Instructor Posts: 13.792
Joined: 11-March 10
From: England
I'm really interested in how picking fast feels for everyone. We're always told to relax and not play with tension, which I agree with. A relaxed muscle moves easier and faster.
However, in order to demand more performance we still have to make our muscles work right ?
I pick from the wrist but when I start speeding up and playing over my comfort zone, I can feel the muscles engaging somewhere above my elbow. It feels like it's either the tricep or behind the tricep. I'm not consciously 'tensing up' the arm but I'm very conscious of the muscle working. It doesn't hurt and I've not suffered any aches or pains because of it. I've managed to increase the speed and stamina of my picking lately and the speeds which previously felt more 'physical' are now a bit less 'physical'.
To all you fast pickers out there, can you describe how it feels when you pick fast ? I think it would help people who are confused about how relaxed they should be and are afraid of pushing their speed boundaries because they see muscle fatigue as tension so they avoid it and stay in a certain range.
GMC:er Posts: 1.486
Joined: 23-March 09
From: New Zealand
Fast picking is NOT just going nuts, playing as fast as you can, but all about REDUCING DISTANCE, tension and muscle movement.
If you want to speed pick, you should change the picking hands thumb from flexing, LOCK THE THUMB in place and most will use the wrist to pick from. The idea is make the movement very slight each way, locking the thumb down and moving the wrist requires less effect for more.
You want to use just the tip of the pick and REDUCE RESISTANCES as much as possible, as this will just slow you down. Lots of practice is required for this, ensure your pick isn't digging into the strings when at speed - just brush the pick over the string, don't raise or lower the pick too much, keep it near the string at all times and alternative picking should drift more than a few millimeters away from the string.
PICK ANGLE is important. Never angle the pick down or up from the string, it cheats and makes picking one direction easier but makes the other direction a nightmare. You can rotate it and change the picking attack, for example so the picking hand thumb is pointing down at a 45 degrees angle. This changes the tone/effect but normally sounds better and more aggressive while also reducing the amount of pick touching the string even more.
Paul Gilbert picking style I found the best to use:
Entirely up to you how you pick however, pick what is natural and comfortable to you.
The key through all this is to stay RELAXED and not tense, as you build up slowly your get to a point where your'll start tensing up. Push it a bit then slow back down to a relaxed point, it's always good to stop when relaxed and never play anything too long if tensed - else this will teach bad habits and slow you down. If you do tense up, stop for a bit, shake it out, and only play again when relaxed.
FOCUSING to little on picking creates bad habits, however focusing too much can tense you up and slow you down even more. You should give it some attention to ensure your picking correctly, then ignore it and focus on something else like the tv, etc. Your picking hand will naturally build up more speed and stay relaxed that way. If you get blocked, relook at the picking, check it's correct and start slowly again building it up to speed.
Hope that helps some that haven't seen this before, have fun, and quoting the speed master Todd "PRACTICE!"