WhyISuckAtGuitar.com - Reducing Picking Hand Tension - Part 1

[@TropicalReflections]

This is one of the few videos I've watched where the instructor references the muscle mechanics involved in playing and applies it to improving a person's technique(s). Man, I wish you were still actively making content or teaching online. Thanks for all the insights!

[@Whyisuckatguitar]

FYI - I'm rebooting the channel and have added new content recently, with more to come. Thanks so much for your comment.

[@mikeyg8133]

Thankyou so much this is something i struggled with for years and loosening my grip on the pick really helped me a lot and finally broke through the plateau of my guitar playing

[@Whyisuckatguitar]

Mikey Gio Great to hear the video was helpful!

[@franniesilapan5566]

This tutorial should be reshot in higher quality. The content is top notch and deserves to be viewed by more people. Great lesson! Thanks for uploading.

[@Whyisuckatguitar]

Yeah this was six years ago with a built in laptop cam. FYI - I'm rebooting the channel and have added new content recently, with more to come. And I have a better camera.

[@Excrucius]

It's weird that there are millions of videos about all kinds of guitar techniques but apparently only one about reducing tension, which was the one thing slowing me down for years and leading to wrist problems. Thank you so much for this, I tried the tips in your video for the first time today and it already felt much better and easier on the wrist.

[@Whyisuckatguitar]

Great to hear! Glad you found the video helpful. FYI - I'm rebooting the channel and have added new content recently, with more to come.

[@Exegerxi]

This is very overlooked by many teachers and students. I wish I have found this video earlier. I noticed my speed as well playing clean drastically improved. I was holding the pick so tense or too loose and unfortunately I would blame it on lack of practice rather than flawed technique. Thanks for the lesson.

[@BlueTransAm83]

I've been working on this. It's hard to tell your brain over and over relax,,, light touch,,,, what finger is being tense,,, etc, etc. But I have a feeling this is where I hit a rut, and am sticking to it. BIGGEST problem for me is when I do a pinch harmonic, I still tend to squeeze a bit. But I actually get them much better relaxed. You do one thing one way for years/decades its a tough mental switch. But with not even much practice time I've notice a slight bit improvement in speed and ability to move around the board easier. I think I found my break threw. I saw it on another vid first. And I was not super tense, but I had alot of room to loosen, and touch lighter. The touch lighter does have a little bit to do with the quality of guitar though too.

[@ColonColonel]

I've had this habit since I started playing 3 years ago.. yet I can feel my wrist and hand loosening up after one run through your exercise. Talk about effective (I'll keep on doing this)

[@Whyisuckatguitar]

Glad to hear the video was helpful. You also might want to check out the lesson on alternate picking that I just posted yesterday.

[@azizmo8555]

Great information thanks a lot I think this is the most important lesson for guitar students

[@Whyisuckatguitar]

Glad you found it helpful. FYI - I'm rebooting the channel and have added new content recently, with more to come.

[@funlovincop]

Thanks for the tips, they're already making a big difference to my playing. I also find it useful while i'm practising to occassionaly take a deep breath and reposition my arms and hands so that they feel relaxed, when i continue my practise i've already improved accuracy and rythm! Slow is Fast!

[@Whyisuckatguitar]

Glad to hear the videos are helping.

[@Whyisuckatguitar]

Glad it was helpful. Check out the website as well. There's lots of written content over there that isn't on KZbin.

[@Nik930714]

Your lessons are amazing. I had a big tension problem with bout of my hands, but just after a few weeks of practice, the problems are almost gone :)

[@Whyisuckatguitar]

Great to hear, Nik!

[@kenlelon369]

2 cents= Although trivial, I thought I'd bring it up for the sake of another angle of insight. When memorizing the disassembly and reassembly of weapons in the Army, getting all the pieces correct and in order in a timed exercise, they would begin the explanation with telling us, "Slow is smooth, smooth is fast". IOW, if it's right slow, it'll be right when you're ready for fast.

[@Airtrooper719]

Rifle cleaning time.......good times....NOT!

[@HeroFloyd]

I like playing very fast paced riffs and melodies. I've been pinpointing the areas of my picking hand is weakest at. My inside picking was my weakest picking ability when trying to build speed. I've been breaking through that barrier by making random inside picking exercises. Watching this video may have been the icing on the cake though. I know I don't like using my arm beyond my wrist too much, I'll work on that as well

[@Whyisuckatguitar]

@redhotkido That's great to hear! Thanks for watching.

[@akonitony2]

Nice DC. I have a 127T and an old Koa 200, along with an AC275-12, AC275, and too many more to count at this point. I actually now realize I have a problem. ;)

[@Whyisuckatguitar]

Glad you found it helpful, Exegerxi.

[@Whyisuckatguitar]

That's the idea! Glad you're finding the lessons helpful.

[@ValKitsakis]

Thanks for uploading these lessons! They're awesome!

[@Airtrooper719]

I've noticed my pick has a tendency to severely droop downwards (an exaggerated version of downward pick slanting), I think this has stemmed from self teaching metal rhythm/downpicking/pinch harmonics for years. What this does is I will either completely miss some upstrokes (as the slant makes the pick basically fly past the string rather than into it), or the articulation I get from an upstroke sounds so far off the downstrokes, that alternate picking makes 50% of my phrases half good and half scratchy = bad sounding IMO. I need to relearn my pick angle, and to go against gravity and do an upward pick slant to make catching upstrokes easier. This video helped, I noticed my whole arm completely locks when tremolo picking, im going to have to relearn that too.

[@sweetgyy]

I wish I had somebody tell me this years ago when I was playing on stage, between this and being nervous and in front of a bunch of people I was in major elbow pain by the first song.

[@okcthunder2010]

really like this man, my number one issue with playing is my picking is so sloppy, im gonna try this out

[@paulthoresen8241]

Another massive hands guy, I feel like this makes a big difference in the physics of picking

[@lobyte]

Very welk put together video, thank you for the free lesson. Are you a professional musician?

[@Horrowmond]

Hello, I've been playing guitar for many years with tension in my picking. This video gives very detailed information about picking relaxed, very well done! For some reason I'm still having a lot of tension in my arm though. You mentioned string crossing, which I think is exactly, what my arm is 'tensioning' up at; I was wondering if you could show an exercise focusing on removing tension in arm when string crossing or just an exercise very specific about removing tension in arm?

[@MikeScott2013]

Thanks for your help and yes I need a lot of practise as sometimes I miss a string or even worse is playing slowly then hitting the wrong string. Maybe I'm trying to rush too much.

[@TheMudskipper999]

I agree with Horrowmond this is a detailed video, very well done. It's just a pity nothing can help My picking hand as I was in a crash one night after a gig, right arm is a right off " fracture of radius and ulna, dislocated elbow and closed reduction fracture of wrist. It's a bitch when You have trouble playing simple rythum and runs, all they Years of practise. LOL

[@Whyisuckatguitar]

Sorry to hear about that, TheMudskipper999. I know I'm guilty of taking for granted having the physical health necessary to play and improve. Thanks for providing perspective.

[@nickaguado7]

Tension and string crossing is a struggle i still deal with. I tend to plant my palm and pivot the wrist. No good. Any wayss....subscribed. Great lesson

[@KX5Kat]

You cleared up a few burning concerns I've had for years. Most guys say pick from the wrist, for everything. I few years ago, I assumed this related to crossing string as well and tried not to use my arm to cross strings (it was impossible). I watched PG and it's very hard to see his arm move as he crosses strings (he has an awesome wrist motion), but he does use his arms, it's barely perceptible. I still have one burning question ; I've always found it much harder to tremolo pick than pick patterns of 2 or more string. I can ascend and descent a scale line much faster than I can tremolo pick on one string, why is that?

[@Whyisuckatguitar]

KX5Kat That's a hard one to answer without watching you play, but there are a couple of possibilities... 1) Your fretting hand may be "dragging" your picking hand along for the ride on scales, and if you play with high gain + effects there might be enough going on musically where some sloppiness in your picking hand is hidden. With tremolo picking there's nowhere for your picking hand to hide and that same sloppiness is exposed. 2) Your picking motion might be different from scales to tremolo picking and you're just not aware of it yet. 3) You've built tremolo picking up in your mind as a barrier, so you tense up because you "just know" you can't do it. 4) You're playing different rhythmic groupings. If you've gotten used to doing patterns of six with your scales and you're trying to tremolo pick groups of four, the strong/weak pattern of the note groupings can be enough to throw you off. Hope this helps at least a little bit.

[@Tvaroh]

So awesome content! What happened to this channel, why no new videos?

[@Whyisuckatguitar]

Hi Alexander. Maintaining the site and making new videos just became too time intensive. I'm glad you like the content and hope that it's been helpful to you.

[@redhotkido]

i have bad picking posture, this really helped =)

[@Whyisuckatguitar]

@lobyte You're welcome. I have the education to be a professional musician, and I do teach, but it's not what I do for a living.

[@rohitmeena2419]

amazing video

[@Whyisuckatguitar]

Thanks!

[@Whyisuckatguitar]

More to come on this topic soon. Stay tuned.

[@netwuv3399]

best lesson ever

[@Whyisuckatguitar]

Yes. Rushing is not good. Practice free motion. Get comfortable... at any tempo... and you'll be on your way to a better picking hand. There's lots of stuff on the website as well that might help you, too.

[@SeedAsuka]

brilliant! thank you so much!

[@slyrez]

i keep trying and trying. whenever i relax all my definition and clarity is gone. it just sounds like im limply plucking the strings. i cant even make ti through half a song tremolo picking.

[@ShyKxtty]

What if you never use a pick?? Just wondering can that have anything to do with it

[@hasan5882]

Thanks

[@lukeskywalk9773]

wow! thanks.

[@johndavies115]

I have a skin condition which has got rid of my fingerprints, only in the last few months I've been able to play again. I now use picks with rubber grips but it still falls out if I hold it too loosely :/

[@visiblenergy]

i feel like im reentering a rigid sphere which superceeds all other notions of an infinite body of energy

[@SaggyGerbils]

oh my god my arm is going to fall off. Lost it.

[@syiunshi]

slow is smooth smooth is fast

[@johnathanprice8255]

Marine Corps!

[@matsp888]

The video aspect sucks for one, lol...

[@eerokkitube]

😂i suck at aspect ratio... This dude wide as fok

[@syiunshi]

US Army lol

[@hdjohnson7951]

I do not appraise you cuz you left out one of the most important thing's....... Music

[@miguelramirez751]

Thanks