Hey all,
I've been playing for a while, and I originally did not learn scalpel or sarod picking. My preferred picking technique--which I'm not in love with--is rather stiff and inelegant but, for the most part, gets the job done.

In one of Pebber's Daily Practice Routine videos, he makes the claim that your picking method, in the end, does not matter. There are hundreds of different methods, and they can be developed to be fast and accurate. See, for example, Rusty Cooley. What matters is that you practice picking every day for more than just a couple minutes.

I wish my picking was more elegant and relaxed but I feel like trying to change my picking, at this point in my guitar playing career, would be counter productive. I DO practice picking everyday, though it is picking in MY style, not sarod or scalpel.

Thoughts?

I'd say it's your call, but you can definitely learn scalpel or sarod.

I never learned anything but self-taught picking methods for 30 years, and started working on scalpel and sarod 2 years ago and saw a nearly immediate improvement in my accuracy, speed, tone, and clarity. 2 years later I am a much cleaner player from having learned that. It gives me much tighter control over my movements.

If you're curious to see what it's like, just take 15 minutes a day for a week or 2 doing scalpel only. It'll be weird at first but you get accustomed to it pretty quickly.

If I want to work on scalpel or sarod I still have to focus on it. When I play I use all sorts of different angles, of course. But there is definitely more flexibility in my thumb joint than before; I can see it in videos if I show my right hand. So even though I go back to my earlier picking styles, scalpel picking has become a part of that and it's made me a lot better.

But like I said above, it's your time, so spend it however you want on what you think will give you the best results.

Farelli, do you have any before-and-after videos you could share with me/us?

Hey Paul,
You could maybe plant your pinky at times so you get controlled movement across your hand i.e.(Controlled Thumb Movement and Knuckle Placement) rather than from your wrist. Your knuckles are then on an axis rather than pivoting around. Instead of moving your wrist to place your hand at different strings, you're pivoting left to right on your pinky. Then maybe, you can be responsible for the eBG and maybe the D string. I hope this isn't too confusing and I hope this helps.
By the way, I like your playing.

Heyman

Hey Paul,

My older videos probably show some pretty sour picking. I'll check later.

I'll also try to get a video of my picking today. There will certainly be an apparent difference.

But it'll take me until later this evening. At work for a while yet.

Here's a good example of my "before" picking, from December, 2014.

Never to late to learn a new technique. its gonna feel strange for a while, and that's where most people quit.
stick at it for a while (couple months at least) see if its for you.

Remember Pebber tried the ten/twelve position major scale system for ten years before deciding he needed to change it.

Thanks for the replies, you guys. I think I am going to take the arduous journey to try to change my picking style to Pebber's sarod-scalpel hybrid. My wrist cannot even make that damn sarod motion as of right now!

Yeah, it's worth it. I haven't had the chance to make another video yet, but one will come.

Start with scalpel.

But if you decide you want to play with sarod, Pebber has a great video where he explains how to get the motion down before using a guitar.

Pebber's not kidding.

I randomly came across agreat example of scalpel picking in action. Search youtube for Babymetal's performance of Gimme Chocolate on the Stephen Colbert show. The cameraman catches scalpel picking at the beginning of the guitar solo roughly 2:30 minutes in. The lead guitarist is supposedly very well known in his home country of Japan as being a virtuoso.