advice to someone struggling with clean speed, try a closed grip. Pick slanting is also a part of it I guess but I never need to think about it consciously.
You guys are one of the few channels where I hit "like" before I watch the video. It's not just the incredibly useful and groundbreaking teaching you've come up with, it's the presentation that makes me feel like I'm rediscovering the guitar again at a euphorically enthusiastic age 12. It's interesting (and obvious) how this approach to skill adaptation applies to competitive pistol shooting and other complex movements as well. The idea that you practice extremely slow and slowly work your way up is just not that efficient and given how many musicians don't actually declaratively know what they're doing, it's weird that this idea perpetuates.
It is amazing that certain common wisdom persists seemingly in the absence of evidence that it works. Some kind of selection bias, I guess? i.e. I worked hard with a metronome, and I am now a guitar teacher, therefore it must be the way. If you don't actually test these things, you sometimes don't really know why you got the results you did -- only that you did.
@@troygrady Absolutely. You see this in shooting sports all the time, especially pistol. There are "combat" instructors that will drill slow-fire "fundamentals" all day long -- slow trigger squeeze, slow trigger reset, all focus on the front sight, etc. This may work fine for slow bullseye shooting but it doesn't translate to fast shooting, and the instructors that understand this teach the opposite -- learn to jerk the trigger without moving the pistol, learn natural alignment in such a way that you don't have to use your sights (some teachers start their students without sights), learn the difference between acceptable accuracy and useless precision, etc. I do, for the record, completely agree with your approach re: reverse engineering fast picking mechanics. Practicing those slowly (briefly) to learn the motion and understand it helped me a great deal, but that's a matter of skill acquisition, not applying slow technique in a high-speed context.
A wise man once said "Every guitar player should learn mandolin." You just described why I can't do that on mandolin and once I got it on there, it hopped over to the guitar. Thanks!
Since we moved into our house, I've been planning a wall, where I'd put the picture of people who had a great influence on my thinking. Mainly scientist, computer scientist, musicians. Once I'll create this wall, you'll be on one of the pictures. I'm serious. :)
This doesn’t happen often, but occasionally there’s a RUclips channel that is so great, it deserves much more subscribers than it has, and without question I think we can all agree, Troy Gradys channel is one of those channels. Troy has offered unique information that you can’t find anywhere else. Lets get Troy who has contributed such great information to our intimate guitar shred community by doing a minimal effort by telling your friend your band or even grandma if she’s into shred guitar :) and getting Troy up to his 1 million deserved subs. Occasionally when I hear somebody make a suggestion like this, I usually don’t do anything about it, but if you’ve been learning from his great videos, I think you would agree it’s worth the minimal effort. Troy you’re probably too humble to do the following, but please pin this message so it goes to the top. Thank you!
Welp, this is it. The reason I've been stuck for probably a decade or more. Like the kid in the far side comic stuck pushing on the door that says "pull". I thought I had learned "strict alternate picking" and if I just practiced harder I could get it there, but no matter how long I've been practicing it, it doesn't get any faster. Watching this, the lightbulb went off. It's exactly what I've been doing.
I just saw a video that claims picking from the wrist and anchoring the wrist could cause carpel tunnel syndrome. What you've described as the wrong technique is definitely my problem, though. My right hand looks like a sewing machine needle doing a zig zag stitch! I'm wondering now if I can anchor the wrist until the correct alternate picking movement comes naturally and then learn to "float" and, if necessary and possible, get that motion from the forearm. So far, though, I can only avoid string hopping by either wrist motion or anchoring.
At least as long as the teacher you go to has built up their speed enough to know this well enough to teach it. It's not a given though, just by going "in person."
I'm super hype about getting a magnet so I can see what I'm doing. Cracking the code op. Watch the adds for the revenue fam. They deserve it. When I'm rich on GME I'll get the primer. 🖐💎
yeah this vid hits home for sure! this has been an ongoing problem with me for a long time. its been a huge hurdle because I am a left handed person but i play right handed. so my right hand is doubly weak and harder to get to "listen" to me. It has def improved a lot but i cant wait to get my magnet so i can really zero in and visually understand exactly what's happening there.
Steve Morse and Michael Angelo Batio are both left handed players who pick righty. I myself am righty, and not ambidextrous, but I have experimented with left-handed picking and I think given some learning time it would be totally doable. So I wouldn't worry too much about that. Both hands in guitar are pretty different and pretty complicated, so I'm not even sure why we consider righty guitar 'righty' anyway. As to you the Magnet, you don't need one for the first step, which is finding a motion that goes fast and is smooth. You can do that by feel and experimentation. Don't put tons of time and repetitions into motions that don't work, just keep trying different tweaks until something clicks.
That's a very good skill to have. But so many of us were told to just repeat things for hours and it will magically get better. Maybe we should have been told that if it feels wrong, it * is * wrong, and we should change it. It sounds like you got you that message, but a lot of us, like me, didn't.
Oh god.....After 20 years of wondering why I could never break through a certain BPM I saw this video and have my answer. It isn't a great feeling knowing that I now have to completely rebuild my right hand technique but is exciting to know that I might finally be able to smash through my previous speed ceiling. Back to the woodshed. In all seriousness, thank you Troy!
I feel your pain. I started with 6 years of not really getting anywhere. It builds character! If stringhopping is the issue, the good news is that it can be solved pretty quickly. The best thing to do is to start by testing your motions to get a sense of just how fast you can move when things are working smoothly. This way you know what to shoot for with a pick. Here's one of our free tests ( ruclips.net/video/L6PUCTaNAOw/видео.html ), we have more in the Primer on our site ( troygrady.com/primer/testing-your-motions/ ).
@@troygrady So after a week of trying to fix my picking hand, using your videos Troy, I am well on the path. Things have had to slow down but note clarity and overall cleanliness of my playing has already improved. I FINALLY am going to be able to play Paul Gilbert stuff with efficiency. The video that did it for me was your explanation of USX. Placing my wrist "watchband" area on the strings was the key. That alone locked in wrist movement only instead of the forearm wiggle I had going on to facilitate the "hopping." Also, I no longer anchor my pinkie on the body of guitar which has allowed two way pick slanting to be a much more subtle motion. Before, the anchored hand limited my ability to palm mute and two way pick slanting was very exaggerated. I cant say thank you enough for all the hours you've put into this research and the videos you've produced. Ok, thats enough ass kissing lol.
I hold the pick so that just the very tip of it sticks out past my fingers and I keep it as close as possible to the string. Granted I don't pick super fast (my fretting hand can't keep up) but it's fast enough for me. I have very minimal movement in the wrist. It almost looks like my wrist isn't even moving.
This. A few of us have been mentioning Ohmura here. In the time frame that I've been asking, I've actually gotten pretty good at it. Check out the end of this lesson: ruclips.net/video/uGbMEPhl7rg/видео.html
I had no idea when I woke up today that I would be learning how to pick fast by watching Glen Campbell. I thought it was a joke at first. I had no idea he could shred. It reminded me of Pat Martino oddly. Have you ever analyzed his picking technique?
I don't string hop but I sometimes catch the same string that I just picked when I'm pulling back past it to hit a lower string while alternate picking. It's a pain and it makes me want to start string hopping 🙁
I caught the cracking the code videos a few years ago. That definitely helped my picking and increased my speed tremendously on a lot a things. However, now my limiting factor is coordination between my picking and fretting hands when I want to pick every note, especially when moving up and down strings.
im 53 and been playing all my life with several periods of times without any playing at all and regardless of how long I've played I still suck at it but over the past 10 years I've gotten much better. things that helped me was first a better guitar and a better equipment set up. after I began playing again I immediately stopped using regular sized picks and began using jazz size which are a bit smaller. that change in picks almost immediately changed my playing. being into metal music a lot of heavy metal that rythem is fast so if you got the chords and the basics but just not the speed then technically you don't have it at all.
When you use upward and downward pick slanting, do you eventually stop having to think about it? It seems like another thing to remember while playing various progessions (up or down slant)......?
didnt realize that I did this because well I speed pick metal riffs i dont do that but when I solo thats when my hand does that. im definitely gonna have to try to mitigate that
I wonder if that's also valid for the non-dominant hand. I discovered late that I am lefty that was taught to write right handed and even testing lots of angles, picking grips and picks, I am still struggling with 120 to 130bpm 16ths with low definition. If I flip the guitar I can reach with little to no practice 150bpm or more without optimizing the picking grip. I face now a dilemma of learn all again as a left handed player but it's a bummer because I am already 34 and I have like 4 years of practice more or less.
Turn my brain off to find the most economic way of my picking style? Did I understand correct? I don’t have that much of hopping but I am slow and I use my elbow and force myself so it takes 1 min to get tired 😓 if I don’t focus how I play and have fun a little bit, I can find my technique am I right? Solution was kinda confusing and I wanted to ask again. Amazing video, all of your picking analysis gives me the theory behind it and it’s very useful. If I can crack my code, what can I ask for more? 😅
Yes, we sometimes tell people to try and go fast and not think about it. However, an even more direct approach is to test your joint motions, to see which ones are already working. You can probably already do common picking motions quickly, you may just not realize it when you have a guitar in your hands. We have a range of tests that we use in our teaching to simulate different picking motions, and we put one on our channel before this which you can check out ( ruclips.net/video/L6PUCTaNAOw/видео.html ). This is Eddie Van Halen style wrist motion, which you can test with a pen on a table top. If this feels easy, then it will feel equally easy when you figure out how to do it on a guitar. This just gives you a guide for doing the motion in the simplest way possible.
I accidentally found that motion just doing some trial and error looking for something efficient that works. I’ve been trying to find the right balance of finger motion and wrist motion to just push the pick through the string and back again without lift away from the guitar. I’m still slow, because I’m old and just starting, but at least now I know I’m on the right track.
How do I place my arm on a guitar while sitting down, I’m fairly comfortable standing but when I sit down it all goes bad and my picking speed and accuracy suffers
So I can alternate pick on one string nice and fast (like the person in the example), but how do you get that speed when transitioning between strings? Not sure how you would do that without “hopping” in some sense. Do you suggest focusing on wrist angle so the pick can escape / not get stuck between strings?
@Troy Grady, I noticed that your personal technique for picking has the butt of your hand resting on the lower strings but the rest of your hand slightly elevated. I have been picking with all of my hand resting on the strings and picking with a wrist motion. I wasn't able to get very fast this way. When I tried what I thought you were doing, and not digging in the pick as much, speed immediately came and I noticed it was much easier. It was sloppy but that can be overcome.
I don't have a personal technique at this point, per se. There are just many that we've filmed / studied, and a growing number of them that I have eventually learned to do. The form you're commenting on is more of the Di Meola style of wrist motion, which is just how that technique works. In general, the best first step is to test all your motions without a guitar to see which ones you can do fast. Because if you can do something fast on a table or in the air, but not on a guitar, then you know there is nothing wrong with your joint motion, and it's just your guitar form that you need to figure out. Here's an example of one of the tests we use: ruclips.net/video/L6PUCTaNAOw/видео.html
That’s me. I always avoided stiff arming, because of tension, but that position works. Working on it..thanks. Still like other pick positions for slower playing...your thoughts?
So many factors in producing a memorable sound from a guitar. Speed is not high on the list. Touch, tone, feel, mood, melody, account for so much but are often ignored by the many who believe that flash of speed is a direct replacement for quality musicianship. it just ain't so. You want to be able to play fast for upbeat tunes and solo climaxes or the occasional surprise. But that's it. Variety is the key to holding long term interest in the listeners ear. After 2 minutes of shred I tune out. I can listen to Gilmour for hours. Solos like people need to breath, wax and wane, build, climax, and release.
I can do the correct motion now. I had been practicing acoustically for the last few months because I didn’t have a proper amp. But I just got the Boss Katana and I instantly saw improvement. It’s like the training wheels had come off. I can now shrink my motion even less because just NUDGING the string produces sound, whereas acoustically it did not. Now I think I just need to focus on changing strings without lag. It’s a small distance, but moving the pick 1/8th of an inch is difficult to do accurately within a millisecond LOL.
When players post clips on our forum looking for feedback, and they're unplugged, and I can barely hear them, it's usually not a good sign. When you get these motions working well, they can be done smoothly, fast, and loud, with relatively little effort, even with no amp. That's kind of the litmus test. If you can only get two out of three, it could be that something could be improved with the technique itself. The players we've interviewed and filmed up close don't uniformly use tiny motions. They just use motions appropriate to whatever musical goal they're shooting for - bigger motions for louder playing, smaller motions for quiet playing, and so on. But again, if you're getting the results you want, then that's what matters. This is just something to keep in mind if for whatever reason you find that you're *not* getting the results.
Amazing lesson! Love the Glen Campbell clip. On that note, my problem isn't picking speed so much as synchronizing my left and right hand above 130 bpm or so. I assume that's discussed in other lessons.
Yes! Hand sync is the next step after motion speed. This is primarily accomplished via chunking. The simplest approach is to try simple repeating patterns on a single string, like the Yngwie six-note pattern, or the Di Meola six-note pattern. If you're not a rock player, these can feel a little "exercisey", because they're repetitive. But they're still the simplest way to lock up the hands. We addressed the concept in more of an edutainment fashion in our original Cracking the Code documentary series here ( ruclips.net/video/0rjC-ph9WYA/видео.html ).
I can pick very fast on one or two strings but trying to get up and down the neck on various strings as in bluegrass solos makes me tense up and lock up!! Why?
So weird. I just realized today that I bounce my pick too. I can actually pick fast 16ths... say 160BPM for something simple like a single string lick. But I was noticing that my hand was making a pecking motion. This showed up in my sidebar. What a weird coincidence. Thank you, Mr. Grady! By The Way: I think I developed this habit because of the way Paul Gilbert picks things when he picks slowly. Watch his Intense Rock videos and see how he picks hard and then chokes the string with the pick on the opposite side of the stroke. I thought it sounded very cool, so I worked in it before I could even play fast. So as I sped up, I kinda sped up that technique.
160 is pretty fast for stringhopping, it's unlikely you're doing exactly what we're describing here. There may certainly be something inefficient about your motion, but the answer may be slightly more complicated than that. If you want to stop by our forum and link to a clip, happy to take a look.
The problem I have, is I can strum/tremolo like at the end of the video on a single string. But when I need to string skip, I end up bouncing between the strings. I have no clue how to train myself not to do that
Troy , thank you for such informative / in-depth videos . It’s interesting that you discussed string hopping here . I’ve always used this kind of technique not for alternate picking but to embellish chords , causing the notes to ring out , almost emulating the feel of a harp . I don’t think this is uncommon. I’m also near proximity to you , do you teach privately ? Cliff
Hi Cliff! No we don't do private lessons, we're swamped trying to run the web site and film these lessons. However we do review clips on our forum, that's where these case studes come from. This process works best when players have run through some of the intro material first so we have numbers for all the speed tests, and can tell when someone's motion is working as well at is should be based on their raw joint speed. So in that sense, yes we do have a feedback system for players with specific challenges, and we (along with everyone else) learn from that process as well.
My big issue is with moving my picking hand up and down across the strings. A fast picker hand can move seamlessly across all 6 strings but I get bogged down and it ruins fluidity. I just can't figure out why. I do have to lightly anchor my palm as probably most do though. Using the pinky anchor doesn't work for me except only in certain circumstances. Very frustrating
Depends which joint you are using for picking motion. They all work differently. Elbow players use the elbow to move across the strings like a windshield wiper. Forearm players like Gypsy jazz players flex teh wrist and can reach all six strings almost without moving the arm at all. Wrist players very often use a combination of wrist motion and upper arm motion. And so on. However, one thing I'd suggest is if you are having trouble with picking motion, find a phrase that you consider problematic and film it. Because players come to us all the time with complicated technical stories about what they think is not working in their technique, and then we look at their footage, and they're not even doing the motion they think they are - or not doing it right. So we always like to take a look at what's happening first, whenever possible.
@@troygrady Appreciate the reply. My picking is with the wrist while movement across involving more than two strings, my forearm begins providing the motion. For example, picking on just the E & A strings , the wrist handles the distance between those two strings.. But if I was to continue further along to the D and up tp the high E, my forearm would be what moves my wrist across. That's what I understand is necessary in order to keep hand & pick consistently perpendicular to the strings. I'm thinking it's also friction coming into play in that even though using the palm of my hand both as an anchor and dampening, its hanging me up. Is there any particular title on your channel that specifically deals with movement across all 6 strings? Thanks
it was crazy how much his (early example) picking looked like mine. Really an eye opener and his "speed cap" was/ and is basically exactly where I max out. Very cool stuff Troy thanks. I have signed up to your site...it's really amazing for people who haven't checked it out. The "guitar pro" style interface but with the picking patterns and tempo are so helpful to work on things. I really like to know if I should be doing an up or down stroke on things and can get confused at times depending on the patterns!
Thanks for signing up! Glad the case study rings true. Our focus recently has been translating all this knowledge into concrete teaching, and we're excited about the table tap tests and case studies to help make motions really work for people. The interface you're referring to is Soundslice - it's awesome for linking up tab and video.
Same for me. I once started to get guitar lessons because I knew something was off with my technique, but she was just focused on learning chords etc. Well thanks to corona and other stuff I stopped going there. Also my brother warned me that I am picking wrong but I kinda ignored it because it felt comfortable for me. Well I guess it's time to finally work on that problem :D
@@troygrady please help me man my alternate picking was good and I was flying and then I didn't practice for like two days after mastering it for quite a while i just couldn't do it again and I find myself doing this often in guitar and I don't understand its really hurting my esteem when it comes to my instrument and I sometimes feel like I should just give up and I won't ever be able to be a shredder
@@zenvo5841 please don't give up interpunction
@@zenvo5841 I would try and set more consistent attainable goals! Don’t just aspire to ‘shred’, look at what you can play today (not yesterday or last week) cleanly tempo wise, then make your goal that same exercise a few BPM faster with proper technique. Also let go of any ego you might have as well, doesn’t matter if the tempo you can cleanly play is ‘slow’ in your opinion, be honest in your ability. If you regularly attempt it you’ll improve, keep bumping up the tempos and suddenly being a shredder will sneak up on you as opposed to being this yes/no criteria that you feel you can’t currently achieve! :)
I have played guitar for over 12 years and this ONE video has helped my to take my technique to another level. Thanks for the effort and passion you put in every lesson!
Cocaine played a very dominant role in the evolution of fast guitar techniques.
certainly with glenn cambell it did!
Lol
Adderall help's me. Cocaine doesn't work long enough.
Lol!
I remember the first time I saw the Impellitteri video "Stand in Line"; I was like, What the mother f@ck?!!! The fastest thing I had ever heard prior to that was Yngwie's solo for I Am a Viking.
I was blown away, and devoted all my time after hearing Stand In Line to trying to be able to play that fast.
I remember hearing or reading an interview with Chris Impellitteri, and he made mention of doing cocaine around the time period of that album.
So, aside from spending years learning technique, maybe coke DOES help, lol!
😆
This might actually be the best 101 video you've ever made. It's hard to find a great video to show people to demonstrate this, either it's too long or just not to the point enough. This one trims the fat. Thanks for this
I may be getting actual fatter with the pandemic, and it's extracing the fat from our videos - maybe that's the secret!
I’ve played guitar since the age of 12. Only in the last few years had I taken a few lessons to learn some techniques correctly. My instructor actually mentioned this lesson. So glad to see it finally. It has improved my playing light years!
Thank you both!
Right in. We learn a lot from teachers because they are always testing out new ideas with students. That’s serious work and many props to them.
Troy, you have always been the real deal. Seriously, I can’t describe how much you helped my correct my technique. I now surpass some of my friends who have been playing 5 years longer than I have and they are just now, understanding the nuances that goes into playing and pick slant techniques
"because they learned it... From some other motion using their forearm" hmmm i wonder what that might be 🤔
We have no idea what you're referring to!
Hahahahaha
Lol! Sick minds think alike. 😁
lmao
🤘🤣🤘
WOW did you make this video just for me??? Everything you have said is spot on and that’s EXACTLY what my right hand LOOKS and has ALWAYS felt like for 32 years
This is one of those rare guitar instructional videos that actually teach you something valuable and functional and isn't hyperbole or full of useless fluff.
It seems so obvious yet I never thought about how focusing on string hopping is counter intuitive to speed and consistency in wrist movement
Very well explained and detailed, thank you!
Excellent, thanks. I coined the term "stringhopping" a long time ago in college when I was trying to figure out why my hands felt jumpy during string changes, i.e. literally "hopping" from one string to another. I had no speed issues while playing on one string, just while moving across them. At the time, I had no idea that stringhipping was a motion that a person would actually try to do on every note, even when they're playing on a single string with nothing to "jump over". It was only over the last ten years when we started Cracking the Code as a teaching business that we realized how crazy common this problem is. A very high percentage of people who complain they can't play fast, or "aren't wired for speed", especially if their maximum playing speeds are very low, are actually doing a stringhopping motion when you simply look at their technique up close. It was hiding in plain sight all this time.
@@troygrady It seems so obvious yet you're the first person I heard talk about it. Minimizing as much motion as possible makes so much sense
Interestingly, it turns out it's actually not about minimizing the motion. You can make a very small stringhopping motion and you will still experience massive fatigue, and a very low speed limit around 120bpm or so. By comparision, Gypsy players can make giant strumming motions over 200bpm. The reason stringhopping is inefficient is because the downstroke and the upstroke use the same muscles, so it's almost like doing "all downstroke" or "all upstrokes". The muscles don't get to rest, so even though the pick is going back and forth, it's not really "alternate" picking, i.e. the muscles are not alternating. Here's a longer, nerdier explanation ( ruclips.net/video/LdLq0IVTXMc/видео.html )
@troygrady
I have exact problem, i practised to get over years to get minimal motion but didnt think about this and i can see nkw there is still this hoping,my max 16th notes is 140bpm and its not really usable. Is there a picking that is best for single string picking, to get speed to play trilogy suite 5 by yngwie? or should i said to get 170-180 bpm 16th notes.
3 or 4 years??? I spent my twenties trying to play fast enough to cover the '80s rock stuff and neoclassical stuff that I loved to listen to and came up far short of ever succeeding. I played from time to time but with my work schedule mostly left my guitar and its case for decades. About 6 months ago I came across your video breaking down Steve Morse's picking technique and for whatever reason it finally clicked and now 6 months later I'm playing Extreme, George Lynch, Yngwie, Vinnie Moore, and both Randy and Jake's stuff from Ozzy. The crazy thing is that the more songs I tackle the easier it becomes to learn new ones.
To me the bar was set at into the fire where Lynch's ascending six note pattern was about 230 BPM per triplet. Now that I can play that I can see the potential is even beyond that If I feel like putting in the work. Then again, maybe I'll pick up this PRS I've been looking at and just spend 6 months learning SRV stuff. Little Wing and Rude Mood are high on the list of songs I've always wanted to play....
Can ya get Matteo Mancuso in for an up-close analysis of his picking hand?
What pick? 😂
Sarge you're here!
So many guys on here I wanna see. I wonder if he'll ever get guys like Guthrie Govan on here.
I remember a couple years ago when I saw somebody post a negative video about Troy and I immediately assumed the guy was just too lazy to watch the videos and put the methods to work. After watching so many of Troy's videos and slowing down to a snail's pace then relearning with the correct technique and slowly building up my speed, I can say definitively that I was right on point about that guy. Taking the time and effort to do the work like Troy teaches gave me the biggest gains I've had in my 30 years of playing guitar. It works. I know now from personal experience. It works.
This is the technical jargon I've been missing all my life. Thank you!!
Definitely one of the best teachers on youtube. My picking has improved so much after your lessons!
Thanks man!
I've been playing for 16 years and you finally explained what I've never been able to figure out. THANK YOU!
You just unlocked a new tier in my picking with this video. I had hit a literal wall and you helped me smash right through it... Now I have a new problem, my left hand can no longer keep up with the new speed. Time to retrain my hands to sync up
Good problem to have! That's the next level. Chunking is the answer. Try repeating patterns that start on downstrokes, and only focus on the downstroke while ignoring the other notes. If the downstroke is locked, the rest will lock up.
I wish that I had found your videos faster, Troy. I used to play exactly like the individual in the video, with tension in the forearm which eventually translated to tension and pain in the shoulder.
Stringhopping is super common! No shame in that. As long as you can break the habit eventually.
I have been looking for this exact video my entire life. Subscribed.
Hey Troy! I love the amount of effort you put into these videos. I have to ask- have you ever considered doing a close look at different fingerpicking techniques? I'm having a hard time keeping consistent time with finger style acoustic guitar while standing up... sitting down seems to be fine
We haven't, because we're not done creating all the teaching material we need for the picking stuff. It's one thing to know how things work, and it's another to figure out ways of teaching it that regular people can use, ways of testing when it's working, and so on. We still have a lot left to do on those fronts.
@@troygrady that makes sense! Thank you for replying
I've always struggled with gaining and keeping, picking improvement, even though I practiced more than anyone. Your videos helped me understand some of the things I needed to change. I am recovering, and getting better. Thank you.
so this is great on a single string but what happens if you want to try alternate picking arpeggios? ( one note per string or something like that) and i mean quick for instance 120 bpm? you cant go with this technique you will hit the other strings how would you do this?
Exactly...
Then go for the bouncing technique.
Or...economy picking/sweeping. That's a better solution in my opinion.
@@nickcharles6530 yeah, I'd also go for it, but I think the guy wants to alt pick no matter what
@@madden7732 you dont have to make it bizzare " no matter what" i was mrtlry asking because i had a specific piece in mind Steve Vais Eugenes Trick Bag the arpeggio section was alt picked by him
Eric Johnson was economy picking when you said he was alternate picking. Its an important detail for people who haven't learned more advanced guitar. I think economy picking would of been an perfect and if anything a must have in this video. At the same time I really really enjoyed this. Could you tell me how I find out my max speed for 16th notes clean
I love your content. It’s really insightful stuff! I was a Cracking the Code member for a couple months awhile back. It’s greatly improved my sense of picking and problem solving for speed. This makes me wanna see what new content you have in store!
@Troy Grady so I'm just discovering that this applies to me. For me, it feels like the difference between a wrist based motion and an elbow/shoulder based motion. Some additional flexing of the pecs and shoulder stabilizes my forearm against the guitar so that my elbow can be use with a straight wrist. Te bicep and tricep become the two alternating muscles doing most of the work.
I think that starting with heavy metal guitar tends to lead you into stringhopping naturally because the palm muting also encourages wrist anchored motion.
To quote a famous song... You're simply the best
Wow, the YT algorithm has strangely met me in the rut that I'm in with my playing with a rope to get out of it.
I'm working on a REALLY fast solo from Mark Tremonti and I can't match the speed because I'm out here bouncing like a rabbit with my picking 😭
I'm going to try this out and honestly, Troy might have just gotten himself a new customer.
Thanks for the INCREDIBLY helpful content!
This Is the most clear way yo Speed, this lesson Is a treasure!!!
Ainda tem gente q da dislike num video desses.. o grande craqueador da musica dando uma mega aula
Seeing this video, a world opened up for me because I didn't realize the V I was making with the pick, I saw he did like the guy in the video you said was better, I did that and it eliminated the unwanted V problem for me.
Then, since I am learning fast horizontal scales like Malmsteen, swept pick, I tilt in a pick in a slightly different way because otherwise this happens: I do an arpeggio and the notes whistle at me, I play a scale in horizontal and I realize that the notes do not they sound like I expect.
Anyway, thank you again for the video.
I've been playing guitar for 20 years an I struggled with playing fast. I spent 100s of hours practicing chromatic patterns and scales to a metronome but never managed to play fast cleanly. The absolutely biggest break I made was just a few years ago when I watched a video by Berth where he talked about playing with a closed grip. Me coming from a Rock Dicipline school had always anchord my pinky bellow the bridge pickup but after changing my grip to a closed hand made me a shredder in just a couple of weeks. My left hand has always been strong but the right has always struggled to keep in sync.
If I could give any advice to someone struggling with clean speed, try a closed grip.
Pick slanting is also a part of it I guess but I never need to think about it consciously.
Troy - Number one guitar physics instructor
You guys are one of the few channels where I hit "like" before I watch the video. It's not just the incredibly useful and groundbreaking teaching you've come up with, it's the presentation that makes me feel like I'm rediscovering the guitar again at a euphorically enthusiastic age 12.
It's interesting (and obvious) how this approach to skill adaptation applies to competitive pistol shooting and other complex movements as well. The idea that you practice extremely slow and slowly work your way up is just not that efficient and given how many musicians don't actually declaratively know what they're doing, it's weird that this idea perpetuates.
It is amazing that certain common wisdom persists seemingly in the absence of evidence that it works. Some kind of selection bias, I guess? i.e. I worked hard with a metronome, and I am now a guitar teacher, therefore it must be the way. If you don't actually test these things, you sometimes don't really know why you got the results you did -- only that you did.
@@troygrady Absolutely. You see this in shooting sports all the time, especially pistol. There are "combat" instructors that will drill slow-fire "fundamentals" all day long -- slow trigger squeeze, slow trigger reset, all focus on the front sight, etc. This may work fine for slow bullseye shooting but it doesn't translate to fast shooting, and the instructors that understand this teach the opposite -- learn to jerk the trigger without moving the pistol, learn natural alignment in such a way that you don't have to use your sights (some teachers start their students without sights), learn the difference between acceptable accuracy and useless precision, etc.
I do, for the record, completely agree with your approach re: reverse engineering fast picking mechanics. Practicing those slowly (briefly) to learn the motion and understand it helped me a great deal, but that's a matter of skill acquisition, not applying slow technique in a high-speed context.
Another goldmine from you sir...i always feel special when I hear from you sir.
This video is great. And that Glen Campbell footage is pure gold. Troy, would you ever transcribe some of that/make some lesson material out of it?
A wise man once said "Every guitar player should learn mandolin." You just described why I can't do that on mandolin and once I got it on there, it hopped over to the guitar. Thanks!
Since we moved into our house, I've been planning a wall, where I'd put the picture of people who had a great influence on my thinking. Mainly scientist, computer scientist, musicians. Once I'll create this wall, you'll be on one of the pictures. I'm serious. :)
Not worthy!!!
I played a guitar like you was playing in video in the early 70,s a fender mustang
Left handed wish I still had it.
This doesn’t happen often, but occasionally there’s a RUclips channel that is so great, it deserves much more subscribers than it has, and without question I think we can all agree, Troy Gradys channel is one of those channels. Troy has offered unique information that you can’t find anywhere else. Lets get Troy who has contributed such great information to our intimate guitar shred community by doing a minimal effort by telling your friend your band or even grandma if she’s into shred guitar :) and getting Troy up to his 1 million deserved subs. Occasionally when I hear somebody make a suggestion like this, I usually don’t do anything about it, but if you’ve been learning from his great videos, I think you would agree it’s worth the minimal effort. Troy you’re probably too humble to do the following, but please pin this message so it goes to the top. Thank you!
The simple thing about solving the p
Welp, this is it. The reason I've been stuck for probably a decade or more. Like the kid in the far side comic stuck pushing on the door that says "pull". I thought I had learned "strict alternate picking" and if I just practiced harder I could get it there, but no matter how long I've been practicing it, it doesn't get any faster. Watching this, the lightbulb went off. It's exactly what I've been doing.
I just saw a video that claims picking from the wrist and anchoring the wrist could cause carpel tunnel syndrome. What you've described as the wrong technique is definitely my problem, though. My right hand looks like a sewing machine needle doing a zig zag stitch! I'm wondering now if I can anchor the wrist until the correct alternate picking movement comes naturally and then learn to "float" and, if necessary and possible, get that motion from the forearm. So far, though, I can only avoid string hopping by either wrist motion or anchoring.
NOTHING beats a personal teacher. Getting it right from the get go saves you years of struggle trying to unlearn bad habits.
you're right, I'm wondering how many of these "omg this video helped me so much!" comments are from people that are only self-taught
At least as long as the teacher you go to has built up their speed enough to know this well enough to teach it. It's not a given though, just by going "in person."
@@ShredMentor
Any good teacher can play fast. Once you have the proper technique down, all it takes is practice.
your channel has changed the way ithink of guitar. i love you
I'm super hype about getting a magnet so I can see what I'm doing. Cracking the code op. Watch the adds for the revenue fam. They deserve it. When I'm rich on GME I'll get the primer. 🖐💎
TO THE MOON 🚀🚀
yeah this vid hits home for sure! this has been an ongoing problem with me for a long time. its been a huge hurdle because I am a left handed person but i play right handed. so my right hand is doubly weak and harder to get to "listen" to me. It has def improved a lot but i cant wait to get my magnet so i can really zero in and visually understand exactly what's happening there.
Steve Morse and Michael Angelo Batio are both left handed players who pick righty. I myself am righty, and not ambidextrous, but I have experimented with left-handed picking and I think given some learning time it would be totally doable. So I wouldn't worry too much about that. Both hands in guitar are pretty different and pretty complicated, so I'm not even sure why we consider righty guitar 'righty' anyway. As to you the Magnet, you don't need one for the first step, which is finding a motion that goes fast and is smooth. You can do that by feel and experimentation. Don't put tons of time and repetitions into motions that don't work, just keep trying different tweaks until something clicks.
@@troygrady it's a work in progress and your vids have been quite helpful!! thank you for your response!
Very interesting. I always feel I was able to be a naturally fast player by listening to my body.
That's a very good skill to have. But so many of us were told to just repeat things for hours and it will magically get better. Maybe we should have been told that if it feels wrong, it * is * wrong, and we should change it. It sounds like you got you that message, but a lot of us, like me, didn't.
Oh god.....After 20 years of wondering why I could never break through a certain BPM I saw this video and have my answer. It isn't a great feeling knowing that I now have to completely rebuild my right hand technique but is exciting to know that I might finally be able to smash through my previous speed ceiling. Back to the woodshed. In all seriousness, thank you Troy!
I feel your pain. I started with 6 years of not really getting anywhere. It builds character! If stringhopping is the issue, the good news is that it can be solved pretty quickly. The best thing to do is to start by testing your motions to get a sense of just how fast you can move when things are working smoothly. This way you know what to shoot for with a pick. Here's one of our free tests ( ruclips.net/video/L6PUCTaNAOw/видео.html ), we have more in the Primer on our site ( troygrady.com/primer/testing-your-motions/ ).
@@troygrady So after a week of trying to fix my picking hand, using your videos Troy, I am well on the path. Things have had to slow down but note clarity and overall cleanliness of my playing has already improved. I FINALLY am going to be able to play Paul Gilbert stuff with efficiency. The video that did it for me was your explanation of USX. Placing my wrist "watchband" area on the strings was the key. That alone locked in wrist movement only instead of the forearm wiggle I had going on to facilitate the "hopping." Also, I no longer anchor my pinkie on the body of guitar which has allowed two way pick slanting to be a much more subtle motion. Before, the anchored hand limited my ability to palm mute and two way pick slanting was very exaggerated. I cant say thank you enough for all the hours you've put into this research and the videos you've produced. Ok, thats enough ass kissing lol.
best camera placement ever.
I hold the pick so that just the very tip of it sticks out past my fingers and I keep it as close as possible to the string. Granted I don't pick super fast (my fretting hand can't keep up) but it's fast enough for me. I have very minimal movement in the wrist. It almost looks like my wrist isn't even moving.
Is there a version of this video for the fretting hand?
Dear Troy Grady~
Please analyze the circle picking of Takayoshy Ohmura~~ He is a great picking guy in the world.
This. A few of us have been mentioning Ohmura here. In the time frame that I've been asking, I've actually gotten pretty good at it.
Check out the end of this lesson:
ruclips.net/video/uGbMEPhl7rg/видео.html
I had no idea when I woke up today that I would be learning how to pick fast by watching Glen Campbell. I thought it was a joke at first. I had no idea he could shred. It reminded me of Pat Martino oddly. Have you ever analyzed his picking technique?
I don't string hop but I sometimes catch the same string that I just picked when I'm pulling back past it to hit a lower string while alternate picking. It's a pain and it makes me want to start string hopping 🙁
I caught the cracking the code videos a few years ago. That definitely helped my picking and increased my speed tremendously on a lot a things. However, now my limiting factor is coordination between my picking and fretting hands when I want to pick every note, especially when moving up and down strings.
im 53 and been playing all my life with several periods of times without any playing at all and regardless of how long I've played I still suck at it but over the past 10 years I've gotten much better. things that helped me was first a better guitar and a better equipment set up. after I began playing again I immediately stopped using regular sized picks and began using jazz size which are a bit smaller. that change in picks almost immediately changed my playing. being into metal music a lot of heavy metal that rythem is fast so if you got the chords and the basics but just not the speed then technically you don't have it at all.
Again, thank you so much for your input
Dude, you are just amazing!! Thanks a lot!
When you use upward and downward pick slanting, do you eventually stop having to think about it? It seems like another thing to remember while playing various progessions (up or down slant)......?
An hour after explaining how not to pick …. Ugg
didnt realize that I did this because well I speed pick metal riffs i dont do that but when I solo thats when my hand does that. im definitely gonna have to try to mitigate that
Troy has an amazing fitness channel too:
search "5 of the best dumbbell leg exercises you can do at home"
I wonder if that's also valid for the non-dominant hand. I discovered late that I am lefty that was taught to write right handed and even testing lots of angles, picking grips and picks, I am still struggling with 120 to 130bpm 16ths with low definition. If I flip the guitar I can reach with little to no practice 150bpm or more without optimizing the picking grip. I face now a dilemma of learn all again as a left handed player but it's a bummer because I am already 34 and I have like 4 years of practice more or less.
You've taught me so much about my picking hand. Thank you sir 🙏 Amazing guitar player btw🔥🎸💯
Man this channel content is like WOOOOOOOOOW
are you encouraging us to use forearm rotation instead of wrist motion for speedpicking??
This video saved me so much
Turn my brain off to find the most economic way of my picking style? Did I understand correct? I don’t have that much of hopping but I am slow and I use my elbow and force myself so it takes 1 min to get tired 😓 if I don’t focus how I play and have fun a little bit, I can find my technique am I right? Solution was kinda confusing and I wanted to ask again. Amazing video, all of your picking analysis gives me the theory behind it and it’s very useful. If I can crack my code, what can I ask for more? 😅
Yes, we sometimes tell people to try and go fast and not think about it. However, an even more direct approach is to test your joint motions, to see which ones are already working. You can probably already do common picking motions quickly, you may just not realize it when you have a guitar in your hands. We have a range of tests that we use in our teaching to simulate different picking motions, and we put one on our channel before this which you can check out ( ruclips.net/video/L6PUCTaNAOw/видео.html ). This is Eddie Van Halen style wrist motion, which you can test with a pen on a table top. If this feels easy, then it will feel equally easy when you figure out how to do it on a guitar. This just gives you a guide for doing the motion in the simplest way possible.
@@troygrady this is very informative! I am on my way to watch and test myself, thank you for the guidance ^^
I accidentally found that motion just doing some trial and error looking for something efficient that works. I’ve been trying to find the right balance of finger motion and wrist motion to just push the pick through the string and back again without lift away from the guitar. I’m still slow, because I’m old and just starting, but at least now I know I’m on the right track.
How do I place my arm on a guitar while sitting down, I’m fairly comfortable standing but when I sit down it all goes bad and my picking speed and accuracy suffers
Me too.
Always awesome work TG!
1:40 I like to look up close under the "magnet" lol
Do you cover picking and hand synchronization???
So I can alternate pick on one string nice and fast (like the person in the example), but how do you get that speed when transitioning between strings? Not sure how you would do that without “hopping” in some sense. Do you suggest focusing on wrist angle so the pick can escape / not get stuck between strings?
This! This is what I needed! Thank you so much!
@Troy Grady, I noticed that your personal technique for picking has the butt of your hand resting on the lower strings but the rest of your hand slightly elevated. I have been picking with all of my hand resting on the strings and picking with a wrist motion. I wasn't able to get very fast this way. When I tried what I thought you were doing, and not digging in the pick as much, speed immediately came and I noticed it was much easier. It was sloppy but that can be overcome.
I don't have a personal technique at this point, per se. There are just many that we've filmed / studied, and a growing number of them that I have eventually learned to do. The form you're commenting on is more of the Di Meola style of wrist motion, which is just how that technique works. In general, the best first step is to test all your motions without a guitar to see which ones you can do fast. Because if you can do something fast on a table or in the air, but not on a guitar, then you know there is nothing wrong with your joint motion, and it's just your guitar form that you need to figure out. Here's an example of one of the tests we use: ruclips.net/video/L6PUCTaNAOw/видео.html
That’s me. I always avoided stiff arming, because of tension, but that position works. Working on it..thanks. Still like other pick positions for slower playing...your thoughts?
This is excellent explanation
So many factors in producing a memorable sound from a guitar. Speed is not high on the list. Touch, tone, feel, mood, melody, account for so much but are often ignored by the many who believe that flash of speed is a direct replacement for quality musicianship. it just ain't so. You want to be able to play fast for upbeat tunes and solo climaxes or the occasional surprise. But that's it. Variety is the key to holding long term interest in the listeners ear. After 2 minutes of shred I tune out. I can listen to Gilmour for hours. Solos like people need to breath, wax and wane, build, climax, and release.
Great lesson
Thanks for watching!
I can do the correct motion now. I had been practicing acoustically for the last few months because I didn’t have a proper amp. But I just got the Boss Katana and I instantly saw improvement. It’s like the training wheels had come off. I can now shrink my motion even less because just NUDGING the string produces sound, whereas acoustically it did not. Now I think I just need to focus on changing strings without lag. It’s a small distance, but moving the pick 1/8th of an inch is difficult to do accurately within a millisecond LOL.
When players post clips on our forum looking for feedback, and they're unplugged, and I can barely hear them, it's usually not a good sign. When you get these motions working well, they can be done smoothly, fast, and loud, with relatively little effort, even with no amp. That's kind of the litmus test. If you can only get two out of three, it could be that something could be improved with the technique itself. The players we've interviewed and filmed up close don't uniformly use tiny motions. They just use motions appropriate to whatever musical goal they're shooting for - bigger motions for louder playing, smaller motions for quiet playing, and so on. But again, if you're getting the results you want, then that's what matters. This is just something to keep in mind if for whatever reason you find that you're *not* getting the results.
Troy you are awesome! Thank you.
Amazing lesson! Love the Glen Campbell clip. On that note, my problem isn't picking speed so much as synchronizing my left and right hand above 130 bpm or so. I assume that's discussed in other lessons.
Yes! Hand sync is the next step after motion speed. This is primarily accomplished via chunking. The simplest approach is to try simple repeating patterns on a single string, like the Yngwie six-note pattern, or the Di Meola six-note pattern. If you're not a rock player, these can feel a little "exercisey", because they're repetitive. But they're still the simplest way to lock up the hands. We addressed the concept in more of an edutainment fashion in our original Cracking the Code documentary series here ( ruclips.net/video/0rjC-ph9WYA/видео.html ).
Thank you so much this helped me a lot
I can pick very fast on one or two strings but trying to get up and down the neck on various strings as in bluegrass solos makes me tense up and lock up!! Why?
Thank you master! :)
So weird. I just realized today that I bounce my pick too. I can actually pick fast 16ths... say 160BPM for something simple like a single string lick. But I was noticing that my hand was making a pecking motion. This showed up in my sidebar. What a weird coincidence. Thank you, Mr. Grady!
By The Way: I think I developed this habit because of the way Paul Gilbert picks things when he picks slowly. Watch his Intense Rock videos and see how he picks hard and then chokes the string with the pick on the opposite side of the stroke. I thought it sounded very cool, so I worked in it before I could even play fast. So as I sped up, I kinda sped up that technique.
160 is pretty fast for stringhopping, it's unlikely you're doing exactly what we're describing here. There may certainly be something inefficient about your motion, but the answer may be slightly more complicated than that. If you want to stop by our forum and link to a clip, happy to take a look.
You need to get Roy Marchbank. I would love to see you analyze his picking.
Do you work on the so-called Benson technique/grip?
The problem I have, is I can strum/tremolo like at the end of the video on a single string. But when I need to string skip, I end up bouncing between the strings. I have no clue how to train myself not to do that
Is stringhopping generally a bad technique or just not recommended for fast licks?
For me One of the smooth fastest alternate picking technique using by Yingwe Malmsteen.
Great video
Those pickups are WILD. 1 rail per string. Wow-weeeee.
Troy , thank you for such informative / in-depth videos . It’s interesting that you discussed string hopping here . I’ve always used this kind of technique not for alternate picking but to embellish chords , causing the notes to ring out , almost emulating the feel of a harp . I don’t think this is uncommon. I’m also near proximity to you , do you teach privately ? Cliff
Hi Cliff! No we don't do private lessons, we're swamped trying to run the web site and film these lessons. However we do review clips on our forum, that's where these case studes come from. This process works best when players have run through some of the intro material first so we have numbers for all the speed tests, and can tell when someone's motion is working as well at is should be based on their raw joint speed. So in that sense, yes we do have a feedback system for players with specific challenges, and we (along with everyone else) learn from that process as well.
Thank you
What about thos eof us who use finger/thumb motion rather than wrist or forearm?
Alot depends on your physical attributes too . Most ppl have to improvise on certain skills , NO one plays the same exact way .
i wish you could invite Ohmura Takayoshi someday here and check out how he picks during fast runs.
What about circular index finger picking? Ohmura .. the Japanese guitar wiz?
My big issue is with moving my picking hand up and down across the strings. A fast picker hand can move seamlessly across all 6 strings but I get bogged down and it ruins fluidity. I just can't figure out why. I do have to lightly anchor my palm as probably most do though. Using the pinky anchor doesn't work for me except only in certain circumstances. Very frustrating
Depends which joint you are using for picking motion. They all work differently. Elbow players use the elbow to move across the strings like a windshield wiper. Forearm players like Gypsy jazz players flex teh wrist and can reach all six strings almost without moving the arm at all. Wrist players very often use a combination of wrist motion and upper arm motion. And so on. However, one thing I'd suggest is if you are having trouble with picking motion, find a phrase that you consider problematic and film it. Because players come to us all the time with complicated technical stories about what they think is not working in their technique, and then we look at their footage, and they're not even doing the motion they think they are - or not doing it right. So we always like to take a look at what's happening first, whenever possible.
@@troygrady Appreciate the reply. My picking is with the wrist while movement across involving more than two strings, my forearm begins providing the motion. For example, picking on just the E & A strings , the wrist handles the distance between those two strings.. But if I was to continue further along to the D and up tp the high E, my forearm would be what moves my wrist across. That's what I understand is necessary in order to keep hand & pick consistently perpendicular to the strings. I'm thinking it's also friction coming into play in that even though using the palm of my hand both as an anchor and dampening, its hanging me up. Is there any particular title on your channel that specifically deals with movement across all 6 strings? Thanks
Do more video like this