Smoother picking motion?

[Swirly]

Hi there. I have recently been practicing my left/right cordination and using a metronome to go chromaticly up the fretboard. Now im not that fast, i practice at the moment on about 92bpm and playing 4 notes per beat. Its not fast, but if i go higher im likly to make mistakes.
I use a normal alternate picking motion, and use Dunlop .71's (purple ones).

After a while of playing i seem to naturally get into a pattern of just moving over the string, rather than digging in to it.
But are there any other things i can do to make the attack on the strings smoother, therefore giving less resistance when moving across the strings? I try to somtimes hold my plectrum at an angle so it slices diagonaly, but any other things would be great.
Ta

[Rabin]

Originally Posted by Swirly

I try to somtimes hold my plectrum at an angle so it slices diagonaly, but any other things would be great.
Ta

That's what I try to do to gain a little more speed but sometimes I feel that you loose a little note definition when the pick's side just brushes against the string!

[bryangraye]

If you build up your finger strength, you can rely less on your picking hand, and more on hammer on sequences (with every finger), although in the end it's still a combination of the two.

[Ash]

If you build up your finger strength, you can rely less on your picking hand, and more on hammer on sequences (with every finger), although in the end it's still a combination of the two.

Well, of course you could do that, but it's not picking! great exercize for legato though.
for the picking, what i do is start off really, rrreeeeaaaalllyyy, slowly, and play scales up and down in all positions (I usually use E minor pentatonic). when i'm done going through the shapes, i put the metronome up by one click, and do it over again. if you spend a half hour a day doing this, you should be able to pick like theres no tommorrow in a month or so!

[BrianH]

Get a stylus pick and pick with that when you practice your chromatic excercises. It'll teach you how to properly pick and give your picking hand a 'memory' implant.

[ShredOrDead]

Get a thicker pick -- at least 1.14 mm.

[markgibson]

If you want to change your pick to get faster, try using Dunlop JazzIII's. They're tiny little picks and an aquired taste but once you get used to them you can control it way better than a normal-sized pick. I used to swear by 2mm picks until I got some of those.

Ooo, Shawn Lane and John Petrucci use them too and I'm not going to argue with them

[The_Grindfiend]

Wow, I didn't know any other guitar player in the world liked the 2mm picks. I love them! I was almost embarassed to mention it, though.

[disassociative1]

i was just wondering do u people consider a fast legato run with pick hammer hammer pick hammer hammer triplets alot easyer than picking every note??

i use legato alot for the beautiful fluid feeling and sound it gives, ala joe satriani, and i just love playing like that

[markgibson]

Fast legato runs definently have a different feel to straight picked runs, picked runs can sound much more aggressive. It's quite hard to get a totally fluid sound ascending when using hamer-ons. An interesting way of ascending with hammer-ons is to hammer-on with the first finger instead of picking

[Devo]

i think the general consensus among the pick shredders is to generally use the paul gilbert/petrucci-ish sort of style.

Basically use a heavy pick like a jazz three (the black ones not the red ones) or a stubby. a light pick will always be a couple of mm behind your hand, hence you need to make bigger wrist movements to actually pick the string, and because you need to move your wrist more you abviously cant play as fast. (heavey pick smaller movements)

controll of attack is achieved by how much plectrum makes contact with the string. the lighter the contact the quieter the sound. To change attack or increase volume dont pick harder but rather move the pick towards the body of the guitar so that more pick moves accross the string..
more deflection of string = more volume.

generally if you use any pick for about two weeks you will become completely acoustomed to it, so dont let that put you off.

I personally prefere (Black) jazz3's cause they give a very recognizable petrucci sound.

Stubbies are slippier and are a great shred pick but i dont like the plastic sound the impart on the tone. I know lots of people who love em though.

best of luck

Steve

[Devo]

oh and your best bet is to keep the pick as flat to the string as possible ... any kind of angle is just going to give you a scratchy sound to you picking.

[btweensunandmoon]

personally...i hold my pick exactly perpendicular to the strings. That gives me a very well defined sound and I tend to dig in a tad just to give me that extra presense. The only way to get smoother playing is to practice your ass off. Theres no secret trick. The stronger your wrist and forearm get, the smoother your playing will feel and sound. And just as has been said before, dump the thin pick for a 1mm or heavier. I use fender nylon 1mm picks and I wouldnt think of using another. The things just refuse the wear out.

[baileyk85]

I was watching Zakk Wyde on Live At Buddokan and he seems to pick quite a bit with his elbow.

I always thought you were never meant to do that but I've tried it all the same and you can pick very smoothly although I'll admit you have a lot less control so more complex passages are a lot tougher.

[Swirly]

Hmm.Ive been watching my picking hand in a mirror latly and i noticed that although i make very small movements i hold my Jazz III in the way that its at about 45 degrees to tjhe string, rather than exactly straight next to this. I realise that this effect the tone a bit but imo its not that bad, there arnt any other problems with this angle are there?