whats your picking technique like?

[ChanMin]

Hi recently i been trying to pick harder.... usually i use the minmum amount of force to play... now having switched to a strat... i need to play harder for the sound to " come out " .... ive been practising playing hard but my picking hand suffering man ... any other single coil players out here mind giving me some pointers on " shredding on a stratocaster ?? " ... its something i really wanna learn !!!

i use 1.14mm jazz III shaped picks... do i pick with my palm dampening the strings or do i let the strings ring and mute with my fretting hand??

the more force i exert the more my picking sucks... more strength causes my picking hand to move out of control...
AHHHH!!!

help me... please....

 

[subversion]

if you pick too hard, chances are you'll make mistakes. i always believe in relaxing when picking, the reason why i play thick picks- at least 2.0mm (currently using Stubby).

this applies to all guitars- humbucking/ single coil. also, make sure your drive/ gain is high enough to create picking sensitivity... 8)

 

[satch]

i personally believe picking hard is the key to actually hitting the notes and also getting a good tone.

however, shredding takes time and practise. speed is the by product of accuracy.

could it be that u are speeding things up too fast? thus u feel that u are missing notes?

 

[Paulo]

hard picking n adequate gain for rock tones. i guess learning to control it will be the quest for ChanMin now

 

[ChanMin]

thats the funny part... ive been playing with ... mild gain..like very little gain...alittle bit less then just right.
but i believe if i can do this stuff on the clean channel ..dist will be no prob...

yo paulo ive been practising on wood like you told me dude... but wah... very very difficult to pick that hard man ... how do you do it ~~!!!!!????? picking hard individual notes is no prob ... a string of notes that travel across a few strings is the prob the transition from string to string got problem...

when i move to the next string... the up or down connecting stroke will be too hard resulting in very slow recovery time leh....

i want the chopping sound when i pick!! argh!!! i love yet i hate strats...

 

[dhalif]

hard picking doesnt mean that you need to be very vigorous and then = uncontrollable..

1) Speed picking - when you pick.. make sure the distance from where the pick goes away from the string that you pick is as small as possible.. bigger space.. u need more time to comeback = slow picking..

2) Hard picking - when you use that speed picking thing.. ur not really putting any force on it.. so its very soft.. now DO THAT and now exert force.. but still maintaining the distance thingy

If you do that properly.. you will achieve the Stratovarius speed of light picking.. hahahahha rock on babehs \m/

oh yeah and make sure can hear the picking haha tatattaattatatatatatatatatatatatatattak

 

[ChanMin]

ok ... i went back. ...looked at my picking hand for like 20mins.... slowly i realised the problem .. now i adjusted my pick ...so i hold more of the pick and use only the tip.. i used to use alittle more then i needed.

wah after 1 hour of playing chromatics and scales non stop... can sense some improvement will keep at it...

TTATATATATATATATATATATATATATAT *vrOOOOOOoooooooooooT*

 

[satch]

good job

 

[ChanMin]

er... thanks??...haha
how you doing satch...

 

[satch]

doing good.

urself? i bet u're enjoying ur guitar a lot more now.

 

[ChanMin]

ok oni la... happy depavali guys...
i still suck ass... haha

 

[guitar_phreak]

juz some insights...

Correct picking is important. the previous posts were all very valid.

Here's some "advanced" tricks

1) If u r lazy, boost ur volume, pick lightly (comfy). U can reach ridiculous speeds like this. The catch is, don't make mistakes. Get ur accuracy b4 doing this. You can use a booster/gain pedal for this.

2) Regardless of hard/soft picking, you must be "firm". Picking inconsistency often results in a choked sound, ie. Pick too hard and u get the loud twock sound. Pick too soft, u get all that warble thing... Practice ur dynamics (loudness) while picking "firmly"

3) Economize ur picking! to add on to dhalif's point, save energy. Utilize ur upstrokes and down-strokes to the max. Don't stuck urself with down down notes. Practice on 1 string, then practice on 2 strings (both directions) then practice string skipping, sweeping/raking last.

4) Learn to use ur finger and wrist depending on ur needs and style. If you are a power player/speed player, most of ur energy should come from ur wrist...like in a turning motion. Use your fingers to control ur pick if you are aiming for some dynamics and tone control (different angle of pick gets different sounds)

Ok...well...this are some of my insights...they might not be correct, but I hope it helps.