Accenting Strokes Options

[dairwolf]

Hey everyone! Right now I am trying to improve my right hand. I noticed that I am quite bad at accenting strokes or playing with a strong attack in general.

My limit seems to be somewhere between 100 and 110 BPM. So if I try to play four notes per beat I can do it with enough attack (well, in my opinion). The muscles of my right hand will tire after a few minutes, though. However, if I try any faster tempo, I can hardly get any attack out of my strokes.

So want I am wondering about is the following: Where does the stronger attack come from? Does it have to do with the speed at which the pick hits the string? And is it only a matter of endurance of the muscled whether you can keep hitting the strings with a decent attack at higher speeds?

And do you need the same attack at very high speeds (200 BPM) that you have when you play slower? I mean, is it a sign of control if you are able to do it?

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[azureus]

Hey everyone! Right now I am trying to improve my right hand. I noticed that I am quite bad at accenting strokes or playing with a strong attack in general.

My limit seems to be somewhere between 100 and 110 BPM. So if I try to play four notes per beat I can do it with enough attack (well, in my opinion). The muscles of my right hand will tire after a few minutes, though. However, if I try any faster tempo, I can hardly get any attack out of my strokes.

So want I am wondering about is the following: Where does the stronger attack come from? Does it have to do with the speed at which the pick hits the string? And is it only a matter of endurance of the muscled whether you can keep hitting the strings with a decent attack at higher speeds?

And do you need the same attack at very high speeds (200 BPM) that you have when you play slower? I mean, is it a sign of control if you are able to do it?

Yes ,i think so !
Me pickinghand improved by doing the oposite movement =upstrokes

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[PosterBoy]

I think you'll find a lot of fast players (apart from Paul Gilbert) hit the strings quite lightly.

You still want to be able to control dynamics and accent certain beats with a heavier stroke, though else 16ths will sound boring and not have any groove.

Maybe practice an exercise with 16ths like

HLLL HLLL HLLL HLLL / LHLL LHLL LHLL LHLL / LLHL LLHL LLHL LLHL / LLLH LLLH LLLH LLLH

Where H is a Heavy accented stroke and L is a Light Stroke. So each bar you change which of the 16th notes you are accenting.

Just use 1 fretted note, so you can focus on your picking hand

You can practice this with down strokes for rhythm playing and alt picking for your lead playing

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[Ben Higgins]

As PosterBoy said, you'd probably be surprised how light these guys actually pick the strings. To go ultra fast with minimum effort you're going to want to keep the pick strokes moderate rather than really heavy. And most people will be playing with amplification and/ or gain so the heaviness of pick attack in fast lead runs isn't really necessary.

For riffs and rhythmical lines, picking accents have more of a place. Especially if you're playing with a moderate gain that is really dry and crunchy like Paul Gilbert. With that sort of sound you can really hear the pick dynamics leap out but maybe not so much in a highly distorted tone used by someone like Michael Angelo or Rusty Cooley.

It all depends what kind of sound / pick use you're going after. I know you've done quite a lot of posting about picking lately.. what kind of end results would you like to achieve ? What sounds / players are you using as inspiration ?

Also, if you have the function to record some video that would help us to help you a lot more.

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[dairwolf]

My problem is that when I try to pick really lightly, I can pick fast on one string, but as soon as I try crossing strings, I totally lose control of the pick and I can´t hit the strings properly. I don´t have that problem when I hit the strings harder, but then I am limited to quite a slow tempo (110 BPM with four note per beat).

I guess I´ll try to both get more stamina with my hard attacks but also to cross strings with light attack and see if I can improve.

I hoped that noone would notice my desparation about picking, but it seems that you are too attentive. ^^ Well, what can I say, it is my nemesis. My hope is that by gaining the necessary information piece by piece I will someday have all the information I need and that it will result in solving my problem. If I compare my picking technique to maybe just three months ago, I think I already made a 200% progress (well, its not like you can actually measure it, I think you get the point).

Right now I am really into John Mclaughlin. From what I can tell he uses alternate picking most of the time. But in general, I just want to get the alternate picking technique down in a right way, so I can play both shreddy stuff and faster metal riffs (take for example the song Ambivalent by Nevermore, you can´t play the the opening without alternate picking).

Unfortunately I can´t record a video. If I ever have the chance I probably will!

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[Cosmin Lupu]

My two cents here - as Ben and PosterBoy have hit all the necessary points In time, your picking will improve alongside your sense for groove. Accents are an important part of a groove and the more rhythmic patterns you will learn and understand, the more you will become a better picker In my honest opinion, a good lead player needs to be a good rhythm player as well. Rhythm is in everything.

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[Ben Higgins]

Playing on the acoustic guitar can also help with alternate picking as playing the acoustic does require stronger pick strokes.. plus it's the John McLaughlin sound !

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[Gabriel Leopardi]

Let me add that crossing string is the trickier part of Alternate Picking... you have inside and outside picking possibilities so you have to train both. Here you can find some lessons that I posted about this...

https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...showtopic=42830
https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...showtopic=42831
https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...t=0#entry576899

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