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Bones, it seems to me Stochelo is a great one to follow for lead picking technique. I think it was Denis Chang who talked about his being the zenith, in terms of an almost paradigmatic picking technique. I don't see the differences between his fast and slower technique (have visited his stuff in awhile, still focusing on rhythm), but I wonder if some of what people are talking about is that he prefers downstrokes, whenever he can get away with it - with an attack that really lets you know who's boss? So on slower tunes, he'll hit a lot of downstrokes whereas the party line is alternate pick on the same string, and downstroke when changing strings?
pas encore, j'erre toujours.
Stochelo teaches rest stroke for changing strings moving up the strings and playing on one string
Regular downstrokes are moving down strings and a few other spots that make sense.
Lessons on technique have some good exercises.
When you say moving 'up' the strings you mean moving to the higher pitch strings (i.e moving from the B string to the E string)?
I guess I can understand using free picking at higher tempos rather than rest stroke (not that I can do it) but on some really fast tunes it's almost like a tremolo when they do triplets and 16th notes so no resting on the adjacent string.
Is that the idea?
I'm sorry, Jay, I really don't know what you're saying. I might be missing it.
My impression is that Stochelo's picking isn't all that complicated. He likes downstrokes, like a lot of players, and uses them when her can. On faster tempos, I see a regular rest-stroke, unless I'm missing it, as I said. When he can, and definitely on slower tempos, I see a lot of downstrokes (as well as struck notes, as opposed to pull-offs).
From what I can tell, I don't see anything out of the ordinary...I'm pretty much in agreement with Denis:
I also hear him, here:
I know my own tendency to over-analyze, over-think, try to reason my way through things and drown myself in a sea of words when the easiest thing is probably just do it. For my tastes, both Denis's In the Style of series (and his DC Gypsy Jazz school online), and Christiaan's work through the RA, make it really accessible to do that (just watch and listen, and do).
Edit: At any rate, one of the things I love about Stochelo (and Tchavolo), is just the assertiveness of his attack. Something Stephane mentioned, last DIJ, about throwing down, basically - each note, an assertive, little presentment of self.
pas encore, j'erre toujours.
He plays lots of downstrokes BUT not all downstokes are rest strokes.
He says he plays reststrokes on the 3 occasions I listed above. According to his words all the other downstrkes he plays are not rest strokes. Regular strokes he calls em.....Christiaan refers to. Them as free strokes. Whatever, they dont land on the next string.
No biggee...but makes sense to me as I ended up doing that naturally and unconciously in the same instances as defined by Stocheleo and thought it a fault until I took the course...
That alone was worth my 6 months. Now i am working on the other end, Dinette.
The exercises are pretty cool and on the whole I think it great
I think it's best to go with what he does and not what he says he does...
Don't get me wrong, The RA is great! But the description of his technique doesn't correspond with the way he actually plays... Just watch the videos and you'll see it.
Because he plays into the guitar in terms of picking angle, it would be very hard and inefficient to play free strokes and use force to stop the pick from touching the next string
The only time I've seen him not play a downstroke as a reststroke is while playing Django style chromatic runs, super fast, and on one video inside the RA where he demonstrates "normal" strokes on which he also changes his picking angle to something I haven't seen him do anywhere else... ever (picking sort of outwards). It's obvious that movement doesn't come naturally to him... In my opinion.
Anyways, that's all I want to say on the subject.
Happy picking!
I think at the end of the day, lot of words can be traded around, but it's probably important to just watch, and try to achieve as much congruency between what we're doing, and what we perceive Stochelo to be doing. That's what I try to do, anyway, with all the masters I study.
Thanks for pulling these together, Christiaan.
pas encore, j'erre toujours.
The problem lies with the assumption that you should alternate on one string (like many players do, especially in the French school). Stochelo and many other Dutch players play only downstrokes in arpeggios no matter the tempo, which means multiple down strokes on one string. If you look at even one transcription inside RA you will be amazed at the picking patterns when you compare it to most textbook sources.
These multiple down strokes on one string might seem crazy at first because it can't be done with only rest strokes, you absolutely need to learn how to interchange between rest and free strokes to be able to do it in tempos 250 and higher. In slower tempos it doesn't matter, you can use all rest strokes.
Again, don't go by the demonstrations Stochelo gives in the technique course. He's not doing it right because he's unable to demonstrate it slowly, changing his hand position and all. He's saying the right things though!
If we were to sit down in a workshop setting I could show you in the correct way and it will all make sense. I hope we get that chance somewhere in the near future!
I think we might be lost in some semantics, here, Christiaan. I'm going on memory, but no argument that when he does consecutive downstrokes on a single string, he's not necessarily doing rest strokes. That itself "breaks" the "orthodox" rule of rest-stroke picking. If that's what we're talking about, then no argument here. I know his preference for downstrokes, when he can do them, as I mentioned above.
I've also seen him "break the rule" of a downstroke on every string change in either direction, by seeing him start a lower string with an upstroke (quite a bit).
I've also seen him do a completely "orthodox" rest-stroke on descending through lower strings (right now, looking at "In The Style Of", phrase 6, 7, just as examples).
Again, I'm going on memory for some things (always iffy - :oops: ), but here, for example - he simply slows his technique, and uses a rest stroke, same as at speed, on a single string. A DUD DUD DUD pattern, very clearly, a rest stroke (beginning around 1:10).
If any shows anything to me, it shows rest-stroke isn't a religion or, perhaps, that there aren't any religions in this music. It also tells me someone like Stochelo has long been at the point where it's simply his responsive body playing the way it wants to play.
Edit: By the way, at the risk of coming off as a pompous ass, I could flat out be wrong, wouldn't be the first time. This is just what I see, and recall from past observation.
I'd love to meet you, Christiaan, here in the States, or Europe...with Mother Europe whispering sweet nothings every minute of my waking day.
pas encore, j'erre toujours.