Down-Down-Up

Jazzaferri

Stochelo mostly does a downstroke on every string change.

When I switched from alternate to rest stroke I spent a few months playing everything downstroke to try and break up the habituated patterns.

JDRooke

A simple exercise a buddy just shared with me that will at minimum get this rolling for triplets would be to do DDU for descending triplet right hand exercises. Do DUD going down and DDU going up.

Charles Meadows

You mean DUD up and then DDU down?

JDRooke

Right, DUD from low E to high E. DDU from high to low. I think the terminology to describe this is always a little messed up because you are physically moving your hand upwards (as in further from the floor) while going from high to low pitch.

I should also note that I will be practicing it both ways... with and without DDU.

WmTBallard

Can I share with you my experience. I have been studying with Fapy for the last five years and Gypsy picking is something he refuses to get drawn into and discuss at any great length. He certainly hasn't included this in any of the lessons I've had with him.
Quite often; when starting out, the down stroke is much stronger and richer in tone, against the weaker "weedier" upstroke. However, with practise the upstroke can become almost as effective as the down stroke and therefore getting hung-up on the detail can become a distraction. Learn as many ways as you can of using the pick and eventually you'll find what works best for you. above all else, having a completely relaxed technique is paramount.

Pip pip

richter4208

The post above by wmtballard is of course the absolute best answer (the only one really) and why I hesitated to post a comment in the first place. When you see stochelo play triplets at 180 Bpm with ALL downstrokes you realize anything is possible depending on you level of commitment and blood sweat and tears of course. Good luck

JDRooke

Great comment, indeed, WmtBallard and you recommend the right approach. I don't mean to emphasize the trees over the forest here. To me, I feel like the right hand is a "limiting factor" for me. My question is simply a way of doing as you say, namely trying all variations and seeing what works for me. I should say that I'm enjoying the results of the time I'm putting into my right hand studies. The focus is particularly useful for me as I have a jazz background and need to re-jigger what I know to make it useful in GJ.

I do think it is a legitimate point to raise and doesn't imply too much focus on technique outside of a musical context. The "rules" of right hand gypsy picking are not complicated on the face of it. There are only a few. The complication comes from the inevitable need to work out the left/right hand coordination. Alternate picking doesn't require this kind of purposeful preparation. I know I wouldn't have naturally figured out the DDU rule if someone hadn't told me about it. And I won't use it unless I sit around and work it out in practice.

Buco

I know for myself I was never completely happy with my picking when I used to alternate pick and say would skip from higher to a lower string doing DU, it wasn't as clean as I wanted it to be.
This GJ way of doing things has cleaned things up so I welcome it.
Now being able to execute it every time at fast tempos is a different story but it'll get there eventually.

Hugh Huffaker

I find this DDU pattern to be very common when using licks that:

1) Have 5 notes on the starting string
2) Starts on high E similar to this outro at 3:40
https://www.soundslice.com/tabs/2734/paulus-schafer-olli-soikkeli-songe-dautomne-patrus-django-in-june-2012-tab/

I play this lick DUDDU on the high E string

A lot of times Stochelo will do a hammer on the second note (of a 5 note on one string lick like the one above) and thus alleviate the need to do a DDU at the end of the lick. Stochelo does this on his intro to China Boy:

JDRooke

Hugh Huffaker wrote: »

I find this DDU pattern to be very common when using licks that:

I play this lick DUDDU on the high E string

A lot of times Stochelo will do a hammer on the second note (of a 5 note on one string lick like the one above) and thus alleviate the need to do a DDU at the end of the lick. Stochelo does this on his intro to China Boy:

Interesting point. I suppose it doesn't matter at what point you double up the downstroke. As, long as you know in advance that you are playing odd, adding a downstroke lets you come up on an upstroke as your last note.