Bigsby007's Technique Critiques
Technique critiques shared by Bigsby007.
Hey all - Thanks to previous TCs, my mixed escape/two-way pickslanting is pretty decent. I was recently very inspired by the interview with Dimitri Miles Baker and wanted to work on phrases where you have to do multiple inside picking escapes. See Dimitri Escapes vid.
my biggest problem is, once i hit that last note on the higher-pitched string, my wrist refuses to simply move left to hit the lower-pitched string without it feeling like big, conscious effort is involved. it’s like some invisible force is pushing back on it. and when i do hit that string, the pickstroke feels unnaturally short with delayed timing and that i have to get back to the higher-pitched string asap. and on the low e, forget about it, it’s like my wrist is pretending to hit the string and it feels v awkward. the rest of the lick feels easy.
see “regular sixes” as this isn’t much of a problem with normal 3NPS scales.
that “regular sixes” lick is much more natural though. just one escape in the middle of the beat. based on my review of the Synchronicity seminar, I’m wondering if there’s a chunking issue here, as the escape in the Miles-type lick is in a pretty random part of the sextuplet.
this is at a measly 80bpm too! it’s not the tightest against the click because i feel like there’s a hiccup or glitch when moving left. like zoolander, i can’t turn (my wrist) left!
what am i missing?
thanks all!
UPDATE: If I just play 10-9-7-9-7 on the high e and then 10 on the B, it’s super easy and i can play it cleanly quite fast. but if i know i have to go back to the high e, then hitting that 10 fret on the b string all of a sudden turns into the “can’t turn left” problem….
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Hey y'all,
I hope all is well! I've attached two videos. I'm having trouble playing upstrokes when inside picking. It feels like my radial deviation is super limited and that i can't move it far enough to break through the string. You'll see this particularly during the licks at the end of each vid (the Pantera riff in the first one and a Charlie Christian arpeggio lick in the second).
As for the 3NPS scalar playing, in addition to the above, it seems that sometimes I press against the string but don't go through it. Maybe it's a garage spikes issue? i also notice that the note quality itself is uneven; some ring true and some are less clear and so i’m not getting a smooth, obvious “going up and down a scale” sound. fyi I'm aware that I mainly have a DSX form when ascending a scale and then revert to USX when descending; it feels most comfortable this way for some reason.
Not sure if these are all "inside/outside" picking issues but they’re issues nonetheless haha. but my main one is, like Zoolander, i can't seem to move left! Curious for your thoughts.
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Hi Joao and team - I’ve uploaded a new mixed escape clip using our sixes lick. it’s at 116bpm.
my biggest issues: whenever i rotate my forearm on G5 (fifth fret G string), I rotate around the string and miss the string entirely, causing me to not hit that G5. also, when looping the lick, i have a really small pickstroke on G4. the latter is less of an issue when i return to the right pick angle but, even at slow tempos, i keep rotating my forearm over the G5 somehow!
anyways, take a look and let me know how progress is going and how i can fix. thanks!
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Hi Joao,
I hope all is well! Please see attached take of the It’s Showtime solo, one take and without any warmup just so i could see what my absolute raw ability is. if you want, i can play with a click for better timing but i just wanted to see how fast i could blaze through this.
A couple things:
1. I didn’t realize i’d run out of space because of the magnet when i played the highest pentatonic lick. that threw me off a little as you’ll see.
2. For the sweep part at the end, i just moved to a random spot but even ran out of room there because of the magnet haha. that also messed it up a little.
3. I simply can’t get rid of the swiping during the fast sixes part during the lick right before the 10th position pentatonic lock and during that pentatonic lick. i’ve tried. i must be missing something.
but hopefully the picking looks decent enough to refine further! had a blast learning this and, as a result, my picking has gotten so much better, which has helped me with many other musical applications.
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Hey team,
Just wanted to check in and make sure i’m on the right track again on mixed escape.
1. Inside Sixes: see attached inside sixes vid. sorry, i thought i had filmed with a slightly better angle but all pickstrokes should be clearly visible.
Troy’s advice on slowing down has really helped me feel what “right” is. in this clip, i’m playing at around 90 bpm (not playing to a click but it seems about there).
the biggest issue seems to be that the timing is still jumpy when changing strings and i seem to miss strings sometimes. also, my downstroke when going from the G to D string (to restart the lick) is a bit shallow sometimes, rather than the diagonal trapped stroke you’d expect.
finally, though i’d say seldomly, i revert to USX on the D string when looping back around from the G. this was a much bigger problem in prior videos so it’s good to see this take more of a backseat.
in sum, other issues notwithstanding (and slower speed also notwithstanding), is it fair to say the pickstrokes seem mostly correctly executed such that this vid represents a material improvement over past attempts? i know the other problems still exist but getting the pickstrokes right most of the time is big for me.
2. i also uploaded a 2-1-2 vid which is something Troy requested on my last TC and focuses more on pure DBX. right now im maxing out on that lick around a measly 108bpm there (again, approximated, not playing to click). EDIT: But I did hit 114bpm comfortably this morning; didn't film it.
in this vid, im not doing 100% clean double escapes as you’ll see; i press against or swipe the B string at times when hitting upstrokes on the high e, and the 7th fret on the G string when returning downwards in the lock is trapped most times. that latter issue is probably the biggest one that I feel; it's hard for me to get that wrist movement when going from a single note on a string (the B string in this case) to another adjacent string (the G string in this case). i can feel when it's right but it's hard to replicate.
finally, i find that moving my fingers a little when doing dbx licks, like 2-1-2, feels good. maybe it isn’t doing anything but pushing the pick with my thumb on the downstroke and pushing with my index on the upstroke makes things feel smoother. just a point to mention.
anyways, i’m not sure if these speeds in these clips mean anything as i’ve repeatedly heard the mantra that slow/medium-ish playing doesn’t say enough about how you’ll play when going fast. but here we are!
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Hi Troy - This is a continuation of my previous TC ("I can't do RDT and it's annoying"…which turned out to not be true!). If you could, please review that history and then review the attached video. My latest assignment from the previous TC was to alternate pick a 3NPS scale across 4 strings using DSX.
I practiced this assignment a lot, making slight changes and observations as I practiced. Watching the "slow" version and noting how I feel when playing the part generally, I notice that:
(a) ascending sounds and feels better than descending but I'm still missing strings sometimes (or barely tapping the string) when ascending;
(b) descending can feel like trudging through 3 feet of snow sometimes, especially going from the high E to B strings. And I notice in the videos that I'm entirely skipping playing a note on the B and G strings most of the time, and i’m also more broadly flip flopping from dsx to usx. I can't seem to program that out of me; this is actually what prompted the delay in my video upload from the previous TC.
With that, my questions:
1. What're your thoughts generally? What suggestions do you have for me to smooth things out further? I prefer the sound of "no edge picking" but dialing in edge picking does make things smoother. My video upload shows me doing both but the issues identified above still persist regardless, so there's gotta be something more to it than that.
Thanks!
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I followed the RDT section of Picking Mechanics really closely, watching it multiple times. All my movements appear to mimic what is done by Troy. but when i start trem, you clearly see the pick rest on the string above and below it. but it doesn’t feel like this; in fact, it looks like it’s escaping from my point of view. and it also feels smooth!
telling myself “okay so make it escape and don’t go side to side” doesn’t help. i can make it escape if i really pronate or go slowly but RDT at a respectable tempo doesn’t seem to be working.
i feel like i understand all the points being made on an intellectual level but clearly something is wrong. rewatching the videos for the 4th time in the row doesn’t seem productive. do you need vids of my dimeola table movements? i tried to demonstrate some movements in the camera.
fyi i can do floating wrist usx quite well with tremolo (gypsy jazz style; happy to prove that via video). however, i would like to focus on RDT (i can’t do dart thrower without getting double trapped on trem lines either..). i know you should go with the motion that works well for you but i’d like to branch out to RDT so would definitely would like to help cure the problem rather than avoid it.
can you pleeeeease help?
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I don’t have a feeling of smoothness at this speed. the pick isn’t cutting through the strings yet i feel like my pick angle is fine? not sure what the issues are. curious for your thoughts. thank you!!
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Bigsby007