I'm about to give up on buiding picking speed and precision!

[Jayy]

One thing the Troy Grady videos showed was how the slightest rotation of my wrist made the pick move the perfect distance. So it turns out my picking motion is actually more rotational than a side-to-side thing if that makes sense. Much more of a natural/repeatable motion for me.

I'm going to see if I can find anything on Troy Grady's videos as well. Thank you. Thanks everyone for your input. I'm just getting tired as hell of trying to improve and feeling like I'm getting nowhere at all, you know?

 

[eternal_idol]

might I suggest we actually figure out how Jayy holds his picks and the style of his pick attack. before pointing him in directions of technique

For all we know he could be holding his pick like Ola trying to do Petrucci licks

exercises that might be menial to traditional pickers might be exceedingly challenging for someone who doesn't pick the same way.

So Jayy, How do you hold your pick?

Yeah that is a good point. I hold pretty traditionally I guess. The pic is between my pad of my thumb and side/first knuckle of my pointer finger. I choke up on the pick pretty far only leaving maybe 1/8" of the tip exposed. I rest my palm on the bridge, have my other fingers open (not balled up in a fist) and tend to keep the pick edge at about a 30 degree angle to the strings. I think I hold it in a fairly normal way.

where do you notice the natural movement occurring that "generates the picking"?

mostly in the wrist?, elbow?, shoulder? fingers? Do you find any of these "tightening" up while you are play?

 

[Jayy]

might I suggest we actually figure out how Jayy holds his picks and the style of his pick attack. before pointing him in directions of technique

For all we know he could be holding his pick like Ola trying to do Petrucci licks

exercises that might be menial to traditional pickers might be exceedingly challenging for someone who doesn't pick the same way.

So Jayy, How do you hold your pick?

Yeah that is a good point. I hold pretty traditionally I guess. The pic is between my pad of my thumb and side/first knuckle of my pointer finger. I choke up on the pick pretty far only leaving maybe 1/8" of the tip exposed. I rest my palm on the bridge, have my other fingers open (not balled up in a fist) and tend to keep the pick edge at about a 30 degree angle to the strings. I think I hold it in a fairly normal way.

where do you notice the natural movement occurring that "generates the picking"?

mostly in the wrist?, elbow?, shoulder? fingers? Do you find any of these "tightening" up while you are play?

Most of the movement is in my wrist. Yeah I find my hand, wrist, and forearm tightening up when I struggle.

 

[eternal_idol]

Yeah that is a good point. I hold pretty traditionally I guess. The pic is between my pad of my thumb and side/first knuckle of my pointer finger. I choke up on the pick pretty far only leaving maybe 1/8" of the tip exposed. I rest my palm on the bridge, have my other fingers open (not balled up in a fist) and tend to keep the pick edge at about a 30 degree angle to the strings. I think I hold it in a fairly normal way.

where do you notice the natural movement occurring that "generates the picking"?

mostly in the wrist?, elbow?, shoulder? fingers? Do you find any of these "tightening" up while you are play?

Most of the movement is in my wrist. Yeah I find my hand, wrist, and forearm tightening up when I struggle.

Do you find yourself "Hetfeilding" much? meaning kinda straight arm with a shoulder slouch forward?

Since you mention that you play with your wrists mostly, do you find yourself "choking out" the pick, the white knuckled sorta grip?

 

[eternal_idol]

This is a little thing that seam appropriate to the situation as it relates to picking, don't worry it is in English.

 

[MetalHeadMike]

I mean damn it all to hell! What does it take to get my picking hand faster and more precise???

Fast picking=Cocaine

 

[Jayy]

Yeah that is a good point. I hold pretty traditionally I guess. The pic is between my pad of my thumb and side/first knuckle of my pointer finger. I choke up on the pick pretty far only leaving maybe 1/8" of the tip exposed. I rest my palm on the bridge, have my other fingers open (not balled up in a fist) and tend to keep the pick edge at about a 30 degree angle to the strings. I think I hold it in a fairly normal way.

where do you notice the natural movement occurring that "generates the picking"?

mostly in the wrist?, elbow?, shoulder? fingers? Do you find any of these "tightening" up while you are play?

Most of the movement is in my wrist. Yeah I find my hand, wrist, and forearm tightening up when I struggle.

Do you find yourself "Hetfeilding" much? meaning kinda straight arm with a shoulder slouch forward?

Since you mention that you play with your wrists mostly, do you find yourself "choking out" the pick, the white knuckled sorta grip?

LOL. No, I don't think i'm "Hetfielding", but I do choke out or white knuckle the pick some with tension when I try to play fast.

 

[Jayy]

I mean damn it all to hell! What does it take to get my picking hand faster and more precise???

Fast picking=Cocaine

LOL. Now THERE is an idea that I haven't tried! It does make some sense as a solution.....

 

[Shawn Lutz]

quitter...

just bust out a metronome, use a heavy pick ( I use Jazz III's) and run through your scales, modes and sequences. Start slow..gradually increase speed

 

[MetalHeadMike]

Seriously though, I've got similar frustrations with tremolo picking for death metal type riffs. Sometimes I can nail it, most times not. For me it boils down to needing more play time and practice.

 

[JimmyBlind]

funny post... but why would you even want to learn sweep picking its so gay and cheesy sounding... sorry just sayin

I think people get really bogged down with multiple string sweep arpeggios. Almost as though they are the pinnacle of guitar virtuosity. It takes a fair amount of practice to get them clean and up to speed and they're impractical and virtually unusable.
That said, they command a lot of control and help to get your hands synchronised so there's some benefit in practicing them as an exercise. Along with string skipping, I think they can help to unlock some of the picking subtleties and economy of movement.

 

[PatF]

Paul Gilbert offers an online video exchange class. He's gotta be THE best rock guitar teacher out there.

http://artistworks.com/guitar-lessons-paul-gilbert

 

[Deanmachine]

Malcolm,Izzy,Kief, gave up on sweep picking too and it didn't turn out so bad for them ..

 

[BYTOR]

Check out the countless 8 to 15 year old boys/girls on YouTube who can all pick with lightning speed and precision......and can also sweep pretty darn good.

It'll make you feel better about yourself for sure

 

[IndyPhil]

I mean damn it all to hell! What does it take to get my picking hand faster and more precise???

check out troy grady on youtube.

This.

 

[Jayy]

Check out the countless 8 to 15 year old boys/girls on YouTube who can all pick with lightning speed and precision......and can also sweep pretty darn good.

It'll make you feel better about yourself for sure

Yeah I've seen the little punk ass bastards... Thanks a lot, man. That really helped! I feel SO much better about everything now...

 

[Rdodson]

Troy Grady is fantastic for understanding what exactly is going on. His Eric Johnson stuff is really great. I play JazzIIIs, but I can actually pick faster with a Fender 351 medium. I like snap as well. Just a different thing.

 

[eternal_idol]

Check out the countless 8 to 15 year old boys/girls on YouTube who can all pick with lightning speed and precision......and can also sweep pretty darn good.

It'll make you feel better about yourself for sure

Yeah I've seen the little punk ass bastards... Thanks a lot, man. That really helped! I feel SO much better about everything now...

LOL, wait til those kids are 17-19 they won't practice and they will lose it LOL

After recovering from a Scaphoid fracture (one of the carpal bones) I had to totally re-learn my picking style and make some minor compromises.

my playing used to be all wrist. But since really focusing on my playing after the injury, I've had to make some slight changes in how i hold my fingers while i'm picking. Made adjustments to where my guitar hung on the strap, my guitar rests a little higher on my gut now.

My playing is still mainly wrist, but i've incorporated some finger roll movement on the pick and some elbow work.

grab a gripy pick, kinda like Petrucci"s J III signatures, those things ain't moving or shifting in your grip unless you want them too. this will allow you to relax your grip slightly without losing your pick

and experiment with limiting a little wrist movement and adding in some index and thumb movement to compensate for the reduced wrist movement

 

[Starman22]

Are you implying that sucking at guitar isn't normal? I wish someone would have told me this sooner.

 

[stratjacket]

As for picks, I have gone through a ton, but a few months ago discovered these Winspear picks and love em.
https://www.winspearpicks.com/

I tried several different ones, but he will do custom ones as well. He made me a bunch of 1mm Amber Shiv's (about the same size as the Jaz III) and 1mm Amber Broadsword (about the size of a regular pick) that's all I use now. I can't recommend them enough.

and a nice little guide on each of the materials he uses: https://www.winspearpicks.com/pages/guide