Question on pick angle, 'horizontal axis'.

buebo

Hi everyone,
I'm Bob, just starting out on the whole gypsy picking technique. Been playing for about 9-10 years already mostly electric pick style, but also acoustic stuff, Tommy Emmanuel etc. I ordered the book couple of days ago and should be arriving soon. Ofcourse I couldn't wait so I got the online lesson with a couple of patterns from this site. I think I have a good idea on what the technique consists of and it's coming together slowly. I do have a question about holding the pick. When I use gravity to play the reststrokes I have to tilt my pick not only on the vertical axis to approx 45 degr, but also on the horizontal axis. It looks a bit like this, here you have the pick ( / sign) in relation to the six strings (......), as if you would look from the bridge to the headstock /...... Its not quite as extreme as that but similar. Im not quite able to catch the pick with the next string if I hold it like this |......
I hope this makes any sense . I can't wait for the book to arrive and ruin my exam period!

Also one more question, since I do play electric git in a band, will practicing reststroke interfere with my usual rock playing (including normal alternate picking?)?

Greets, Bob.

Joli Gadjo

Hello Bob,

Welcome to the forum, you'll have fun !
Mickael's book provides several great pictures on how to hold the pick. Even though it is not the most natural position you ever had as a guitarist, you;ll find that it is in fact a very relaxed position... once you get used to breack your wrist. Since you cannot wait the book to arrive, I'll recommend to take a look at this website. It ain't perfect, but it gives lot of good advise and info :
http://www.serendipity-band.com/misc/ma ... toc-en.htm

Swinging from one guitar to another should just need a little adjustment, but it works fine.

MichaelHorowitz

Hi Bob...a 45 degree angle of attack is exactly what you want. You'll see it in the photos when you get the book.

Good luck!

-Michael

buebo

Thanks for the quick replies! Those pictures on that serendipity site resemble my position of the picking hand quite well. Glad to see that. Anyhow it's remarkable how quickly things that used to seem so very counter intuitive for me (for instance using 3-1-1-1 for enclosure type licks) , coming from 'technical' electric guitar playing, appear to simply work!
The bouncy style wrist that comes with the rest stroke reminds me a lot of the picking of Eric Johnson. Maybe getting into GP will help me to finally really nail 'cliffs of dover' as well .

Greets, Bob.

ps, just a stupid fact: I used to live about 1.5km from the Gerwen campsite in Holland, alas that was before I started playing guitar and learned about this great gypsy tradition which was more or less right under my nose!

MichaelHorowitz

buebo wrote:

ps, just a stupid fact: I used to live about 1.5km from the Gerwen campsite in Holland, alas that was before I started playing guitar and learned about this great gypsy tradition which was more or less right under my nose!

Wow! that's funny....although you could easily miss it if you're weren't weren't looking for it. It's really small....

a

it's 45 degrees pointed towards the soundhole, right?

MichaelHorowitz

Yes....there's a picture in the book on p.14 and p.18.

a

hahah finally after all these posts, i get it!

i wasn't sure if it was towards the bridge or soundhole.

luckily, i've been doing it towards the sound hole this whole time anyway.

robertsaunders

I've been working on this for months and I still may not have understood what NOT to do. So just to get this straight: The pick is held at 45 degree angle to the plane of the strings (i.e., the flat top of the guitar), but in parallel alignment with the string. Never rotated "against" the string (like a top) so that the string "digs" into the edge of the pick, eventually wearing a nick in it. I've always rotated my pick in the latter fashion for a more robust tone.

To me that would help me understand the "gravity" concept in this technique, which I've never fully grasped.

Rob

robertsaunders

If one holds the pick flat against the string without rotating it a little one meets more resistance in tremolos and fast lines.

robertsaunders

Joli Gadjo wrote:

Hello Bob...Since you cannot wait the book to arrive, I'll recommend to take a look at this website. It ain't perfect, but it gives lot of good advise and info :
http://www.serendipity-band.com/misc/ma ... toc-en.htm

I went to it but couldn't open the videos. I downloaded VLC media but still can't get it to work. Did you have that problem at all?

-Rob