# Angle of MOVEMENT of pick when speed/tremolo picking...



## Max Dread (Dec 10, 2012)

Hi all

I've recently been re-evaluating and re-teaching myself how to tremolo pick correctly and effectively. There's one thing I'm not sure about and that's the angle of the movement. That might not be the best/clearest way to describe it! What I mean is this.... If you could draw a line in the air between the starting point of the picking motion (when the pick is closest to the ceiling) and the lowest picking point (when the pick is closest to the floor) what would the line look like? Would it be:

- parallel to the surface of the guitar 
- ramping upward (so that as you the downpick is moving away from the body, the up pick moving back toward it)
- ramping downward (the opposite).

Huge apologies in advance if none of the makes sense! Let me know and I'll try to explain it differently. If it does make sense, would be great to hear what you do and your thoughts on the topic. 

Cheers

Max


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## Bloodbath Salt (Dec 10, 2012)

Generally speaking, you're gonna want to have the edge of the pick pointed towards the headstock, compared to having it pointed head-on, towards the body. And hold the pick at a slight forward angle, so that the side edge of the pick, makes contact with the string. Which means don't hold the pick completely flat with the string. Think of it as trying to split wood with a sledgehammer, compared to using a maul. Using sharply shaped picks also with improve your trem picking. Right now I'm obsessed with 1.35 mm Tortex sharps.


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## MartinMTL (Dec 10, 2012)

I don't completely understand what you are saying, but I assume that you are asking whether the pick should be flat against the string, or on an angle? 

I personally would like to hear other people's opinions on this because I myself have been wondering as well.


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## redstone (Dec 10, 2012)

- no
- no
- no
- pendulum motion. You need to use both forearm pronosupination and wrist flex/ext to go back over the strings between each opposite strokes. That's the only way to perform fast inside/outside picking.


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## Narrillnezzurh (Dec 10, 2012)

redstone is right, the line would be bowed very slightly, concave towards the bridge.

Past that, I usually strike the string at a slight angle, with the top of the stroke (towards the ceiling) being closer to the headstock than the bottom of the stroke, but on the higher strings I don't really see how you could do it any other way, just from the angle of your wrist. It definitely isn't an extreme angle, by any means.

It's also important that you don't contact the string with the flat of the pick. I usually hold my pick at such an angle that the forward edge (the edge that faces the headstock) contacts the string first. Also not an extreme angle by any means, but it would definitely be faster than contacting the string with the flat face of the pick. And it's worth noting, you don't have to lead with the forward edge, you could lead with the back edge (the edge that faces the bridge). I think the world record holder did this, obviously with some success, and he did so by hyper-extending his picking thumb.


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## penguin_316 (Dec 11, 2012)

All this talk about what angle to hold your pick is relative to the user. As long as your pick is angled to "slice" through the strings instead of contacting it at a flat angle you will be fine.

Needless to say, you can reach extreme speeds by flatpicking as well so these types of arguments are somewhat redundant. Supposedly angling your pick reduces the resistance you encounter as your pick crosses the string, but if you are going for max speed only the tip of the pick should be touching the sting anyway. My 0.02 cents...


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