You Suck At PICKING! Here Is Why (Probably)!

Now 35% reduced:
✔ Boost your picking to the next level with "THE ZEN OF SPEEDPICKING" here: www.thezenofspeedpicking.de
✔ Boost your sweeps to the next level with "THE ZEN OF SWEEPING" here:
elopage.com/s/justinhombach/z...
✔ Get the Free Tabs and Lesson here:
elopage.com/s/justinhombach/p...
✔ Get the PICKSLANTING Explanation here: elopage.com/s/justinhombach/w...
0:00 - Intro
2:06 - The Zen Of Speedpicking
3:20 - The Lick

[@justin.hombach]

Huge thanks btw for BAXTY (the guy in the first clip) for the constant inspiration. This kid has made a lot of things right to develop the perfect technique.

[@davidloflin3098]

This is an excellent lesson, and it addresses an issue that has been frustrating me. Subscription added.

[@chickenbeek]

detailed and described well, along with an excellent lick to exercise this technique.

[@justin.hombach]

Thank you :)

[@xxargunxx]

Mr.Hombach great video as always and I'm a huge fan. Please also do a video about injuries too

[@johannfliemann3499]

got my Subskription for the intro, chefs kiss😂

[@patrykkrolikowski5527]

Hey Justin, can also make a lesson about last super fast run in snake in my boot ? This is also run with chromatic playing and I'm curious what you can say about that run :) It is starting on low e string and I think on f#.

[@Passarium-1195]

Nice As I Am solo cover in the intro

[@joelaso58]

Justin would you consider doing a video comparing people who typically anchor a finger to the pickguard (you don't) vs floating and how pickslanting can work for both if possible? I was trained to anchor a finger and much more confident that way however I do float for many things and am trying to master both ways.

[@saltyphucker777]

Hi, Justin! At <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="344">5:44</a>, you cover something that has troubled me with pickslanting for a very long time - the "snap" technique (i.e., changing the pick angle when hitting a new string for a one single note, and then coming back to the previous string - such as with the Paul Gilbert lick). I like to play a lot of 3NPS stuff. 😃 Can you elaborate on how best to practice this? I would love to see a video that focuses on this (both snapping upward-to-downward, and downward-to-upward pickslanting).

[@oRizho]

Literally that exact 4 note Paul Gilbert triplet lick. Just practice it starting with a downstroke and upstroke. You can repeat the “snap” to focus more on that. Super cliché but start slow and kinda exaggerate the movement and speed up little by little. When you get to a speed where you’re not comfortable anymore you should bump the speed up to your target speed you’d want to be able to play for a short run just so you feel what it’s like to play at that speed (it doesn’t matter it’s sloppy playing). Go back down in speed and repeat.

[@djjankov6667]

Cool mit dem Plektrum...ywinie malstem macht gar kein Pick slanting oder ? Braucht man Pick slanting und woher weiß ich wann ich wann ich down oder Up gehe ? Geht es quasi darum nie gefangen zu sein zwischen zwei Seiten ?

[@uroboric]

yngwie bentuzt bei manchen licks bestimmt pick slanting, aber wenn er jetzt seine klassischen 3 note per string läufe spielt dann macht er soweit ich weiß economy picking und muss deswegen sein pickslanting nicht ändern. Wenn man eine 3 nps lauf mit alternate picking machen will, dann muss man halt bei jedem Seitenwechsel den anschlagswinkel ändern.

[@Gfy7365]

I hold the pick upside down where the tip is almost facing up and the back of the pick is down

[@gitarman666]

Haaha😂haha help my pick is stuck!! Never had that problem but I also wasn’t using a chunk of blue Kryptonite for a pick

[@sami7610]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="2">0:02</a> is this the As I am (dream theater) solo 🤣🤣🤣

[@keyboardwarria]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="229">3:49</a> did you say "an even amount" or "uneven amount"? Also the use of the giant blue pick is very helpful to emphasize the slant direction! very nice touch, excellent education

[@justin.hombach]

That’s a little bit unfortunate spoken, it is uneven :) I will try to say „odd“ in the future a little bit better to understand

[@jhonatangarcia1422]

Hi! Don't you think it is easier to play this kind of licks using economy picking? Greetings from Colombia

[@justin.hombach]

I made a video on this channel why I prefer alternate picking over economy in this situation :)

[@patrickmckay6621]

Hey Justin, thanks for the video! I have been practising with your Zen of SP for a few months and have been progeessing. When it comes to pick slanting i still have one question: when i change the pick direction - like in the Gilbert lick for example - after the first 3 notes, WHEN in that pick movement ( from down to up in this case) do you flip the direction, at the end of this downstroke,means the " zenit" of the downstroke, or does it happen already during the the pickstroke? I hope you understand what i m trying to discribe here. Of course this " problem/ question only occurs at 2 WPS. All the best, greetings from Kiel!

[@justin.hombach]

That‘s a good question, I would say intuitively the moment before the tip of the pick hits the string. So when the tip hits the string and the stroke is happening the pickslant change already happend. And big thanks for your support ;)

[@patrickmckay6621]

bewusst steuern kann man den Wechsel ja nun sicher auch nur bei sehr langsamen Üben, bei hohem Tempo ist der Vorgang ja fast unsichtbar. Versuche ich den Slanting Wechsel schon in der Bewegung " vorzubereiten " ,mache ich ja fast einen Bogenverlauf, der bringt Anspannung und nimnt Tempo raus; aber erst am Ende drehen erscheint mir auch nicht richtig. Ich weiß, es sind nur minimale Bewegungen,...aber beim bewussten Üben struggle ich da immer noch.

[@justin.hombach]

@@patrickmckay6621 ob man den Wechsel bewusst nur langsam Steuer kann, würde ich per se so nicht unterschreiben. Beim Wechsel wie in dem Paul Gilbert lick, machst du quasi den Wechsel zusammen mit der Anschlags Bewegung, der Anschlag und der Pickslant-Wechsel ist somit fast eins.

[@patrickmckay6621]

ja...es muss absolut anspannungslos und locker von statten gehen; als natural UPSlanter tue ich mich mit dem DPS immer noch schwer. Versuche immer noch das pick mit dem Daumen in Position zu bringen; aber es muss halt aus der Handbewegung kommen. Troy sagt das ja auch mal. Na,aber es wird,....GEDULD 😊

[@EL_DUDERIN0]

@@justin.hombach Yep I think this is correct too what you are saying, you have to change direction prior to the pick hitting the string.

[@DominicAirola]

Hugs brother

[@jeremygomez7924]

I always get so confused when u say "upward pick slanting" and the tip of the pick is pointing down... time to re watch your pick slant videos again...

[@justin.hombach]

Upward means that the back part of the pick is facing up.

[@justin.hombach]

The name is not about the tip of the pick, some people may prefer the „escape motion“ vocabulary, but I‘m not so much familiar with that yet.

[@EL_DUDERIN0]

Me too lol. I try to translate "Upward pick slanting" to "backwards pick slanting" in my head to keep things straight (I'm a DPS player).

[@wombozombo]

Look up Troy Grady

[@sigiligus]

@@justin.hombachPickslanting is easier to digest while escape motions are more technically accurate. Initially Troy Grady decided to focus on pickslanting since most people will naturally change their escape motions accordingly, and learning escape motions takes more time and effort. But since he was still getting a lot of people who couldn’t naturally pickup pickslanting, he decided to focus on escape motions as the main technique even though he had already permanently placed pickslanting into the public consciousness.

[@cl4ud1ojesus7]

Essa guitarra da ibanês é muito bonita.

[@onemancarnage]

There's always economy picking, but it isn't as easy to accent certain notes to keep track of where you're at in the lick . I personally have a hard time with alternate picking , it just feels like unnecessary work , even though I know that's not the case

[@justin.hombach]

True, I made a whole video why I rather practice alternate instead of economy. And economy wouldn‘t make much sense in those case, because of the mixture of even and odd numbers on a string going in one direction

[@onemancarnage]

@@justin.hombach of course I should've tried the lick before commenting. Like you said downward pick slanting works, good chance for accidental noise though. I had to actually watch my picking hand , turns out I just changed the slant intuitively . Now just need to get the speed up. This is the first video from your channel to pop up in my feed in awhile . Not sure what you tube algorithm is doing these days lol. Cheers.

[@PaulOuzounov]

Ah man I really love your videos, and not their titles.

[@justin.hombach]

*in emperor palpatines voice* gooood, gooood the clickbait, it works 😈😈

[@dutypaidrock]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="230">3:50</a> - Do you mean ODD number of notes on the string means upward pick slant? EDIT: not sure if you said 'uneven' or an even'.

[@justin.hombach]

Yes, Uneven/Odd

[@justin.hombach]

Or you could say, when the last stroke has the same direction as the first one (in this case DOWN, up, DOWN)

[@dutypaidrock]

@@justin.hombach Ha, yes, sorry - I listened back and realised you may have said 'uneven' not 'an even' 😅

[@EL_DUDERIN0]

Hey Justin, check it out, could we start with an upstroke on the first note, and then crank downward pick-slanting the whole time, with the "Paul Gilbert" trick on the G-string? So it would start out: u-d-u, d-u-d-u-d-u, d-u-d, u-d-u, ... ? There's an Alex Skolnick run in the "Souls of Black" solo that follows this pattern and I use that to "cheat" and make it easier. (Alex does it your way, fwiw, so you are in great company).

[@justin.hombach]

Short answer: No! :DDDD xD

[@EL_DUDERIN0]

@@justin.hombach Ok maybe we'll have to race :D

[@hexn00b52]

Tell me about that pic. :)

[@neoclassicalfanatic8416]

By the way Justin,you should check syu from Galneryus,he plays that kind of chromatic licks way better than Petrucci.He doesn't even hold a candle to syu

[@justin.hombach]

man I love galneryus. Syu is such a beast!

[@neoclassicalfanatic8416]

@@justin.hombach You really should make an episode about him.His six string sweeps are a great way to improve one's sweep picking.Many guitarist would really benefit from such episode

[@zakklee2556]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="231">3:51</a>. Misspoke, you say it starts with 3 notes on the E string then you say an even number of notes requires upward pick slant. 3 is an odd number. but the lesson requires 3 notes on the E string at the start , that requires upward pick slant. Confusing. No escape from Pick Escape <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="234">3:54</a>

[@justin.hombach]

I said „uneven“ the un is sadly not really clear. Will try to say better Odd in the future. English is not my first language so sometimes these things can happen 😬

[@jonatanfelipe1830]

Muito prolixo

[@monsterzero1965]

Where did you get a Thanos Space Stone for a pick?

[@mrloppesmusic]

Como assim esse mano chamou o glorioso Emmanuel Aguilar de Sloppy? Que ultraje!

[@justin.hombach]

That‘s Blasphemy 😂😂😂

[@mrloppesmusic]

@@justin.hombach The greatest one! No doubt a living legend!

[@tylerbaars1173]

awww cmon brother don't do my man emmanual like that

[@tylerbaars1173]

hugs brother

[@justin.hombach]

🤣🤣🤣🤣 Alien fingers

[@7riX7er]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="257">4:17</a> du bist so richtig scharf mein Freund 🤤🔥😅

[@justin.hombach]

Die Kamera hat mich feddisch gemacht vorhin 😂😂 Mein Gebrühl hat man sicher bis zu euch gehört

[@robinkroenke]

Das hat mich auch verwirrt... wie die B-Saeite von another Brick in the wall😂. Cooles Video🤘

[@redchannel8610]

Your knowledge of "pickslant" is pretty out of date. It's not a technique. It's a visual indicator of one of several techniques. Troy Grady and people after like Chris Brooks stopped using that word 7 years ago and started talking about escape paths instead. It's way more useful because there are several ways to mechanically achieve a downward escape. Someone like Andy Wood doesn't do that drastic pronated forearm at all to play downward escape lines, so the pick "slant" isn't even a factor when wrist extension comes into play. John Petrucci uses a lot of elbow which is downward escape built in! No rotation required! Anyway, you're on the right track but just a few years behind I think. TL'DR: you don't have to rotate your arm to play downward escape. See the Troy Grady Primer and try again.

[@justin.hombach]

I still would consider it as a technique because it requires a certain movement to perform. I’ve been through all the escape videos from Troy, and the difference here comes imo at the tempo. The same with Andy wood, his flatpicking technique is definitely helpful when it comes to complex picking patterns like in the glass prison but I wouldn‘t recommend it in higher tempos (everything after 11 notes per second). I will make some research and thoughts if the method of Pick Slanting is out dated. Speaking from my guts, I would say no because this method still helps me and other players a lot to improve, but I will definitely do my research.

[@redchannel8610]

@@justin.hombach This is why I don't consider it a technque: Your technique is pronated deviation with some wrist extenstion. Rusty Cooley plays the same lines with elbow flexion and extension. John Petrucci uses slight pronated wrist deviation but switches to Elbow for beast mode. Old school Vinnie Moore is elbow plus secondary rotation. These are the techniques. The pickslant is just the visible sign of a downward escape path. Anyway, thanks for being a sport by hearing me out. Respect.

[@18JR78]

Why are you picking with your deodorant stick? It must smell nice though.