Hi everybody. I have been watching Pebber's videos on YouTube for quite some time now, and I have learned that for the past 14 and a half years I haven't been holding the pick properly. I've been holding the pick like Steve Morse does, and it should go without saying that my technique comes nowhere near the proficiency of Steve's. So, I've decided to rework my picking technique. I've only been working on holding the pick properly for the past 2 days, but I can already tell it won't be an easy transition (it's a very old habit that needs to be corrected). Also, it has only been two years since I've started to develop more advanced techniques (alternate picking, legato, etc.), but for some reason I automatically defaulted to economy picking. This is something I'm also working on correcting. While picking across strings, my pick gets caught up on the previous string (ie: I'll pick 8 straight 32nd notes at around 56 bpm on the high e string, and when I cross to the B string, my pick will snag on the high e string and pick it one more time before going to the next string). I find I'm still having this problem since starting strict alternate picking.
Does anyone have any advice on correcting this problem? If you can point me in the right direction (or let me know which of Pebber's videos I can watch) it would be greatly appreciated!
Also, can anyone give me any advice on easing the transition to holding the pick properly? When I would hold the pick Morse style, I found I could pick 16th note triplets at approx. 100 bpm (sometimes more on a good day), but I'm having a hard time seeing how I could do this holding the pick differently. Of course, I'm beginning to assume I'm basically learning how to pick all over again.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me out!

Quote: steviewonder5150 wrote in post #1

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Hi everybody. I have been watching Pebber's videos on YouTube for quite some time now, and I have learned that for the past 14 and a half years I haven't been holding the pick properly. I've been holding the pick like Steve Morse does, and it should go without saying that my technique comes nowhere near the proficiency of Steve's. So, I've decided to rework my picking technique. I've only been working on holding the pick properly for the past 2 days, but I can already tell it won't be an easy transition (it's a very old habit that needs to be corrected). Also, it has only been two years since I've started to develop more advanced techniques (alternate picking, legato, etc.), but for some reason I automatically defaulted to economy picking. This is something I'm also working on correcting. While picking across strings, my pick gets caught up on the previous string (ie: I'll pick 8 straight 32nd notes at around 56 bpm on the high e string, and when I cross to the B string, my pick will snag on the high e string and pick it one more time before going to the next string). I find I'm still having this problem since starting strict alternate picking.
Does anyone have any advice on correcting this problem? If you can point me in the right direction (or let me know which of Pebber's videos I can watch) it would be greatly appreciated!
Also, can anyone give me any advice on easing the transition to holding the pick properly? When I would hold the pick Morse style, I found I could pick 16th note triplets at approx. 100 bpm (sometimes more on a good day), but I'm having a hard time seeing how I could do this holding the pick differently. Of course, I'm beginning to assume I'm basically learning how to pick all over again.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me out!

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hold the pick anyway u like and works. Eric johnson, steve morse, yngwie, friedman etc dont have a supersimilar pattern and they're fatser and cleaner than most of what i heard here.U can teach "proper" ways of holding it but when it takes decades to get proficient, perhaps it's the technique that's at fault rather than the player. food for thought.

GuitarPlayer - isn't it obvious that Ursin intended for the original poster to watch those videos as response to his question? Not sure what additional contribution you've made by suggesting the OP watch the videos...

OP - are you *absolutely sure* you need to change your picking technique. As Ursin says, the critical thing is not how you hold the pick, but that the pick is clearing the string at an angle. Plenty of great players use the same angle of attack that you're trying to move away from. If you can do 16th note triplets at 100bpm well, that sounds plenty fast to me.

I've posted this before, but never had anyone bother to reply to it, so I'll post it again. This is the best analysis I've read of different picking techniques by someone who's tried and persevered with many different kinds:

tuckandpatti.com/pick-finger_tech.html#standard

You'll have to put a 'www dot' before that address.

GrandmasterShred? If you can play faster and cleaner than me, I'd like to see it. Post a video.

Quote: GrandmasterShred wrote in post #5

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hold the pick anyway u like and works. Eric johnson, steve morse, yngwie, friedman etc dont have a supersimilar pattern and they're fatser and cleaner than most of what i heard here.U can teach "proper" ways of holding it but when it takes decades to get proficient, perhaps it's the technique that's at fault rather than the player. food for thought.

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attocious opposed to nicholas 5 yrs guitar saroding 16 hours a day to grt that good form and fast sarod licks and clean scalpel tone?

Original poster give it a go i changed my picking couple of years ago best thing i ever did totally changed my playing

And to shredmaster Whatever you think of Nicks playing he has posting plenty of videos for people to critic

we await your video showing us the path we should be taking.
maybe you have a better way well cmon don't keep us in the dark.
get a video up of your own picking style.

I paid for Pebber's lessons for a year, and have followed his syllabus (the way he intended) in total for about 3. I've improved more in these 3 years than I did in the prior 17. Aside from practicing every day, implementing his scalpel technique is what I believe to have been the single biggest reason for my improvement. (Finger independence ala spiders/ladders/permutations is #2). For learning technique, I would classify Pebber's lesson plan as excellent. Pebber would probably say that I stopped too early; still on the first floor of his mansion of lessons. I have no doubt this was true, but like an itchy teenager, I wasn't patient enough to wait to be invited upstairs.

Cliff, I read and I have some memory of responding to Tuck's analysis of picking. It fit my style of rigorous analysis quite well, and after reading it I even spent a couple weeks applying the Benson technique. That wasn't nearly long enough, but I had honed already scalpel so well that beginning again with a new technique for maybe 10-12 bpm wasn't worth it for me. [Plus strumming with the Benson technique felt super-awkward for me. I use Sarod for strumming and the feel was totally different.] But anyway, I'm almost certain Pebber has a video that discusses the Benson technique. I don't have his comments on it memorized, but Pebber has always represented the "learn everything" and "add it to your arsenal" camp rather than learn A but never learn B. But anyway posting that analysis for a new player blurs the picture, in my opinion. Teachers with novice students need one single method that they know will provide a lasting foundation. If you present several ways of doing the same task to a brand new student, most will feel overwhelmed and spend too little time on any one of them to get the progress they need to see in themselves to stay motivated. So providing an array of what *can* work instead of one method that is easy to understand and arguably as good or better than all others doesn't seem wise for an instructor.

Grandmaster, I too would be surprised if you could play cleaner & faster than *several* of the posters on this site. I'll throw my name into the ring too. Show us. Also, Nick was not an example of a student that followed Pebber's syllabus they way it was intended. If you spend time reading back-posts you'll see several of us attempted to guide Nick before losing the energy to do so.

Damon, I recall now that you did read the piece and comment on it - my apologies for misremembering. I agree entirely that a beginner is better served by focussing on one technique. But the original poster isn't a beginner: he's been playing for over fourteen years. I think the analysis provides him with a valuable insight, namely that the technique he's about to ditch in favor of another, is in fact highly regarded by some, and may very well not be the source of whatever frustrations and limitations he's feeling and which have led him to re-examine his approach.

I love how a thread with négative energy gets all kinds of reads, replies and analysis but a post containing actual music in it, the results of hard practice and créative useage of the techniques learned and explored can't get spit on.
Back to practice...
Have a good weekend.

You guys are right. I can't really play at all. I'm sorry for being a dick. I need to check myself. And I will. Off to the practice room for me. Thanks

Scott, I offered feedback to musical ideas exactly once on thus forum. It wasn't received well, which is when I noticed such feedback is purely subjective anyway. Vowed never to do that again. This explains why I haven't contributed to many of your musical ideas threads. Sticking to practice and performance topics keeps it objective for me. No hard feelings I hope.

Thanks guys for trying to help me. I apologize for being such an asshole.

No offense taken Damon. All good. just an observation, really. In all honesty, my stuff getting listened to, or commented on here is not an issue; (there are other forums for that) I really can't take too many people here very seriously anyways;hahaha There are a couple of exceptions of course!

There is a lot of talking about playing and practicing, and not a lot of evidence of practice and playing, so it is what it is. Personally, I'm just really into music and getting better at playing, so meh whatever. I like sharing music, checking out other people's music and talking about what I liked and didn't like about it, even if a few feathers might get ruffled along the way.

I love the resources that Pebber has put out there, it's great stuff and really thorough! It's too bad so few have the initiative to show what they've learned in a musical context so that others might glean an idea or two.

I get it, not what the forum is about. At any rate, try to have a great weekend guys! I know I will!
-S