WesM.Vaughan

1. I have been told that your pick should never move away from the strings or body of the guitar.

2. I have been told to hold my pick perpendicular to the strings.

These two things cannot both happen at the same time.
Either you must lean the pick (assuming heavy gauge pick) or you must move your wrist or fingers to bring your pick away from the strings.

QUESTION:

which one is better for SPEED PICKING.

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MARTY FRIEDMAN--"It’s a lot easier to be technical than it is stylized; it really is... But I think it’s a lot more rare to have someone who’s really got their own sound because that’s something you can’t practice."

Zaphod_Beeblebr

Yes they can. Think a little harder about the mechanics of what you're saying.

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WesM.Vaughan

If I hold my pick across the strings and rest the tip against the neck pickup (lipstick style pickup smooth) and try to pick a string without moving the pick away from the guitar body, it will drag the string to no end(or until it breaks). What am I missing here?

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MARTY FRIEDMAN--"It’s a lot easier to be technical than it is stylized; it really is... But I think it’s a lot more rare to have someone who’s really got their own sound because that’s something you can’t practice."

Zaphod_Beeblebr

If your pick touches the pickups you're doing something very wrong; you won't get up any kind of speed with that much pick contacting the strings.

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mdc

Yes they can both happen at the same time. Grip the pick so you can only see about 4 to 5mm max poking out from your thumb.

And there is nothing wrong with bending the pre-knuckle of your thumb, thus causing the pick to rotate downwards at a 45 degree angle to the strings. This will create a change in two things:

Dynamics and friction. Experiment.

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Sweet

WesM.Vaughan

no i'm just over exaggerating. By doing that one could be sure they are not moving their pick away from the strings.

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MARTY FRIEDMAN--"It’s a lot easier to be technical than it is stylized; it really is... But I think it’s a lot more rare to have someone who’s really got their own sound because that’s something you can’t practice."

WesM.Vaughan

This would not be perpendicular.

So if it is best to bend the pre-knuckle of the thumb i will focus on that.

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MARTY FRIEDMAN--"It’s a lot easier to be technical than it is stylized; it really is... But I think it’s a lot more rare to have someone who’s really got their own sound because that’s something you can’t practice."

Zaphod_Beeblebr

You're thinking of perpendicular in the wrong plane. The angle there is a pure matter of tonal choice. That piece of advice is that it the pick should remain perpendicular to the strings in the same plane as the surface of the body; the one that is parallel to the strings.

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mdc

No I know it's not. I was giving you options.

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Sweet

mark.bark

Hold the pick, let it poke out ever so slightly, bring it along side the sting, pretend you are giving a bee a handjob and you have 10 seconds to finish the job. Move from the wrist, rather than the whole arm... Unless the bee asks

Hey presto,

Speed picking

mdc

Lol

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Sweet

WesM.Vaughan

LOL...that sums up speed picking. I can't wait to tell that to a know-it-all shredder.
Them single stringers.

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MARTY FRIEDMAN--"It’s a lot easier to be technical than it is stylized; it really is... But I think it’s a lot more rare to have someone who’s really got their own sound because that’s something you can’t practice."

mark.bark

Its difficult to do though, especially with fret buzz

macashmack

Lol all these puns bee funny.

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Modes and scales are intelligent and useful. Start learning them. Seriously.

Mephaphil

Ok... I want you to try again!

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AeonOptic

I thought they generated quite a buzz in the thread.
Your criticism stings.
Sorry, I'll leave.