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: 25.297
Joined: 23-December 09
From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA
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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QUOTE (Ben Higgins @ Feb 21 2012, 04:49 AM)
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.