Here's a video of me tonight demonstrating my right hand technique for feedback.

The video shows me a 80bpm doing all downstrokes, then all upstrokes, and then alternating.

When I get to 5s I almost get them at 80bpm, but then reduce the speed to 60 so I can nail it. Then I work up to 32nd notes.

When looking at the video, my first reaction to it is that my thumb isn't bent far enough, and the angle of my hand seems a little too shallow, though I've found that much steeper and the scraping gets a bit too loud for me.

Well I said I was back, but I'm just getting around to making a video. I managed to get one recorded over lunch today so people can get a good look at how my right hand is coming along.

Hey Farelli

Great to see a video from you once again (i will make this weekend one), I seeyou start using a acoustic guitar, Cool. I love acoustic guitar heheheh.

When i look at your technique i think you should move your thumb more like Pebber is explaining in one of his video. Assuming you want to do Scalpel picking, your moving your hand quite a lot. But when you do the scalpel movement your hand will be more stable and therefor can reach easy higher speeds and will end up doing the Sarod technique.

Dont get me wrong this is just my point of view who know this will help you a bit.

Grtz Ray

Actually, Pebber said the same thing in a comment on my video, so that's definitely something I need to look at.

For some reason I'm having a hard time with scalpel and sarod. I understand them individually but I'm struggling to do both at the same time.

Start at a very slow tempo up and down (40bpm) and concentrate on the movement. Do that for a week and im sure it will go easier.

Hey everyone,

Thanks for sharing your practice videos! Instead of starting another thread, I figured I would share my own right hand technique video here. This is my progress from 2 months of scalpel/sarod work.

I'm just finishing up my 3rd month now and I'm starting to get some progress with speed and finding my balance better. I'm sure I am going to be trying to get it under control for a while!!

Anyway, feel free to watch!

Happy picking.

Couldn't get the video to embed. Got it!

Hey Will

Thats a great video man!! Seems like a very good technique.

Welcome to the forum.

Grtz Ray

great video timing seems good upto sevens. just slow down the metronome.
sound is kind of scratchy too, maybe you have the pick tilted on the side too much.
sarod action looks ok allways hard to tell on video. just a matter of building strength to keep it going
nice though keep it up.

Yes, I think you're right, deltadiscos. Right after I posted the video both Ray and Pebber commented that my thumb wasn't bent far enough, so I started looking at that closely.

In order to bend my thumb more when playing the first string, I had to move my hand lower to be able to reach it. This made the thumb movement easier but it had another good consequence.

I found that by bending the thumb more the angle of the pick was pushed even further toward perpendicular and the scratching became extreme. I therefore altered the angle of my entire hand and decreased the scratching considerably.

I've since been focusing on controlling that pick angle, the hand angle, and the thumb flex. I'll make another video tomorrow probably.

I just need to do some reading for how to better synch the sound and video because that's just annoying.

my post above was meant for will..

your pick angle looks and sounds fine and timing seems good. not sure i can see sarod.
looks like alternate picking but as i said hard to pick up on video.

you said you have trouble putting scapel and sarod together.
lets say scapel was out and in.. and sarod is up and down.

i have an exercise i do
go ex.1. out...in....down...up....
ex.2. in...out...up...down...
ex.3. out...up...down...in...down...up
ex.4. down...in...out...up...out...in

makes think a little more fluent.
doesnt come accross well wrote down maybe i will put up a video..

Yes, I'd like to see a video of that, delta.

I didn't get the time to make a video yesterday but I'm off the next two days so it should be simple to make a couple.

I'll need to make a scale video because I'm working on 7 & 14-position system and the Scaletone Form system for G Major now.

I would like to see a video about that as well!!

farelli i didnt worry with the 7 position ... went straight to 14 after 5... as 14 position system contains all 7 position system in it...i really got 14 under my fingers before moving to scaletone form system too...

Scaletone form system is a lot of work you gotta map it all out first. with all possible string pair/groups. you gotta do all that with all variations...2 string.. 3-4/4-3/4-4/ 3 string.. 3-3-4/3-4-3/4-3-3/3-4-4/4-3-4/4-4-3/4-4-4/
4string... 3-3-3-4/3-3-4-3-/3-4-3-3/4-3-3-3/3-3-4-4-/3-4-3-4/3-4-4-3/4-3-3-4/4-3-4-3/4-4-3-3/3-4-4-4/4-3-4-4/
4-4-3-4/-4-4-3-4/4-4-4-4/
5 string etc.

like i said a lot of work.

Yes, I see what you mean. I started with them all as mapping the entire system on paper. That really helped me notice some things about the fingerboard.

I see your point about the 14 position system, and I agree with you after having mapped them all in an overview kind of way.

I'm going to pick up this thread on scale systems in my scale thread. There are some cool things I noticed that I want to write about.

Thanks for the feedback deltadiscos. Definitely working on the sevens and above at a better speed. I can hear the scratchyness you mention. I think it's the pick angle. I will refine the angle as time goes on, but am definitely focused foremost on burning this wrist/thumb movement into my subconcious!! hehe

Hi Farelli, I recorded myself doing a few exercises. And figured out how to post the videos.

Obviously not practicing for a week has caught up to me, which is funny hah. But here's two videos with some explanation in them. And I'm obviously a bit nervous doing these videos. I usually spend more time playing and less time demonstrating/practicing on video hah!

Your picking hand looks good, but as you noted you're having trouble keeping up with the metronome in the videos.

If that's a persistent problem, you might find it easier to use single beats from the metronome. You mention at one point in the video that you're increasing to 150bpm but at that speed I found it difficult to keep up with the count in my head due to the downbeat.

I've yet to increase my metronome beyond 80bpm when playing 16th notes, and for 32nd notes I have to decrease to 50 at the most. I find the one pulse as the downbeat less distracting.

Of course, you're a drummer also so all this might be complete nonsense.

Are you doing scapel picking. loosens up the hand. left hand could do with more curve especially the pinky.
slow metronome down to 40-60 bpm, and work on timing divisions.
good video though mate

Hi Farelli and Delta,

Thank you both for the critique, the reason I was having issues is I haven't practiced for a week and I was rather nervous when shooting the video. I honestly have never fully played out as a guitarist... I've only played out as a drummer. The whole reason for me starting this journey is because I want to do both. I appreciate the feedback, I lowered my metronome to 60 and my pinky is building up to be a lot stronger. Also, my arm is still being worked on so physically it will get better with time. Mechanically I do have lots of work to do, I've been working on getting more of a curve in my hand this week. I will hopefully post another video tonight updating the difference from last week to this week. Also, I am going to work on some of the other techniques with fingers and a slide hopefully that'll make me come up with some creative ideas for performing. Will post the update shortly. I apologize I only reply on the weekends. I'm going to work on replying during the week. Thanks again, I appreciate all the advice and critique you can give me!

Hey JW,

I meant to respond to this the other day but by the time I got to a computer I had forgotten.

It's much easier to hear you in this latest video with the metronome slowed. It also sounds like it made it easier for you to stay on the beat. Very slow and controlled is the only way to go when trying these new things. It can be really excruciating to do, but slow and absolutely perfect practice is critical to developing a high level of skill.

About your nervousness, maybe we all need to put up a video of something we absolutely suck at to get the butterflies out of the way. Also, you might try recording your playing without your face in the video. It might help the stage fright a bit. You do seem a little bit nervous and quite tense in your videos, so I think if you can find a way to shake that off you'll feel better.

One way to think of it is this: watch a bunch of Pebber's scale videos. He screws up all the time and just laughs about it, looks right into the camera and tells us how bad he sucks that night. He could edit it out but he just leaves it in.

We all suck at something. If I try to play sixteenth notes above about 80bpm, I find that I can pick good and I can fret good, but I can't pick and fret good, so it really starts to sound stuttered. I can also do 4-3-2-1 pull-offs at a quite quite speed pretty accurately, but I can't do 1-2-3-4 hammer-ons at half the speed due to a weak 3rd and 4th finger.

Ultimately these videos are not so much about us showing how good we are, but rather how much we suck so we can all help each other remove the suck. :D

^^^^^^ +1

Can't add anything to farelli's answer!

And here are a couple of videos showing how much I suck:

Right Hand Scalpel Picking Exercises:

And again great videos, keep it up Farelli you seems to do very well