Speed picking

bloomschool · August 2007

Hi. Just received the book. Thanks. Excellent book. I
have your book on Gypsy picking, which is also
excellent. I come from a bebop mainstream jazz
background, like yourself. And my picking technique is
similar to Jimmy Bruno's technique, moving from the
elbow. Which is vastly different from the Gypsy
technique. And I also have a video by Paul Mehling
about picking technique. In that video, he
demonstrates rotating the wrist as welll as the rest
stroke.

I have a question, if you wouldnt mind. How is the
great speed as demonstrated by these great Gypsy
players, achieved? Is it the rest stroke in
combination with a wrist rotation? I am able to
achieve lots of speed by moving from the elbow. But in
videos I have seen of the great Gypsy players, it
seems to be sometimes a "pushing" of the rest stroke,
or maybe a wrist rotation. Its hard to tell. Jimmy
Rosenberg appears to almost push he pick into the
string. Sometimes I think that Stochelo Rosenberg, who
seems so incredibly relaxed, does both, a push or a
wrist rotation.

How do these guys accomplish this great speed and Is
there a video that might demonstrate the proper way?

MichaelHorowitz · August 2007

bloomschool wrote:

Hi. Just received the book. Thanks. Excellent book. I
have your book on Gypsy picking, which is also
excellent.

thanks, glad you like it!

I have a question, if you wouldnt mind. How is the
great speed as demonstrated by these great Gypsy
players, achieved?

There's really no trick to it, other then becoming extremely proficient at the rest stroke technique. Once you get familar with all the idiomatic fingerings and picking patterns in the book, it's just practice, practice, practice.

How do these guys accomplish this great speed and Is
there a video that might demonstrate the proper way?

Again, just lots of practice. You can check lots of videos here
: http://www.djangobooks.com/archives/vid ... ncoop.html

This video also has lots of close up footage of the right hand: Bireli Lagrene

nelson84 · September 2007

I have a question. I have been playing guitar for a good while and I recently changed my picking technique to that of GJ players (holding the pick differently, picking the strings differently, etc.) in hopes that my speed would increase. Now, I do practice a lot, and I also practiced a lot before I switched techniques, but it always seemed and still seems that I eventually reach a "hump" that I cant get over. Its like im physically not able to get any faster....its really frustrating and I dont know what to do. Does it just take more time? Do I need to practice way more? Does it sound like I may not be practicing correctly? Am I just never going to be a fast player? (Ive seen people pick up and learn guitar and in 6 months they can shred like crazy....it seems some people are more adept to fast picking.....but not me....). I mean, sometimes Ill take a fast GJ lick and play it slow with my metronome and slowly increase the metronome speed...but there is always a point where I just cant handle it....yes, if I practice it a lot a lot a lot, I can play it a few bpms faster, but never as fast as its originally supposed to be played. I guess I just need some words of encouragement haha. Thanks
-Nelson

MichaelHorowitz · September 2007

In most cases it just takes time to develop speed. Good, concentrated practice with a metronome will allow you to reach your personal threshold for speed. Everyone is different...a few lucky folks just seem to get it right away, but that's very rare. Most of us need to do a lot of work...the nice thing about the Gypsy technique is that it will work for just about anyone. Even people with below average ability can learn to play quite fast if they work hard.

The main thing the throws people off is timing. That's were the metronome comes in. Most people having trouble with speed are actually not too slow, but too fast! They're rushing everything, causing them too miss notes. In most cases all you need to do is make sure your eighth notes are timed right, and you'll be able to play a lot faster.

Good luck!

'm

2tiki · September 2007

I wonder if not looking at your fingers as you play might help? Being quite visually minded myself, I think watching the neck sometimes interferes with my flow and limits my speed.

Here's a quote from an interesting site: www.musicalfossils.com
(especially for us poor creatures who didn't start playing at the age of 5).

Magicians say the hand is faster than the eye and piano teachers certainly know it's true. If adult students won't let their hands move faster than the eye, the speed of their playing will always be limited.

One way to help students with this problem is to have them play with their eyes closed. It usually works better then the students expect. It can be a scale, a simple Hanon-type exercise, octave jumps, whatever. If students are willing to actually try, this is a very effective way to begin to break the habit of visual orientation and help build the sense of a kinesthetic and auditory connection to the piano keyboard.