Tremelo picking?

[matt_transition]

I was playing earlier and i realised that my style of tremolo picking has chaged 3 times to what i think is the most comfortable and produces the best results for me.

The 3 styles i had were:
Trem picking with wrist locked with arm & movement from elbow (sounds weird),
Trem picking with wrist seperate from arm, movement steming from wrist.
And my current one, which is movement steming from wrist, but wrist about 2-3 inches away from strings w/fingers pointing into the guitar, like Eddie Van Halen does it.

What other styles do people use, or whether they have adapted their style over time.

 

[Robbiedbee]

Re: Tremelo picking?

At the moment, I use your second one most predominantly. I rest the base/bottom of my hand on the bridge and the movement comes mostly from my wrist, with my elbow locked.

 

[Closed Eye]

Re: Tremelo picking?

I just go all out. My arm and wrist goes up and down and in other kinds of crazy directions and my pick usually goes flying off towards the end of the bit. Just, you know, with reckless abandon. I first learned trem picking from Nirvana's "Breed", which is probably where my haphazard and quite idiotic "style" of trem picking comes from.

It almost looks like I'm having a seizure or something.

 

[matt_transition]

Re: Tremelo picking?

I just go all out. My arm and wrist goes up and down and in other kinds of crazy directions and my pick usually goes flying off towards the end of the bit. Just, you know, with reckless abandon. I first learned trem picking from Nirvana's "Breed", which is probably where my haphazard and quite idiotic "style" of trem picking comes from.

It almost looks like I'm having a seizure or something.

Thats so true, when i first started trying it i had to tense my arm up so much, that the smoothness and rhythm went totally out the window, but sometimes that could be a useful technique "complete physical outbust" condensed into your picking hand.

 

[ShredFetus]

Re: Tremelo picking?

Are you talking about full chords, eg. black metal style or notes in solos?

When trem picking full chords it helps alot to get a good smooth flicking action with the wrist, with a bit of elbow action too. All elbow is just painful, RSI anyone!?! With chords, I have my hand away from bridge, with leads, in tighter and resting on the bridge

Also get some dunlop .60mm nylon picks, the light grey ones! Look out Dark Funeral!!!


And maybe this should be in tips & clips?

 

[nuntius]

Re: Tremelo picking?

You want to be using as little movement as possible, and to be totally relaxed. Otherwise, you're just wasting energy.

If you watch any seriously fast shredders (eg Michael Angelo Batio) you'll notice their hand hardly moves at all and that their pick doesn't go further past the string than is necessary.. that's the secret to being able to play extremely fast for extended periods of time. The hard part is training yourself to do it :yell:

You'll just have to start slowly, making sure you don't use any more motion than is necessary, and build speed up over time, only allowing yourself to get faster if the motion is kept to a minimum.. the minute you start doing larger motions, you should slow down and work on it again