Circle picking

[Jupiter]

Aloha and Happy Easter !
You don't hear a lot of talk about circle picking, but apparently, it can be used to fantastic results. Micheal Romeo { Smyphony X } and Micheal Angelo { Nitro } both use it, from what i understand. I know the basic mechanics of it, but does anyone have some tips for how to get fast doing it? Any technique pointers or excercises are welcome!
Thanks,
Ben

[Jeff]

What is it exactly?

[Jupiter]

It's a type of picking that involves zero wrist motion... you just hold the pick between you thumb and index, and flick the last knuckle of your thumb to move the pick. Ideally, the motion should make the tip of the pick do little cicrles. If you do it right, it feels really cool, because you're picking with virtually no effort.
Hope that answers your question!
Ben

[Al M]

Sounds cool, but hard

[little wing]

Just one question, when doing circle picking, do you guys make the pick parallel with the strings or is it a little slanted? I discovered that most people pick slightly slanted to achieve a faster speed in most of their picking techniques but i think that this kills some of the tone... Is it true what i said??? I'm confused!

[guitarkatana]

Circular picking is pretty cool to do. It's actually kinda easy when you really get it down. However, it has it's limits. It's really difficult to pick fast and hard with it. It's also hard to circular pick without anchoring your picking hand. Curlying the fingers and resting them lightly on the guitar body works best for ciruclar picking I found.

For fast stuff I do a combination of circular and wrist picking. It just feels better to me than wrist picking

[Ant711UK]

I've used this for years, you have to anchor your little finger for the highs and the fleshy chicken drumsticky bit of your thumb for the lows in order to stay over the notes you play. It works for me!

[Jupiter]

Hey Ant711UK, after having used that method for years, how fast can you go { as in you can play 16th notes at how many BPM} ?

[Eddie Von Stef]

That sounds really cool. I have a video with the guy from Nitro, but I don't think he talks about circle picking on it at all. Do you know where I can find out a bit more about it, I want to try it out. And if you use a relatively thick pick, wouldn't that solve the problem of being able to pick hard? Just a thought.

[guitarkatana]

I use a very heavy picks

[Sativa]

Originally Posted by Jupiter

you just hold the pick between you thumb and index, and flick the last knuckle of your thumb to move the pick.

I got a copy of that video from a friend years ago, I seem to recall that Micheal Angelo says specifically not to flick the thumb and to keep the fingers holding the pick rigid because, quote: "How fast can you flick your thumb anyway?"

Have'nt seen it in a long time tho, so I could be wrong. buts thats what I remember of it.

[JohnnyRasgueado]

Sativa is spot on. Michael "Angelo" Batio does not use thumb/circular picking, rather he uses more traditional straight up/down alternate picking using his wrist and arm. What's particularly interesting about his technique is that he anchors his hand by placing the last three fingers of his right hand between his pickups, floating his thumb and index finger (with pick) over the strings "like a phonograph needle." (This has actually caused depressions in his guitars between the pickups.)

This was illustrated, as Sativa said, in his Star Licks instructional video from '87, which I have been worshipping since '89. (And, yes, he really DOES ask "how fast can you flick your thumb?")

Getting back to the topic of the thread, a friend of mine is a righteous shredder, and he uses an odd circular picking style. He describes it as such:

Once I get to a certain speed, I still alternate pick but I
start moving my whole hand in small circles, the axis of which being the
string. Going down in the circle I downpick and going up in the circle I
uppick. All of this is done with a very relaxed hand. When I change
strings, my circle-picking follows. It's basically just a mutant form of
alternate picking.

Personally, I notice that I do something similar when I use economy picking ... I start to circle to catch adjascent strings on either the upswing or downswing of the circle, but that differs greatly from my friend's technique, which is strictly alternate.

I have never heard of a thumb-flick circular style before ... sounds mighty interesting!!

--jr