Single String Isolation Exercise

[Michael Krailo]

I have created a simple single string exercise for everyone that has issue with speed and rhythm. The purpose of this is to feel the correct rhythm in the tip of your pick on a single open string so that you are only focusing in on one single aspect of your technique. Trying doing this exercise as warm up every day for the next month and tell me how it goes.

Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of it. This will improve your timing, your feel, your confidence, and it will get you in the groove. I will come up some additional exercises and challenges and create them as a soundslice link that everyone here can use. Here is the link to the exercise. If the link does not work for you, let me know. It may require the free account signup at soundslice.

https://www.soundslice.com/slices/1gRBc/

Note, this is not about going slow. It’s about using your natural picking style that works well fast and easy for you. See that video I posted on pick slanting and find which version of it works for you and stick with it. For me, I’m a Down Pick Escape type (DPX). So my pick clears the lower strings while the back of the pick is slanted upwards. Watch the video if you don’t understand this concept.

Here is some info from the web on it:

Downstroke escape and upstroke escape are specialized picking motions that integrate string switching directly into the picking stroke to enable fluid, high-speed alternate picking. These techniques, often analyzed under frameworks like Cracking the Code, rely on an “escape” motion where the pick moves away from the string plane to clear adjacent strings without requiring a separate, inefficient movement.

Downstroke Escape Motion
In a downstroke escape (often associated with Upward Pickslanting or UWPS), the pick is trapped between strings during the upstroke and escapes above the string plane during the downstroke.

Mechanics: The downstroke finishes in the “escape zone” (away from the guitar body/strings), while the upstroke remains “trapped” between the strings.
String Changes: This motion allows for clean string changes only when the final note on a string is a downstroke.

Application: It is mechanically optimal for phrases with an odd number of notes per string (e.g., 3, 5, or 7 notes), as the sequence ends on a downstroke, leaving the pick free to escape to the next string.

Players: This style is utilized by players like Andy Wood and is a variant of the technique used by Frank Gambale (often called Gambale Sweeping when combined with economy picking).

Upstroke Escape Motion
In an upstroke escape (often associated with Downward Pickslanting or DWPS), the pick is trapped during the downstroke and escapes above the string plane during the upstroke.

Mechanics: The upstroke finishes in the “escape zone,” while the downstroke remains “trapped” between the strings.

String Changes: This motion allows for clean string changes only when the final note on a string is an upstroke.

Application: It is mechanically optimal for phrases with an even number of notes per string (e.g., 2, 4, or 6 notes), as the sequence ends on an upstroke, leaving the pick free to escape to the next string.
Players: This is a common technique for many shredders and is described by Troy Grady as the primary motion for players like Oz Noy and Teemu Mäntysaari in specific contexts.
Key Concepts

Single Escape: Most players use one primary escape type (either up or down), making string changes efficient only in specific rhythmic patterns (even vs. odd notes per string).

Double Escape: Some advanced techniques, like crosspicking or certain bluegrass flatpicking styles, use a double escape motion where both upstrokes and downstrokes escape, allowing string changes on any stroke. This often involves a semicircular motion or specific pickslanting combinations.

Pickslanting: The physical angle of the pick (slanting toward or away from the floor) is a component that facilitates these escape motions, ensuring the pick attacks the string perpendicularly to its diagonal path of motion.

Root note patterns >>> CAGED shapes >>> TRIAD'S. Just put in the work and watch your guitar skills soar.

• This topic was modified 4 hours, 59 minutes ago by Michael Krailo.

[Author]

Posts