hello everyone! Do any of you recommend using sarod picking for everything you play? Its amazing when I use sarod for tremolo picking but when I'm string skipping and doing lines that aren't tremolo picked the twist motion becomes awkward and seems like a translation motion would be better, like when playing the technical difficulties intro would y'all scalpel pick using translation in the wrist or sarod? Sorry for all the questions, I'm just unsure on what to practice cause every style seems awkward right now, except when I'm sarod picking on one string which is very comfortable.

Yes Drift, I would recommend use of Sarod picking for everything you play, while you're practicing Sarod picking... just try to play whatever you play using just that technique. Later, you could try using just Scalpel on everything you play, while practicing Scalpel to see how it react to different things... then, you could try using translation motion(pure up and down) on everything you play, while practicing that, maybe palm mute technique could be good idea to isolate that one faster. You could also try to use just forearm motion to play whatever you play... "bicep picking", as Pebber called it that way in one of his videos, or you could even use just an "oscillation" picking that is so famous on many guitar forums(motion like you're tapping on the table, chicken walk-head/neck motion) to see where you culd use that etc...

Of course, you know you can learn different aspects of picking technique different ways... by isolating different techniques one or several at a time and working on just one aspect or on several aspects at a time, or to work on all aspects simultaneously depending on a musical ideas you're practicing to do the best combo. Do them all in any way you might find helpful, and as Pebber said many times about different techniques, learn them all.

Pebber's mentioning of hummingbirds is great insight into comparative biomechanics, especially because hummingbirds are the only birds that can "hover" in one spot and fly backwards, and can change direction faster than a blink of an eye. If you work on just "hovering" in one spot, you'll be comfortable with just "hovering" in one spot. But if you dedicate time to work on overall Sarod, you may find yourself sometimes looking at Sarod as "hovering" on lot of different spots, more than considering it as simple changing directions.

I have a question or two, for you Drift. Is Sarod style tremolo picking comfortable for you while doing quintuplets and septuplets also? And quadruplets and sextuplets etc... also? Or it's just pulse picking out of tempo? Also, could you try, just for a minute, to look at a Sarod picking as it is tremolo picking, but across all strings... from a point of view as your hand is in one place, doing tremolo, and your guitar is moving up and down depending on that on which strings you're doing tremolo, to adjust the position of the strings to tremolo picking style to acomplish every line you play over the strings... kinda crazy to think about it that way and I could easily turn out to be misunderstood about this one, especially because the real situation is exactly the opposite, but you can also look at it as it is Sarod motion tremolo picking across different strings and than you could start to notice the role of Scalpel, "bicep picking" and other aspects in it.

Sarod, as much as it can look and feel weird in beginning, is the most efficient way to get overall technique, across all strings, almost as effective as tremolo picking on one string. For your string skipping dilemma about Sarod, I suggest checking out Shawn Lane while doing 3nps diminished and whatever skips, and why not to check out some videos of Pebber playing live... on youtube, of course, and prepare to be blown away by watching these.

For Technical Difficulties I suggest to find more angled footage of Paul Gilbert doing that song, to see the amount of presence of almost every aspect I've mentioned above. There's very little Sarod in that, but it's there. Scalpel is little more noticeable, and pure translation and "oscilation" are pretty easy to notice, since his pseudo palm anchoring on the bridge dictates his particular hand angle and more use of whrist. Is amount of all these aspects equal through the different parts of song? Of course not. Do you have to copy his style of picking? Of course not. Technical Difficulties... syncopated rhythms on different strings. Great exercise for Sarod picking. Go for it.

Thanks for the much detailed reply. Pebber has been a huge influence and I admire his playing very much, as well as Shawn Lane. I am practicing sarod on everything I play, right now string skipping and changing strings in general is the biggest challenge I have. I've just started practicing with a metronome and haven't worked on timing so I can't really answer your sextuplet questions. But I can say that when I'm sarod picking on one string I can get it very fast and even and I credit this to Pebbers picking exercises that I've been doing for almost a year. When you say move the guitar up and down while your sarod picking on one string do you mean I should keep my hand and thumb at the same angle on every string? Like lets say I'm sarod picking on the high e string and want to smoothly change to the high b string, should I keep the same sarod motion going and use my forearm to lift my hand to that string. Sorry if i'm not making sense it just looks like Pebber keeps his wrist at the same angle while changing strings but his forearm(elbow) is moving his hand from string to string. But then I look at McLaughlin and he seems to use his wrist to change strings. Also I have watched many Shawn lane and Pebber Brown live vids and both seem to have their hand at the same angle while using forearm or elbow motion to change strings. If you could shed some light on this that would be great. Also if you haven't heard Shawn lanes let it be solo check it out!

That's awesome about John McLaughlin and Shawn lane. Shawn Lane I recall said that McLaughlin was the "master picker" lol. Pebber have you ever met Shawn Lane or played with Mclaughlin besides him showing you sarod?

Also do you have any cds for sale?

That's really neat that you got to meet Shawn lane, he seems like a real nice guy in interviews at least. Both John and Shawn blow me away with their music and technique! I' am very familiar with Shawn's work but am new to McLaughlin's music. What album would recommend me to get started with McLaughlin's music? Right now I've just been listening to his stuff on youtube. I went to his website to buy a CD and he's got tons to choose from!

Awesome that will get me started, thanks.