MAB's Picking Technique

[diminished]

I know this is kind of beating a dead horse as your picking has been dissected a hundred times but it's difficult to know the exact mechanics of what's going on when you pick.

In your Starlicks video, you say you should keep your index and thumb absolutely rigid. My question is, where is the power being generated? It looks like your fingers are moving in isolation in video recordings. I don't see your wrist moving a whole lot and the elbow seems to be involved to a minor extent. Is it an isolated up and down motion of your rigid fingers? 

Do you rest your wrist on the body of the guitar? (Unlikely, but then how do you mute?) Any help would be appreciated.

[blackjack]

Yes, if you could describe in detail the picking style you use when you pick your fastest that would be very, very interesting. Not that I want to copy it, I'm just curious as to what makes it work, wrist, elbow? I'm talking about the style where you have your palm several inches above the strings so you are not able to mute, and you have your wrist somewhat arched over the strings. You move your elbow a lot but I don't know if that's just for changing strings or picking on one string. i also see that you have your pick angled so that it's slanted toward the next string you are changing to, meaning the top of your pick is closer to the next string than the point of your pick.

My main question is what muscles are making the pick move back and forth as in a one string lick. When you change a string, do you use your elbow mostly? I don't even know if you notice it yourself, but watch the online clinic you just did and you will see your forearm moving at the elbow joing quite a bit when in the "hyper-speed position" the arched position which is almost like a modified Eddie Van Halen tremelo picking position because he arches his wrist when he tremelo picks.., so he can't mute the strings when he's in his top speed position either. THANK YOU!

Finally, one thing that would be helpful is the next time you make an instructional video, use your 'hyper-speed arched wrist picking position" when demonstrating the licks slowly as well as fast. From what I have seen you use your non-arched wrist picking position (where your palm is on the strings so you can mute if you want) for demonstrating picking the licks slowly and unfortunately that changes everything. If you could use your arched wrist position for demonstrating playing the licks slowly and also make sure to use at least two different camera angles so that we have a more complete view of EVERYTHING you are doing that would be GREAT!

[diminished]

I've also noticed that he uses a near traditional picking style when he's playing relatively slow. It's only when he shreds or sweeps that it transitions into the anchored middle, ring and pinky 90 degree picking motion.

[karo123]

If this helps you out guys, I can tell MAB mainly mutes with his left hand (fretboard). Once he put a finger on a string, it mutes string above and below. Very useful, using it myself. As far as I remember, MAB said the motion comes from wrist and elbow combined, but lets wait for the master himself

[blackjack]

Jun 20, 2014 15:58:26 GMT -6 karo123 said:

If this helps you out guys, I can tell MAB mainly mutes with his left hand (fretboard). Once he put a finger on a string, it mutes string above and below. Very useful, using it myself. As far as I remember, MAB said the motion comes from wrist and elbow combined, but lets wait for the master himself

When I said "not able to mute" referring to one of MAB's two picking positions, I wasn't referring to muting for the purpose of sounding clean which is the kind of muting you're referring to. I meant the type of muting effect that Al Dimeola is famous for and so many other players have gone on to include in their arsenal of different types of sounds they can get out of the guitar.

[diminished]

Jun 20, 2014 15:58:26 GMT -6 karo123 said:

If this helps you out guys, I can tell MAB mainly mutes with his left hand (fretboard). Once he put a finger on a string, it mutes string above and below. Very useful, using it myself. As far as I remember, MAB said the motion comes from wrist and elbow combined, but lets wait for the master himself

Okay, theoretically that kind of muting is possible but in real life shredding 16th's at 200bpm is that realistic? (I'm talking about sounding clean unlike blackjack.) I don't think a human could mute like that as your fingers aren't on the fretboard for long enough and that degree of accuracy would require the precision of a god.

[SendHelp]

Check out this set of videos to get a good look at MAB's technique. They mounted a camera onto the neck of the guitar, it actually gets in the way once, heh! Slow motion capture at a high frame rate, it is pretty cool to see:

troygrady.com/codearchive/batio/