Tremolo Picking

When you tremolo pick, do you hold the pick the same way as you would if you're doing sixteenths at like 100? like do you hold it tighter or looser, etc. and when you're doing just pure downstrokes, (ex master of puppets) do you hold the pick the same way as you would when alternate picking? i'm having trouble doing alternate picking.

For playing with all downstrokes, simply alternate pick as you normally would, but miss on the upstrokes. It takes very little practice to learn how to effectively miss the strings on the upstroke, just go slow at first and watch your pick hand to make sure its doing the right thing.

I recommend that you hold the pick the same as you do for picking other things, preferably with a light grip. With light picking and fretting, higher speeds are possible.

Dude,

Hold the pick perpendicular to the guitar when picking gripping it fairly secure otherwise you might lose it when picking fast from string to string.

Lose grip will make it easier this is true but it will lose some clarity on the notes but then again this is not all that necessary if you are going to be tremolo picking which means you would be playing as fast as you possibly can. Thus rhythmic clarity is unimportant.

Now if you are talking about controled fast picking i say keep a firm grip not only will this improve clarity and such but it will sound better and allow you to palm mute and make it sound good.

On another note lose picking is kinda weak for tone and sounds muddy. And in my opinion is the lazy way out.

Hope that helps out any dude.

Not a loose grip, light picking. The two are different. It isn't a lazy way, its how to do it with little effort. Would you rather struggle when trying to play fast? And rythmic clarity is important when playing fast. What if someone has no sense of rhythm and plays 32nd note quintuplets when its supposed to be even. Thats not likely to happen, its just to show how rhythm is always important.

Dude,

Indeed, perhaps you are right sir. Though with Trem Picking there is not solid rhythm just sheer speed and no need for control of anything other than how long you are picking really fast for. Hence no control and clarity is required. A light relaxed grip is indeed different than loose and i should have been a bit more sensetive to these terms, my bad, anyhow relaxing your picking hand/arm is also a good idea indeed.

yes...

I think "Josh Redstone" means to have a lighter collision between the pick and the string, so that you dont waste time for releasing the pick from the string.

You can do this by moving the pick a little bit away from the guitar body, so that you attack with a less area of the pick... Also a heavy pick is always helpfull (I use Dunlop "Gator Grip" 2mm).

This is not the right way for picking everything, cuz sometimes you may need a heavier attack, enabling more of the pick into the attack... It depends on the line you're playing.

I still think that rhythmic emphasis is important. If you get a peice of music with a little tremolo picking thingy, and it says to play 32nd notes, thats what your supposed to play. Thats how I was taught, anyway. Just an example.

Heavy guage strings, heavy guage pick, pick at the natural angle, don't rotate your hand to strike the strings perpendicularly (this will only slow you down and make your sound thin and eventually will probably give you carpel tunnel syndrome for holding your wrist that way!) Work on isolating the stroke so that the only movement you see is with the fingers holding the pick (at first this will seem impossible) rather than moving your whole arm. A little wrist movement is okay, but eventually you can get a good strong tremolo with the two fingers and only the muscles that work them. The motion isn't so much an up and down as a back and forth. When you first practice it, break the stroke up into two parts: forward (downstroke-- let resonate), (backward let resonate). Then treat it as one stroke (forward, back-- let resonate). Then treat it as a double (forward backward forware backward-- let resonate). Then as a triple, quadruple, etc. until you can treat tremolo playing as one continuous motion for as long as possible and don't have to worry about the strokes as singles. A perfect tremolo will sound like one long note rather than a bunch of single notes-- similar to the way good violinists make it sound like one long note or fast double bass players make a rumble rather than a bunch of notes at random volumes and velocities. Then, if you want to make it grungier or nastier you have the choice of turning your pick however you want, purposely accenting certain notes, etc. so you can have control over your sound, and not vice versa.

I forgot to mention using your pinky, ring finger, or both, as an anchor point on the body of the guitar, which will help prevent arm movement and isolate the stroke to the fingers. You don't want to plant them there, but treat this like you would your thumb on the fretting hand-- just light enough for a foundation, but free enough to move where you need it without holding you there. Good luck. As soon as I can figure out how to get my rig to record onto the computer I will post some fast tremolo picking.