Troy Grady - Which Picking Approach Do You Use or are Working On?

[AlsoRan]

Troy Grady, as many of you know, has a video series for sale and on Youtube in which he breaks down picking techniques.

For years, I economy-picked, more or less, and kept my pick pointing directly at the guitar's face, making a 90 degree angle. I drove the pick through the strings hard when I played fast.

Troy's videos show how the technically gifted and fast players pick, and includes slanting the pick up or down, and picking at a "U" angle.

Have you incorporated any of these techniques into your playing? I am drawn to the U angle as well as slight pick slanting, combined with using the very tip of the pick to help prevent getting caught or slowed down.

[Drumbler]

I've seen very fast players use all manner of picking techniques.

Some have flying fretting fingers too (Yngwie), but they are still very fast.

[MarkRhodes]

Here's a good presentation of the basics---what the problem (of fast, accurate picking) is and how others can learn from what some great players DO (-which is rarely what they SAY they are doing). (Not becuase they are lying but because they aren't conscious of what they are doing.)

[MarkRhodes]

During the video, you will have the option to click on-screen boxes and open articles. One is from "Guitar World" and talks about Eric Johnson's use of downward pick slanting. Worth checking out.

I find this diagram helpful. (It appears in the Johnson article. Elsewhere too, no doubt.)

Attachment 33936

[Frank67]

I ran into pick slanting and edge picking while watching my favorite gypsy players. The rest stroke is another important concept as well as how to approach string changes. After I finally understood that the right hand is really the heart of guitar technique (there was a reason, that the instrument evolved in a way to have most peoples stronger hand do the picking). I paid more attention to how great players pick. IMHO pick slanting is almost universal while for string changes all kinds of concepts coexist. I am by nature mostly left handed (but for some reason not completely) and my guitar playing has always been limited by my right hand limitations. With a lot of focus on right hand excersizes, it is slowly getting better, but there is a lot Left to be desired.

I liked the Grady videos. Sure they are flashy and everything, but his approach was very rational and systematic and ghey contain a lot of useful information.

[christianm77]

I was a downward slanter because of GJ technique before I came across Troy's work. That said, I have become more slanty under his influence.

The U shaped crosspicking thing is very cool, but also quite challenging for me to get. Have you had any success with it, and what advice would you give?

[Frank67]

I don't get the 'U' thing. Can someone enlighten me?

[destinytot]

I've been toying with pick and fingers on my last three solo gigs. Troy Grady's renaissance thinking (and corny metaphors) may well spare me fruitless speculation.

What's explained and illustrated at 6.50 below seems to work with pick and fingers. (It amused me that I thought of aerial acrobatics when he said 'trapezium' - that would be really hard!)
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[destinytot]

Mr Miller playing Donna Lee:

[Frank67]

I admittdly did not care too much for the music in that clip - but wow, that was some fast and clean picking there. Impressive.

[destinytot]

I admittdly did not care too much for the music in that clip - but wow, that was some fast and clean picking there. Impressive.

Yes, impressive technique.

Pasquale Grasso's astonishing playing with pick and fingers (I care less for that silly term 'hybrid picking' than I do for 'Benson picking') is what's inspiring me to ask "What if I tried that on bossa nova...?", to mess about within the safe confines of my little comfort zone, and to have fun emulating what I think George Benson might do if it were he - and not I - noodling while others...er... nosh.

Technique, like taste, is horses for courses.

Troy Grady's more help than most when it comes to picking; but when it comes to coordinating fingering and fretting for the making of music, 'I.A.D.O.M - it all depends on me'. “If you meet the Buddha, kill him.”

[destinytot]

(It amused me that I thought of aerial acrobatics when he said 'trapezium' - that would be really hard!)

Oops - wrong thread! Circuses belong in the 'Grow Your Own Audience for Jazz' thread - sorry!

[MarkRhodes]

The Sobchak rule: Make a thread long enough and a Lebowski clip will appear.


Attachment 33961 Perhaps I should use this meme when a member's post violates league rules.

[AlsoRan]

I was a downward slanter because of GJ technique before I came across Troy's work. That said, I have become more slanty under his influence.

The U shaped crosspicking thing is very cool, but also quite challenging for me to get. Have you had any success with it, and what advice would you give?

I was a downward slanter because of GJ technique before I came across Troy's work. That said, I have become more slanty under his influence.

The U shaped crosspicking thing is very cool, but also quite challenging for me to get. Have you had any success with it, and what advice would you give?

CM, the "U" technique caught my attention first in a Troy Grady video that had a Bluegrass player that used it. Since I started out with very little slanting, I thought it might be the easiest to adopt being that is was closer to what I do now.

I have not fully integrated it yet, and may not be able to in the long run, but on some days when I can really warm up (usually takes me around 25 minutes), I can feel it coming a little. I tend to use it for Crescendos (which for the uninitiated means when playing louder) rather than for the speed.

The family will be busy this week and I will have much more time to practice. I will be experimenting with it a little more for my arpeggio practice and scale practice. If there is a revelation of some sort, I will report back.

[AlsoRan]

I found the video of the Bluegrass pickers by Troy Grady:

[christianm77]

Yeah I would use the U crosspicking thing for fingerstyle-esque arpeggios. DWPS picking isn't so good for that, and I'm playing some folkier stuff recently.

[destinytot]

I found the video of the Bluegrass pickers by Troy Grady:

It's fabulous.

[MarkRhodes]

I worked on downward pickslanting all weekend and enjoyed the results. For me, it is a matter of holding the guitar a certain way and the pick slant comes of itself.

[AlsoRan]

The Sobchak rule: Make a thread long enough and a Lebowski clip will appear.


Attachment 33961 Perhaps I should use this meme when a member's post violates league rules.

Indeed. After seeing all the little clips DT has posted, I ordered the movie. It seems to be on of those movies that is a must-see in American pop culture.

[christianm77]

Indeed. After seeing all the little clips DT has posted, I ordered the movie. It seems to be on of those movies that is a must-see in American pop culture.

You will not be disappointed.

[destinytot]

Indeed. After seeing all the little clips DT has posted, I ordered the movie. It seems to be on of those movies that is a must-see in American pop culture.

A fan:
https://www.theguardian.com/film/201...e-big-lebowski

A dissenter:

Either way, The Dude Abides:

[MarkRhodes]

Indeed. After seeing all the little clips DT has posted, I ordered the movie. It seems to be on of those movies that is a must-see in American pop culture.

The movie was not well received---critically or commercially---upon initial release but it has certainly attained cult status over the years. I think it is John Goodman's greatest role.

[Fidelcaster]

I use what this Grady dude class "pick slanting", although only the kind in which the pick is slanted towards the floor, so that I can rest my thumb on the strings.

[christianm77]

Mr Miller playing Donna Lee:

I like the way he phrases swing better than the way he phrases straight eights fusion, oddly. This is very nice.

[Boston Joe]

The movie was not well received---critically or commercially---upon initial release but it has certainly attained cult status over the years. I think it is John Goodman's greatest role.

Shomer f****n' shabbos!