Hit a road block yesterday. A huge ass road block, kinda like the ones you get in December on the N2. The way I was holding the plectrum and the angle that I had my arm, relative to the strings, was inhibiting my ability to play shit cleanly. I cannot for the life of me play with a consistent picking technique without switching stance(?). I just end up doing either the pinkie anchorage on the bridge pickup(1), or the stiff arm of retribution like Petrucci(1). This causes me to fumble the first couple of notes as my arm and hand adjust to the layout. Thing is though, the pinkie on pup style works like a boss for alternate picked stuff and sweeps. The stiff arm of retribution is orsum for string skipping and legato. I tried hard to find a balance between the two, to no avail.
So I sat on the end of my bed, watching every guitar video/tutorial I own trying to find some idea of what I was missing, what I could change. You know what I found after about 4 hours of long haired guitarists, 1000 times better than me, playing all the crap I wished I could play... THEY DO THE EXACT SAME SHIT? In the G3 video's, Petrucci goes into "strong hand mode" just before he plays something that stops the earth from spinning and kills millions. Steve Vai slightly tucks the pick further into his claw and also uses his "strong hand" while making his "O" face. Guthrie Govan, Jeff Beck, Buckethead, Dimebag, Kirk HamSandwich... they all do it. So WTF? Why can't I?
It was the piece of plastic in between my thumb and index finger, not my technique. Simple as that. I switched to a smaller plectrum by chance, and I found that I fumbled less. Of course there is the new learning curve, that's part of the fun? Just then I realised that in me looking for the most complex reasoning as to why something doesn't work, I overlooked the simple things. The most important things. Like using the right pick. Simplicity is the hallmark of genius. I leave you with one of my favorite quotes...
“The simplest explanation is always the most likely.”
― Agatha Christie
So I sat on the end of my bed, watching every guitar video/tutorial I own trying to find some idea of what I was missing, what I could change. You know what I found after about 4 hours of long haired guitarists, 1000 times better than me, playing all the crap I wished I could play... THEY DO THE EXACT SAME SHIT? In the G3 video's, Petrucci goes into "strong hand mode" just before he plays something that stops the earth from spinning and kills millions. Steve Vai slightly tucks the pick further into his claw and also uses his "strong hand" while making his "O" face. Guthrie Govan, Jeff Beck, Buckethead, Dimebag, Kirk HamSandwich... they all do it. So WTF? Why can't I?
It was the piece of plastic in between my thumb and index finger, not my technique. Simple as that. I switched to a smaller plectrum by chance, and I found that I fumbled less. Of course there is the new learning curve, that's part of the fun? Just then I realised that in me looking for the most complex reasoning as to why something doesn't work, I overlooked the simple things. The most important things. Like using the right pick. Simplicity is the hallmark of genius. I leave you with one of my favorite quotes...
“The simplest explanation is always the most likely.”
― Agatha Christie