How Physical Is Fast Picking ? Options

[Todd Simpson]

I'm sure he is doing do it, he's not doing it constantly though. Check the video at about 1:17 or so. Granted it's a single string bit, but it's purely from the elbow. He does vary it up though during other passages. It's only the elbow picking that I'd encourage folks to avoid if they can.

Look again at around 3:00 he's picking from the elbow so hard he even talks about his trapezious muscles tensing up. Not to mention his popeye muscles tensing. Notice his wrist is barely bending, and how tense he is at these times?

That's one way, and it works for him But yeah, doing it that way tends to burn out your muscles pretty quick and limits your speed and endurance IMHO. So learning to make it sound fast, while picking from the wrist forward (instead of wrist back elbow/shoulder) it's possible to gain speed and endurance. Though it does feel counterintuitive for a year or two.

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Todd, are you sure he's picking from the elbow ? It doesn't look that way to me ? Here's another vid of his showing it close up
Hurts just looking at it !

Even that bit around 1:17 could be done with a much lighter approach and picked from the wrist. That's sorta why I shot that video of just my right hand. To illustrate how even when barely using the left hand, you can still pick quite fast. My left hand is working quite a bit, but I've cut the pressure off on the right hand so the hands are working at two separate tension levels. What often happens is that people let left hand tension drift on to their right hand.

It did take some serious pain during play for me to learn to play loose and still play fast. Not that I'd suggest injuring yourself just to use it as a training technique.

This post has been edited by Todd Simpson: Feb 22 2012, 02:01 AM

[Ben Higgins]

I'm sure he is doing do it, he's not doing it constantly though. Check the video at about 1:17 or so.

You're right, it does look elbow induced ! Owww Didn't see that before.

[Todd Simpson]

You're right, it does look elbow induced ! Owww Didn't see that before.

I see this quite often when instructing students on breaking through their 'Speed Barrier". Everyone has one, just like I do. Breaking down the things that are keeping the hands from optimal movement is just one link in the chain, and it's a long chain

See how tense he gets? That's certainly one way to do it, and lots of my fav bands play like that. But in order to have enough endurance to play at high speed for long enough to work on improvements and slight increases, it's often better to find a way to separate left from right hand in terms of tensions. If they ratchet up at the same time, this sort of thing happens.

That tension he is talking about in the video and pointing to his shoulder and such, is something I"m always talking about in chat. That tension can kill your endurance. And we pick like mad men for two hours so we need all the endurance we can get

[Ben Higgins]

I see this quite often when instructing students on breaking through their 'Speed Barrier". Everyone has one, just like I do. Breaking down the things that are keeping the hands from optimal movement is just one link in the chain, and it's a long chain

See how tense he gets? That's certainly one way to do it, and lots of my fav bands play like that. But in order to have enough endurance to play at high speed for long enough to work on improvements and slight increases, it's often better to find a way to separate left from right hand in terms of tensions. If they ratchet up at the same time, this sort of thing happens.

That tension he is talking about in the video and pointing to his shoulder and such, is something I"m always talking about in chat. That tension can kill your endurance. And we pick like mad men for two hours so we need all the endurance we can get

Yeah totally.. I think people can make anything work for them somehow. Some of those extreme bands somehow manage to keep going for entire sets, night after night.. but ultimately avoiding that tension is much more comfortable and efficient