The Surprising Mechanics of Edge Picking
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- Опубліковано 6 чер 2019
- The amount of edge picking you use has a profound impact on the way your pick works, influencing many aspects of its performance, from tone to smoothness of motion. Let's investigate! Learn more: troygrady.com/primer/
When it comes to using edge picking to control attack and tone, it's Andy Wood ( instagram.com/andywoodmusic/ ) and Teemu Mäntysaari's ( instagram.com/teemumantysaari/ ) world, and we're all just living in it!
You are naughty naughty boy Troy, by giving all the secrets to mortal souls the Gods will be angry, you reminded me on Apollo you know the one who took the knowledge from Gods (about music to) and gave it to people....
i do understand american very well, but sometimes i wished you could do some videos in German :-) wouldnt that be a new challenge :-) i know you do speak German.. greetings from Alemania
I just wanna thank the guitarists in this video for reminding me how average I am. Anyway great work!
Don't feel bad. Andy Wood is one of a kind
Se a gente é prego, é porque falta ou treino ou disciplina... Só metendo hora sobre hora de exercício chato bagarai. Bora farofar, fi, que eu devia estar com a guita no colo ao invés de escrever isso aqui xD tmj
Gabriel Moço right he started to pick the strings and I was like I need to get back to practicing
The production on Troys videos blow me away
These UA-cam videos are pretty much episodes of his professional production given out for free.
@@pakoti96 He actually has an amazing paid full episodes that are longer and much more in depth. Check out his website.
The benefits of scads of disposable income.
@@Quazi-moto Man I'd love some of that, but it looks like all our disposable income done got disposed of! We're a mom and pop shop of three dudes, and I personally worked every weekend in 2019 (except Mother's Day) to get this series on pick design out the door. All three of us are handy with animations and music so the skills all overlap. But it's thanks to those who buy our instructional stuff and interviews that we can keep doing what we're doing.
@@troygrady Compared to me, you have scads, I promise hehe. And no offense. I only meant you have a lot of nice toys.
I've been playing for 35 years. A lot of this is stuff I understand via experience but would never have been able to express so perfectly. What a wonderful job! For that, good sir, you have a new subscriber.
You are in your own league with guitar education. This stuff is amazing and likely ground-breaking. You are a service to all guitar players everywhere. Thanks Troy!
You should totally tackle subjects like basic guitar setup, how all of the adjustments effect the guitar, and each other, with this thorough, visually supported format, would be fantastic. If you really feel adventurous, take on tonal differences between solid/semi-hollow/hollowbody, and the ever controversial DUN DUN DUN Tonewood!
It may not be of interest to you, but this format and an obviously informed perspective like yours, would be THE standard for UA-cam guitar information videos.
Just my 2c, love the vids so far!
It's time guys like these bust these stupid guitar myths wide open. Is there a guitar myths channel yet? If not, there needs to be one. So much musician culture can be so hoity-toity, pretentious, I've been in this industry x amount of years so I know what I'm talkin bout, etc. bullshit...
I am rarely happy with the work that others do to my guitars. Would love to develop the actual skill and know-how to do it myself.
@@Pepper-cd9yr Darrell Braun does a lot of guitar myth videos where he takes an experimental approach, they're really great. Here's an example: ua-cam.com/video/sYK0XX-nDVI/v-deo.html
Troy, it’s really a great thing that you include frequency comparisons. I’m beginning to learn about music production so there is a lot to learn from your videos. Thank you for your work!
For some of these effects, "warm" or "bright" or whatever descriptive term you might choose doesn't really capture what's going on. Understanding what's happening between 100hz and 10khz is the best way to understand what your tools are doing to your tone.
@@troygrady Thanks again Troy!
I'd love to see Chris thiles technique on the mandolin and then on the guitar, so you could examine it, every video you do is 1000 hours worth of education in picking technique.. you are like a master scientist of the physics of guitar picking science and techniques...
My god!! The quality of this video! Wow!! Thanks for sharing!!!!
This channel deserves way more subs!
This is so interesting and awesome to see being supported with actual audio evidence. I knew some of this just by playing around with pick angles, but seeing just HOW much this affects the tone on that EQ graph is crazy! 😳
I really have to thank you Troy, because thanks to your site and this YT channel I solved so many technical problems in the past years on my electric guitar. But what is actually unbelievable is that now that I'm a classical guitar player this video on pick's tone, with all the scientific content, helped me finding the sound I like on my nylon strings! You do an amazing job for all guitar player. Wish you all the best 👍
Seriously dude... I looked bunch of your video's right now and i didn't find any channel which could come any closer when talking about mechanics. Best practicing channel ever.
(sry broken english, hi from France!)
It’s amazing how much you effort you put into this videos. Honestly thank you for that.
Cheers
The sweeps at 11:28 where absolutely beautiful, very nice video!
This this awesome research. You're a legend Mr Troy Grady!
This is an absolutely brilliant video! I'm going to have to watch it about 10 more times!
i was in middle school when I discovered Troy Grady's stuff. I have just started my first job this week. Nice to see him still doing this
What a service you provide for us learners! As the only person who seriously applies science to this, you remove the BS and rumors. I wish you also did one for fingerstyle picado and arpeggios technique, such as what flamenco players do. :) Keep up the great work!
I'm supposedly a guitar student and aspirant teacher, and I didn't knew a thing about this, simply wow
*If you want a really nice, light sound,* I'd suggest holding the pick sideways so the long edge is perpendicular to the strings, and then strum as if the pick is just bouncing.
Your channel really shows how the internet raises general awareness. One step closer towards enlightenment. Clearing up all the old myths with science. I grew up trying to master picking and was told stuff like "it's genetic", "you are either born with it or not, so don't even try". So, this is finally clearing all these old voices out of my head and look what happens. My picking is now rapidly improving in terms of reliability, smoothness and thereby FUN (so I come back to it more often). Also, sweep picking works super smooth now, too. I'm in love with it now. Thank you so much for your work Troy Grady.
This was always a huge problem. "Everyone picks differently" was never good or helpful advice. At least not for me. I need a little more guidance than that, personally.
I'm sure Einstein and Henry Ford would have loved these videos. You've taken such a strange and tiny topic and have become what I feel is the leading expert in the whole world on this stuff... picking. And you teach it with such great production and clarity on top of all of that. Thanks!
Pick edging and slanting have definitely improved my playing, really helpful stuff!
This is an absolutely fabulous video! Both content and production quality!
Thanks man!
Coming from a more rock oriented picking, and re-exploring again picking technique after discovering George Benson's picking technique and the one most soul and some jazz guitarists use, I've came up to your channel. And congratulations on the valuable information and the crazily well produced videos. But I think there's one gap that needs to be addressed and filled: that damn weird but effective George Benson's picking technique, and why he and more jazz oriented guys and guitarists aiming to have a more rounded and warm tone are doing it. I've done my humble research and I found that is a way of edge picking (the one you guys name as "trailing edge picking") in which the pick is located closer to the neck as you go down the strings (the higher pitched strings, the closer your hand is), producing a more mellow, bassy sound in the first strings, just because the way you arm and hand needs to be in order to play with the trailing part of your pick, not the front one, as you demonstrate in the present video. If you guys could do some research on that, bring some of those players like "Cecil Alexander", and do a video about it, I'd be damn gratefully and enjoy it a ton. Thanks for your time, and best regards!
Digging the video Troy. Amazing visuals. Great information as always. Way beyond most teachers as always. Kinda surprised you didn't talk about PAUL GILBERT though. He's only talked remotely about this whole idea in just about every instructional video he's made.
This is a fascinating video
Brilliant work, thanks!
Such a detailed investigation never disapoints. The team delivered some great stuff here.
I hope the pick manufacturers will learn from this, if their own R&D hasn't. Who knows, maybe one day they will provide some jazz III picks with already existing scraps on the edge. THis will allows those mid boost right out of the box.
Genious!! From content to graphics to everything.
Finally some attention to this subject 👏👏
Fender 346 shape in heavy celluloid gives the best “brown” balance of overtones, vs the usual (brighter) 351 shape, IMHO, using low edge picking.
Also, smaller framed people seem to have a straighter pick angle due to their arms’ geometry (Paul Kossoff, Angus Young), but bigger people can adjust for this with practice.
Conversely, high edge angling the pick during solos can bring in the subtleties of mothering notes (as Les Paul put it) and making a guitar cry and/or ghost notes.
Great video!
I am so glad I came across this channel...
Damn production and research! You will be big!
That physical explanation lines up very well with my kinaesthetic intuition. I like to pick hard and it always feels like edge picking smooths it out. I notice this ESPECIALLY when playing amplified.
Interesting and educating video Troy!
Incredible job !
Hello Troy! I experiment a lot with picks, the most popular on the market and selfmade, even filing them to different shapes and angles. I noticed, with some picks its the other way around: more overtones at slanting. Those where the harder ones. Tests resulted to my favourite angles of the plec: 33-35 degrees bevel simetrical on both sides- the leading edge and the trailing, giving me a very pointy edge at parallel picking. (very similar to J. Petrucci's signature). I came up with this, because used picks feel the best, and get this particullar angle (at my playing). I tryed to analize, why some sound brighter by playing slanted. Came to 2 conclusions: 1.-the string touches slightly the trailing edge after passing the tip and produce the overtones, because the string jumps faster then my pick moves away from it. 2.- the playing edge is rough due to microscopically tiny broken out bits (i saw them under microscope) and induce a high pitch vibration during edge sliding till jumping over the tip. At an angle, the edge slides along the string and induce more vibration prior to release, at 0* the surface of the pick slides perpendicular over the string and perhaps with less friction. I don't know wich theory applies, ... maybe both...😊 A microscope and slow-mo camera and your analitical brain and knowledge could reveal that😃👍
This is one of the greatest videos I’ve ever watched.
Insanely sharp and insightful video 👍👍👍
This might be one of the most guitar nerdy channels around, and that's why I love it
Tom Milley Music Heavy on the nerd end. I dig it.
... after 45 years of guitar playing, actually ANYTHING with strings (including the violin, mandolin, etc., ) it is really nice to be able to still TAKE LESSONS! Understand this: Playing the guitar and achieving your personal flare is a lifetime venture, just like anything else. I remember the first time I watched Troy's videos. I was kind of annoyed, to be completely honest. Breaking down every single mechanic and nuance and then breaking it down even farther brought me back to my teaching days. I did the same thing with EVERY venture in life. Too much stress. Everything about my playing became too mathematical. Where was the "feeling?" ~ Now, in retrospect and striking contrast, I find myself motivated to listen to Troy speak and play for hours on end each day while I work. Very intelligent, well-spoken and inquisitive human being. When you are no longer young, dumb and full of (yourself) ~ you will find, if you are a conscious thought-processing individual, that our lives NEED inspiration in order to keep thriving. What's my point? Troy Grady is exactly what every aspiring musician (not just guitarist) needs... at ANY age. Take Frank Gambale for instance. You would think that he rests on his laurels. He most certainly does not. He is constantly striving to be a better, more fluent, articulate, eloquent and fluid guitarist. Once you start thinking that you've got it all figured out, what's left to inspire you? Troy will NEVER 'master' the guitar. Nor will I. Why? Because we will NOT let ourselves! If you understand what I just said, kudos to you. You will strive to be the best you can be at everything you do until your last breath on this earth. If not, well.... good luck with your future endeavors. Thank you Troy for all that you have shared. We understand that you have to sell things to make a living and that we have to put up with annoying ads about Diarrhea and Heart attacks, at the same time, you are giving out so much information for free. I can't even imagine what kind of guitarist I would be if this platform for learning had been available to me when I was 15 or even 30. Social Media has its advantages and its drawbacks. This instructor and his channel are the advantage. I see no drawbacks here unless you are insecure about your abilities to gather information, apply it with your newfound knowledge, and turn it into wisdom. Knowledge is worthless unless it is shared. Obviously Troy knows this and he gives out proportionately more than he takes. Thank you Troy for your continuous inspiration. Younger folks will not appreciate this until they have reached the last third of their lives.... unless they saturate themselves with the wisdom of their elders. Too deep? My apologies. I look forward to each and every guit-fiddle autopsy and dissection. ⚜️⚜️⚜️
Thanks for so much help really. Great work man!
Indeed an awesome video!!
Been looking for a video like this for years!
Yeah me too!
Unparalleled quality of video production and information depth.
Thx for sharing great content!
Another great video!
Troy might be the first guitarist/ scientist in music history. Excellent work!
in the jazz 3 video I couldn't understand what was making the tonal differences, now with images I get it, thanks Troy :)
Awesome! On our site the edge picking video comes first, so it's our fault - we just got so many requests for the Jazz III video we put it up first!
Excellent video, very informative.
Very interesting show mate.
Jesus, I clicked out of curiosity but the editing and the production just kept me watching. Super interesting stuff.
Thanks!
JESUS DUDE, make more of these videos man. You’ll be the biggest music channel in a year
For me, its just yolo, grab a pick, starts picking and boom! Done.
Anyhow, a great video.
Yeah I'm not picking with my picks
Technique is important tho
@Parker Hetzel If you don't want carpal tunnel or arthritis in your fingers then you probably should
Im using my fingers only
I tend to use the trailing edge style of picking when I'm doing pretty fast tremolo picking riffs.
My god these videos are ridiculously helpful
Helpful in what way?
@@kenquid8091 playing guitar?
And maybe at recording guitar sound
Troy thank you for doing this amazing work! I’ve already bought some downloads but gonna do a monthly sub now🤘🏻
Great video and editing
great video, as usual!!!
Great vid!!!!
Troy. You're a Legend.
Nice playing from everyone here but mostly i am amazed be the graphics and the sounddesign, really nice work!
Thank you!
Great material
Great stuff. Thanks.
Have you ever looked at the tonal shift in pick slanting. I remember being pretty young and trying to slant my pick to do the inside version of Paul Gilbert’s intense rock lick. But I consciously decided to stop doing it because I thought it would affect my tone. Kind of like when you pinch a string, pull it up and away from the guitar and release it back from a few millimetres, I though that the slant would affect the tone as it would take the string away from the guitar slightly.
It wasn’t until years later when I started watching your videos that I hadn’t taken the slant out of my playing the whole time.
I even remember seeing the malmsteen video and deciding not to do the slanting that he did for the same reason (although I hadn’t stopped to consider that his tone certainly hadn’t suffered and of course I thought he did pure economy picking rather than the dwps mechanics).
Of course I didn’t give it that much thought in my early to mid teens, and I do wonder how much it held me back. But even in my 20s when I discovered your videos I have always wondered how big the effect on tone is.
thanks a lot, Troy!
What a fantastic video!!!!!
Another great video Troy! Please tell us, when can we expect to hear your solo records? C'mon let us have it, as a fellow longtime player I know that they exist.
Dr Grady PhD of Guitarology is back in the house. Thank you for the always insightful content Troy.
this was so cool, I subscribed!
Great video.
Fuck yeah, I thought I was the only person who picked like that. Awesome, is a great technique.
Amazing! Incredible! Bravo!
Troy you are a verry intelligent man thank you for your work / service
Finally a label for that "other" way of picking that I find so hard to describe
great video
What also should be adressed is where on the string the pick comes in contact with combined with the pick edge. this brings into the tonal affects producedand the various harminics due to the string length from the position the pick contacts the string. For example picking back at the bridge has different harmonics and overtones than picking over the front pickup or closer to the neck or up over the neck. Also the strings tension and tinsil properties a;so come into play for example when plucking flat or edge at the bridge hasa brillient sharp metal crisp attack sound because the string is more taught back at the bridge and doesnt vibrate the string very much and produces sharp attack with less richness in overtones, thus a brighter sound. There are areas of of the string that can create more twang and areas that create kinda hallow funkier tones. The factors also must include the types of strings and their inheirent properties for exanple round wound or flat wounds, springyness or the elastic - plastic rebound physical properties of strings,new vs older strings tententions over time fatigue the metals, metals used steel, nickel, phosphers, magnetic properties, pickup and pickup heights, frets all come into play Ha and pick materials used and pick haedness and shape, how the picks edge gets worn. These factors are like paints are to an artist, how we phrase the notes is like the aetists palet to mix colors and shades. Most guitarists who have played for any length of time have experianced and utilized all these factors and more. Thats how we create our signature sounds and styles that we recognize when we hear it. I am not a professional on this topic, nor do I play the guitar, but I do play bass and often choose to use a pick and all the same factors are at play. I recomend new guitarists to experiment with all thes factors to find what floats your boat. I been playing for almost sixty years and I stil discover new sounds to use everyday.. I would also love to hear anyones thoughts to add to this topic and thank you guys for explaining the scientific properties of using picking technics between flat and edge picking and effects on the string and acoustical properties. keep up the good work...
This is brilliant.
This truly is "guitar science" thank you for such an informative video once again. :)
Amazing video. Subbed.... Dude i thought your phone holder was a giant crazy capo at first! lol =]
I watch and love every video on this channe!
Your channel is the educational Guitar channel on UA-cam. Infotainment at its best.
Brilliant Troy
Awesome vid!
Oddly enough, I've always been an edge picker, and for many years have had no trouble altering the angle, attack, etc etc . . . . .
. . . . . except! when it comes to just straight, flat picking, lol. For some reason, I can't keep that pick flat for any length of time and without pointedly concentrating on it.
How are you doing it, via thumb changes or approach angle changes, i.e. the angle at which your entire arm approaches the strings? Are you using a pad-to-index side grip or a pad-to-index pad grip? Or a three finger / middle finger grip? Lots and lots of variables. A simple thing like this is affected by everything else you do from your fingers to your shoulder.
Thank u sooooo much! Troy!
Right on!
I've always found my picking to be more accurate when using heavier gauge strings. Especially when changing strings. The tension of the string acts as a small ramp to help the pick get into the air.
Haha so awesome! You really are a mad scientist Troy.
Dude your video is awesome! The editing and illustration and all. I'd highly appreciate it if you make an essay about the basic guitar theory for us beginners
What subject are you interested in? Is it something we haven't covered yet?
@@troygrady hey thanks for replying so fast!
I dont know? Scales, chords, melody, anything basically. I just started playing guitar 6 months ago so i'd say im somewhere between novice and intermediate :)
There are tons and tons of great resources for this already out there: Ben Eller and Adam Neely come to mind just off the top of my head. Some poking around "guitar youtube" will no doubt pull up many others.
Excellent explanation. I have so many plectrums of shapes,materials & gauges. My wife bought me a pack of picks made from 45 records from Think Geek. They’re great for bottle neck with some overdrive. The pick grooves swell the string like a violin bow. That’s if you play it flat against the string.
Interesting, and that's not too scratchy?
Troy Grady No the groves have been smoothed down a bit. Dark tone on acoustic strings though.
Such a badass vid thanks
Thanks!
The Science of Guitar and Guitar's Einstein explaining and demonstrating to us.Very informative and mind blowing.
i just started playing guitar a few months ago, and Ive been accidentally edge picking for a while. I really want to get good, i started on acoustic and Ive been playing so much that i picked up my first electric setup last week. your videos are impressive as always!
Almost everyone uses a small amount of edge picking, whether they realize it or not. Even the choice to play flat is still a choice we should be conscious of. And to make matters more confusing, heavier gauge, rounded picks still exhibit an edge picking effect when played flat, because they are rounder.
@@troygrady ty for the tips
This is essentially how Shawn Lane picked. He often spoke of how he held the pick at a “severe angle”.
My recommendation for the studio is Dunlop sharps, they are so sharp that there is not much difference between the angles so you get a consistent tone if needed... and if everything is the same automations are easy
Your insights on guitar are revolutionary.
What? This is so old and it's the only proper way to use a plectrum. If you're not using this technique, you're not doing it right.
@@meshuggahdave5607 really? It's the "only proper way"? Guitar playing allows anything. Look at how Marty Friedman picks. I bet it's not 100% the same as you suggest. Is he doing it wrong?
@@MRKABOOM12 pretty sure he uses this technique... you could argue all day but I know what I'm talking about. There's actually a lot of wrong ways to go about playing a guitar...
@@meshuggahdave5607 make your own video explaining what you know, then.
@@MRKABOOM12 for what? A bunch of idiots hellbent on consuming whatever they think is real? I got too much of my own life to live to worry about making videos look like they're special and go on and on for 15 minutes about a topic that is so basic and fundamental that it should be incorporated into a larger video discussing all beginner techniques. Sure you can bow a fretless guitar but you can also use a magnet to vibrate a string too... are those both examples of standards? No.
Holding a plectrum correctly is a standard.
Fuck off.
Troy is a guitar genius. Full stop.
Nah, hes just a genius at everything
his video editing and presentation are also top notch
@Fred Virtuoso Bold statement from a guy named Virtuoso and no content to speak of.
@@andrepudel top notch? That's why if you play the video at 25% speed, the audio isn't matching what they're playing at all...
This is the first video I have seen of yours - the entire video I was wondering who the guest guitarist was that was in house.
At the end the guest guitarist turns to the camera and starts talking in the narrators voice! Boom mind blown! Haha
Wow, I just hold the pick in a way I think sounds nice, I didn't know there's a science behind it. Cool!
I use this on dunlop ,18 nylon and man it's great all kinds of effects
Would love to see a video on Shawn Lane (still unmatched technically in my opinion), he used edge picking combined with oscillatory picking if I'm not mistaken (George Benson style up/down wrist movement instead of side to side). Cheers!