re - shaping my pick hand

[Lexavier]

hey everyone, just frustrated. no this is not a post about " im pissed because i have been going accordingly to my practice schedule and no improvement" I just really screwed up on the way I chose to use my pick hand on the guitar. I remember a couple of months back I watched G3 denver, and i was examining the way steve vai picked on "I know you're here" and instead of using the wrist to pick he was using his thumb at one point , sort of in out motion with the thumb to pick instead of the wrist. well ...heh i figured i could benefit from it and now im SLOWLY but surely digging myself out of this hole, I USE MY THUMB ON EVERYTHING and its definatley set limits for ME.

i know it takes time , its just you know when you first started playing guitar and you see someone play and your like "OH MY GOD" and then a few years later you come to find that, i dont know i didnt mean that in a condescending way, but what im trying to say is i cannot even remember if i picked with my wrist before i started practicing using the thumb so i cannot even reflect on how i used to be.

the muscles in my forearm are so weak, I can't even pick comfortably with my wrist to a metronome yet! ahaha. oh well I like the challenge, but if anyone has been in a situation like this , what did you do ? im constantly moving my picking hand with my wrist even when im not playing just to get used to using the wrist. it sucks because i dont want to play unless im right in front of my mirror to make sure im not using my thumb . oh yea ! a perfect example is the guitar world issue where they did paganini's 5th caprice in A minor, the guy who does the examples on the included dvd really really puts the thumb to use instead of the wrist, not saying thats a bad thing , he seems to get along fine , i guess it just didn't really work for me. Keep playing everyone

[Jimmy]

Hey

I'm kinda in a similar situation.. but what is working for me is a combination of being real strict with the wrist and making sure that I use a Metronome for pretty much everything and gradually taking it up a notch each time.... I just realised that might sound a bit condesending... wot I'm trying to say is I keep an eye on my technique (I practice in front of a mirror too ;) ) but not to the extent where I'm concentrating sooo hard that I forget to relax and put feeling into what I'm playing.
I play a lot of "Swedish-Death Metal" kinda riffs and they're a good work out for synching hands. Especially as there's so many staccato Palm muted notes between the other notes in the riff and only now (after like 10 years of playing :( ) am I really deciding wot picking technique suits me
Go with the Thumb if that's wot u wanna do.. (the guy from SUM41 uses the circular thumb/finger technique for everything) but maybe try and mix it up a little... Don't do wot I did and get all bogged down and depressed :D !!

[Bande]

I remember a couple of months back I watched G3 denver, and i was examining the way steve vai picked on "I know you're here" and instead of using the wrist to pick he was using his thumb at one point , sort of in out motion with the thumb to pick instead of the wrist. well ...heh i figured i could benefit from it and now im SLOWLY but surely digging myself out of this hole, I USE MY THUMB ON EVERYTHING and its definatley set limits for ME.

IMO this is a great mistake, that I almost made either. I was watching my favourite players -how they fret, how they pick, how the do stuff- and I often noticed that they were doing movements in a way different way from I did. The funny thing was that e.g I already had a good way of picking/fretting, that was comfortable for me, but I immediately started to work on the change. I wanted to change my movements similar to the players' I was watching.

It lasted for a few hours only... I realised that it was working for them, but not for me, so I stopped. I returned to my original way, and perhaps I'm gonna live my whole life with using those. It's OK for me, so i don't wanna torture myself with pointless efforts, if I already have something that is better.

[rrhea]

Lex,

I am no picking or technique expert, but I have been playing for a long time (now, if could just learn theory :D ).

But, I can tell you that you will need to develop your wrist if you are interested in speed. A very few people that play fast can acheive great speed without using the wrist. It can happen, but it is rare. It seems you already know this....

So, your next step is to correct your habit. I too use a lot of thumb movement when I play, but I also use my wrist a lot too. It can be an excellent combination for certain situations. I am currently training myself to stop using the thumb when playing high speed passages. You can simply play faster and cleaner if you use a fluid wrist + static thumb technique only (i.e. Paul Gilbert, Petrucci, etc.). This is difficult for me to do since I usually put thumb movement into most things I do subconsiously, even if just a little. So it is back to the beginning for me right now, working with very slow metro speeds and then bringing it back up very slowly.

Playing slowly I am able to control my thumb and wrist perfectly, but when I approach my top speed the thumb wants to kick in. This will take time, but eventually I will be able to train myself out of this habit when playing fast scale runs and particularly "thumb behind the neck" style licks. I am keeping my picking thumb movement, however, when playing slower stuff like blues and rock licks. I am able to play blues licks with much more inflection and "soul" when using the thumb + wrist combo.

Fear not! You're not the only one. Just keep hitting the metro in front of that mirror (it's excellent that you monitor yourself in the mirror!)... and you'll eventually get that wrist going.

Good luck to you!!

Ryan

[Lexavier]

hey guys thanks for all the replies! lol i kind of felt like i was the only one who was using my thumb, because ill see other people play when i go out or something and they are using the wrist and im just thinking "dan why didnt you just save your self some time and stick to the way you used to pick" lol oh well yet another learning experience!

[Lexavier]

Hey


I play a lot of "Swedish-Death Metal" kinda riffs and they're a good work out for synching hands. Especially as there's so many staccato Palm muted notes between the other notes in the riff and only now
if there is anything that has made me more frustrated it is , being able to just alternate pick on any of the three low strings while palm muting , i just cannot seem to get it my wrist just goes all out of wack and nothing is clean. i know it sounds stupid ....lol but in back to the future, marty mc fly plays the guitar at the end and he does this sort of surf thing where he palm mutes and alternate picks i think the A string and at the same time he slides his hand down the neck of the guitar at the same time for that sort of surf sound....i cannot explain i hope you know what im talking about lol....but i took some notes from mcfly and i figure i should try doing something like that so i practice that sometimes!lol hey comeon you can learn something from movies. but sometimes i can get it , and alternate pick smoothly ...and sometimes i cannot.

[rrhea]

Take your Marty McFly riff (or just about any Metallica "galloping" riff) and set your metronome to 60 bpm. Play each note of the riff for every beat of the metro. This is very SLOW, so it mght take you a bit to get the rythmn in time.

Now, do this and pay close attention to your wrist and thumb. Make sure at every moment you are using only your wrist. If the metro practice does not smooth out within a few minutes, practice the riff "no tempo" without the metronome until you get your wrist to work like you want it to. Then go back to the metro and do the 60 bpm thang. Once you can play each note on the beat, then try to play the riff to the beat so it sounds musical. Treat the metro like a drum beat, and fill in notes in between the beats staying at 60 bpm. This will be hard at first, so be patient.

Use this speed until you feel like you're able to move it up to something like 64 bmp. Never move up and stay at a speed where you cannot play the riff perfectly. Back it down and continue at the slower speed until you are ready for the next bump up.

This might take you several hours or several weeks before you're ready for 64 bpm. After that work up to 68, and so on. Always paying careful attention to form during all of this. You cannot get bored and lose focus! You must be motivated in order to use the metro effectively, because it gets very repetious, but it is the best way to get technique and speed down pat.

Give it a try!

Ryan