Crosspicking With The Wrist
This was a live event on May 30, 2018 3:00 PM EDT
You've Hit Masters in Mechanics Material!
Just like those jackets in the '80s, this video is Members Only. Head on over to our signup page to get suited up.
Already a member? Sign in here.
tommo
Hey there, Tommo from the forum here :-) Troy, when figuring out crosspicking did you also have an initial period when it was "mini-strums" as opposed to accurate single notes? Or did you try to clear strings at all times? (As Andy Wood demonstrated in a live broadcast some time ago, and as we briefly discussed on the forum). Thanks a lot and you guys rock!
JustAGuitarPlayer
It looks like your pick is at much more of a diagonal to the strings than Andy's or David Griers. I guess the term is edge picking. I remember Andy said he is doing edge picking (in his case and perhaps in most peoples case, striking the string with the left edge of the pick as opposed to flat). But I'm wondering if you changed your angle to a slightly flatter attack, which is more of what they're doing if all the dart thrower analogies would be the same.
JustAGuitarPlayer
Someone asked for what your definition is of cross picking. I'm wondering that too. I can say that for sure in the bluegrass world, crosspicking is the term bluegrass guitar and mandolin players use for what you're calling a forward roll pattern. David Grier is a master of it, Doc Watson, Clarence White, Molly Tuttle, Carl Miner are all great at it too. The second half of the bluegrass tune Beaumont Rag makes use of what bluegrass players consider Crosspicking. You have a clip called Beaumont rolls on the Carl Miner interview, those are what bluegrassers would call crosspicking patterns. Tony Rice is one guy who does 2 downstrokes followed by an upstroke on his 3 note cross picking patterns.
DrLunchbox
One thing I've been wondering about, and it came up in the Molly Tuttle interview, is the transition from strumming to cross picking. For her it was automatic, but that doesn't seem to help much! Are there any strategies for transitioning from a strumming motion (esp. one that is mainly elbow-driven) to a wrist-driven cross picking technique?
We’ve spent a lot of time lately trying to figure out all the details of how crosspicking works. It’s a powerful technique — and there really isn’t just “one” of them! There are lots of combinatory motion mechanic possibilities, and an array of small variations that make important differences in how they all work.
In this broadcast, we’re going to look at the wrist-based approach used by players like Andy Wood, and outlined in one of our recent popular forum topics here.
So loosen up your wrist deviation and flexion and extension movements, and get ready for some smooth-sounding arpeggio additions to your vocabulary!
