HELP! What do I do? My hand shits on me when I do economy picking

[Dylan Burley]

Hey everyone. Why does my hand keep shitting itself when I go run a scale? I used to be able to do economy picking. As some of you have seen in my Hail to the King cover and Afterlife, but now. I just can’t do it. My hand freaking stops right before I go for it is it my hand or is it my nerves. And what ever it is. Can anyone help?

 

[idssdi]

I’m honestly not entirely sure what you mean my hand just stops. If your hand literally just stops it’s probably a muscle or a nerve. If that is the case the best advice I can give is take a break.

 

[Ed Seith]

Honestly, it sounds like nerves or anxiety. Of course, it COULD be a physical problem, but better to try and address it mentally first.
I would suggest taking one of the ones you’re having difficulty on, and slowing it down significantly with a metronome. Half speed, if you have to, and rebuild your confidence with it as you rebuild your speed. Secondarily, you can try stretches for guitar players (YouTube search – there are good ones!) and maybe even a little meditation before you play, at least until you “get your mojo back.”

 

[Guest]

If its the string skip you’re having issues with, maybe practice ‘raking’ across dead (x) notes. Focus on that picking hand technique. Or do some basic sweeping if you can! If you think it might be a muscle problem (Ie, you’ve done too much), then take a little break from economy picking!

 

[Christopher Lonski]

If is a muscle or issue, like your hands wont physically do what it’s supposed to, start with a full upper body stretch. Definitely focus more on hand and forearm stretches, but also do back, shoulders, lats, etc. Stretch everything, this always gives me more control of my playing and all my muscle systems seem to work together better.
After that, like everyone says, take it slow. Make every hand movement very deliberate and on purpose. Also with sweeping and economy picking, it’s really good to work on your rest stroke which is picking and letting the pick land on the next string and stop, or “rest”. Practicing this up and down give you more control over your sweeps and economy picking. It also makes your notes more defined and makes them sound more “confident”, if that makes any sense.

 

[Sayonil Mitra]

Have you tried slowing down during the transition moment? Let’s say you are just about to start your blistering economy stuff….take some time to make that shift. wait and then start slow….gradually, shorten your waiting time. See if that helps

 

[Dan Shipway]

You might want to check my thread for tips but a lot of it is to do with the sweeping aspect, arm movement is everything is everything and once you can do that everything falls into place.

 

[Ekrem Taha Ünlü]

You can try slow it down. Just try to this just like when you first learned then play faster. This problem will be solved!

 

[Dylan Burley]

Thank you all. So much. This helps a lot!

 

[Dan Shipway]

Just moticed I repeated myself must’ve turned on the delay pedal mid sentence