My god, I can't imagine how much time these videos must take you to film and edit. You are the man, love watching your content!

I think Troy Grady deserves a Nobel Prize or the Guitar Equivalent !! It' so entertaining as well as informative and practical. What an incredible gift to the guitar world he is!

As a teenager, I was a master of radial and ulnar radiation.

Wow. Most indepth guitar lesson for any style ever. Great work.

Your analysis of players picking technique is truly in a class by itself. Very insightful and informative.

This is the greatest channel on youtube! Every guitar player should know your teachings Troy!

Excellent Troy. I am a guitar teacher and I find your videos extremely articlate & logical. Btw; your own playing is superb. Greetings from Germany.

I've been listening to Albert all this past week and wondered if you would ever do a segment on him or any of the other country guys. What great timing!

Troy, I can't thank you enough for these! You are THE MAN!

Again, I'm learning so much from your rigorous analysis! I deeply respect your work!!!

Brilliant ! I've been playing for about 20 years (nothing special) and have just discovered this a few days ago. I will never be a speed player, but understanding "scientifically" what happens with picking technique in this detail is a real revelation. Bravo !

This Troy Grady Channel is one of the best on KZfaq. Really enjoying those videos.

Hey Troy, that slide at the end, going into the resolution tone is one of the secrets of a swinging sound. Don't underestimate the bEbop influence in his playing, probably via Western Swing. It gives the line additional momentum... it just swings more. Albert is a giant, thanks for covering him !!

I have been trying to simplify the complex mysteries of guitar playing ever since since I was a kid. As a result, I've watched a lot of guitar technique videos.These are the most logical, best presented videos I've ever seen. Your work does just this precise thing: It breaks down the complicated and presents it in simplified segments that I can understand. Outstanding work Troy, very well done. Thanks for taking the time to do this!

This is why Albert is one of the best in the business!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wish there was such in depth video about John Petrucci on his alt picking, it is awesome.

Troy my friend you have a fantastic understanding of the guitar. Really love your videos man they are by far thee most accurate explanations behind some of guitars most mysterious techniques..... Awesome channel.

Troy, this is awesome! Your doing is great. I never thought there are so many variations in right hand movements

Excellent job. I've struggled for years with picking and getting from string to string smoothly. Thanks for the analysis, very helpful. As for why this is very helpful: you can stumble onto this at age 15 through dumb luck, or go 5, 10, 20 years of trial and error and maybe never get it. I'd rather be shown then trust to dumb luck. And Albert Kicks A@@!!

Mind Blown......Really great stuff!!

Outstanding!

Troy is like you said to me in the last Cracking the Code live session. Using the combined movements I'm almost achieving what I want, the amazing Morse Mechanic! I've started with the tip you gave me, I'm picking "diagonally" to the strings and using the 3-finger-picking I started to achieve that Morse "U Shaped Miracle" It's amazing! But I hope that you soon could post more about Morse. And Albert Lee is a legend! Thanks for your Work!

This is the best channel I'v found on youtube, keep up the good work

Firstly, thank you ENORMOUSLY for making me realize that I could already do a bunch of types of picking, but was missing details on how to combine them and banging my head against the wall (seriously man, your videos are pretty awesome, made my day way better, thank you!). Secondly, how awesome are these guys for letting you research their picking!? Excellent! After that, I really would like to see one of these episodes breaking down the picking of Ex-Megadeth's Marty Friedman, I think some of that weird hand position he uses could be explained maybe by what you aproach in this video and in the Eric Johnson episode, about downard pick slanting/string hopping/edge picking. Maybe John McLaughlin? Well, only dreaming about the next episodes, it's up to you! haha Cheers!

I truley belive Albert Lee is the best of the best. He does it all. Nobody does it like Albert.

As much as I appreciate the effort that went into making these videos, it's like analyzing Michelangelo's hammer and chisel technique without having an eye for David.

Your work is a magnum opus Troy. It's a brilliant education. Alexander Technique helped me overcome disabling focal dystonia and develop strong technique and lead me to integrate many of the important minutiae you bring light to....all quite unconsciously curiously. Like the Buddhist's ' non - doing ' perhaps - in releasing the body. Much respect, great picking dude.

Very very interesting and informative. Thank you for taking the time and effort to do this.

Amazing work!

I have a hang up here. Everyone talks about Page and Clapton; Eddie and slash and the like. How many folk actually ever heard of Albert Lee? In MHO, the best clean guitarist ever. If not THE BEST EVER. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool rock fan: after all my fave band is Aerosmith and Joe is also a wonderful player BUT I think Albert outshines all of these players. His skill is unsurpassed. Great pick angle I can't (yet) emulate and I don't have a lotta years left so,,, Never underestimate a DAMN good player. Thanks for this rare footage and merry Christmas,. Not bad for a first comment, eh? Loved this.

When I started playing, I used the 3 finger pick grip. It felt comfortable, and I started getting a bit faster, but I'd always hit a wall. Then, I started reading a bunch of articles and watching videos and tried to force my hand to hold the pick differently. It's like learning to walk again and I feel like I'm going crazy. I appreciate your videos and am trying my best to keep an open mind as I attempt to demystify my own playing. Thank you!!

Awesome material.

one of the most "precise picking" guitar heros from 80's for me is definitely mr. Vinnie Moore :)

Fantastic work. I love what you are doing.

You should go into detail about this,Troy

Superb!!!

Eddie did Spanish Fly. The first part is straight up picking that was clean and fast. The best part is he mixes legato and pizzicato together seamlessly.

thanks for making these videos ! amazing knowledge to have ^^

awesome video man!

Albert is the man

I'm sure they're using these vids at MIT...if not juliard...it's great to see the science behind it all...this is stuff I have tried to articulate and solve for a long time...mostly unsuccessfully...so great thanks troy...your obviously hard work is truly appreciated..!!

another informative time thanks Troy

Another great study - thank you so much

Nice content, great details and breakdown.

Thank you. It's awesome.

Cool episode. After watching that I can now see some similar techniques in George Benson's picking to Albert's.

Thank you for this. One thing not discussed is how he maintains right hand side of hand muting of the low strings even while picking on the high strings. Many players have to use the thumb of the left to mute the low E string because the side of the right hand is not in contact with the strings at all times. Doing it Alberts way and with holding the pick with three fingers forces me into a totally different hand position. Great analysis

Great work.spot on

Thanks a lot.......love Albert...

Man this is an awesome analysis.

Awesome Video and story :-)

another interesting acpect of his playing is that when he's hybrid picking, the pickslanting angle flattens, maybe even reaching the point of upward pickslanting

I've been playing clean tone for the last 20 plus years that's where the true mastery in guitar playing exists

Albert Lee doesn't even think about it , he doesn't even think consciously about it . He's an incredible picker , natural .

Remember the old saying “it’s not what you play it’s the way you play”

Troy, one thing to note about Albert's picking. On the upstoke, it's intentional because that style of playing has a distinct plucking tone. The pick is trying to mimic the sound of a plucked string like he does with his fingers. It's an aggressive tonality used often by country players. The upward pick movement probably came about for him by a need to create the plucked tonality. Just a thought. Thanks for the videos.

I'd love to see such an interview with Brian May: maybe not the fastest guitar player out there, but definitely a great one!

Troy, great analysis of Albert Lee's right- and left-handed technique. Top notch! Want a new challenge? Analyze Scotty Anderson for us! That should keep you busy for a while.... ; )

practice without amplification. clean. that is where it gets tight. albert is insanely great.

First tele players have to develop a different picking technique to cope with the absence of forearm contours. More of the forearm lies flat on the body of the guitar. Second, Albert holds the pick with 3 fingers, which also has a big impact on movement.

Thanks! Nice video.

I never was a Fan of Albert..just not my music..but I allways respected him for his unerathly skills

this video helped a lot

Hello Troy, I think an also very important (and to my knowledge not yet discussed) point is, that both Albert and Steve are gripping the pick very loose. This gives a complete different bounce in and out of the string as with a tighter grip, and also is a bit easier to do with the three finger grip as this keeps the pick better in place. This would be interesting to investigate more: how the different pick-grips ((very) tight, (very) loose) has an effect on the different techniques.

I'm so grateful for this and all of your video analysis. Fantastic stuff. Wonderfully detailed and comprehensive. Such love for playing!! I'm still wondering about Pat Martino: Perhaps the 'holy grail' of what looks so 'wrong' but almost with supernaturally articulate results. Thanks again. I'm a huge A.Lee junkie.

I've watched about 25 seconds.and I've listened to the narration. I have to go back now to Rory Gallagher playing his Stratocaster live. He put the guitar on the stage floor and pulled it by the cord.

never heard of albert lee but he rocks

Thnx so much for this Troy. I had the pleasure of hanging with Albert for quite awhile after a clinic many many years ago, after the worshipers had left and we could have an intelligent conversation. He couldn't have been more down to earth friendly and our discussion and breakdown of his technical and melodic approach was both entertaining and enlightening to us both and sticks with me to this day. Sweet guy, and daunting technician. Now, what ya got on Gipsy Jazz like, Angelo Debarre, and or Stochelo Rosenberg? Just asking. Seriously, you're doing a great service to and for the guitar playing community. Thnx

Thanks for the fantastic work you're doing. It's a dream come true to be able to see close-ups of the great players of the day in slow motion. Years of re-training ahead for me. As an alternative way of looking at Albert's way of changing strings after a down-stroke (while ascending), it looks to me that he sweeps over the next string, muting it with his left hand, putting his pick nicely in place for the up-stroke. After watching your excellent videos I've been analyzing my own picking, and found that that's how I've been doing it. One other player I'd just love to see you doing your camera work on is George Benson. Any chance of that?

This is GREAT STUFF! I hope you can make a deal with Mark Knopfler and make a video like this on his right hand (finger)picking technique. I am trying to figure it out by watching a lot of videos but it fails. If you can shoot a video with MK I think a lot of guitarist over the whole world will be very very happy. I will be there to watch and learn!!

Thats awesome

Good stuff. Also interesting to see that at times Lee seems to allow the pick to move around within his grip a fair bit.

This makes my head hurt.

He is MAGIC! let's face it, we all can't play that way...*frowny face*

Man! Ya'll have got some serious ADD haha! I can't imagine this kind of analysis. I used to be very fast (before carpel tunnel) and always played clean (strat and super with no effects). This was apparent in my playing at a young age and, when guys asked me what I was doing I was unable to tell them. But, after a little thought, I realized that not only was I moving my wrist, I was also flexing my thumb and forefinger in a secondary motion (I never played stiff-armed unless it was for the Dick Dale type of thing). I never thought about it for a second till people started asking me. I would say that there is no better way to develop a personal technique than the drudgery of practice practice practice - there is really no intellectual knowledge that will result in a shortcut for this. Just my 2 cents fellas.

You should also do the left hand. How to properly execute the techniques of that hand on the fret board. Great videos.

just gonna put out a guess on how Albert Lee developed his style. He liked the DWPS for whatever reason. Then it made more sense to him when going to a higher string to go TOWARDS that string with a downstroke as opposed to AWAY from that string with an upstroke. So he set up his playing to cross strings after downstrokes and he just found a way to make it work

You should try to get in touch with Brent Mason. He's another country guitar player who's incredibly fast and clean.

Great Player..

YOU SOUND LIKE THE GUY WHO DID THE PICKING FOR YWIGIE. IF SO YA DID AWESOME ON IT ...ALBERT I SEEN HIM AND TALKED TO HIM AT A GUITAR SHOW HE HAPPEN TO BE IN CLEVELAND ...YEARS AGO 19 90'S AND PLAY'D' HE WAS A AWESOME NICE GUY . MAN HE WAS VERY GOOD SPIRIT IN HIM..AND YEA HE PLAYED AMAZING .

It's pretty nice of Albert to let you put that camera on the guitar so the "mystery" could be removed for you. Albert seems like a great guy. Growing up on Al Di Meola and Yngwie, I never had trouble playing through Albert's lines due to good influence. But, Albert's humble attitude is what I wish all musicians would take influence from. After all, music talent is a gift from God and therefore we should not be arrogant about what was given to us from above, not to metion our every breath. :)

I'm late to the party on this it seems... however this is AMAZINGLY in depth and explained perfectly and I'm interested in applying this and checking out more of his stuff for sure. However, this is the dryest picking technique I have ever seen and in my opinion doesn't allow many possibilities for expression or dynamics. i prefer players that...for lack of a better description... "explode through" the strings. i prefer to use the far stronger muscles (tricep, forearm) where much more speed and power is available. the wrist for me a strictly a position keeper. for accuracy I perform what amounts to rest strokes and use the natural resistance of the stopping string to bounce my pick back towards the target. i can either economy or straight alternate. and for Effect will often pick through several strings at once and selectively mute unwanted ones... giving a very percussive sound. this video is 1st time I've ever thought of this in such depth and it's another possible tool and has assisted me in self analysis. thanks will be checking out more!

Exactly. IMO the best test of ability to use clean and precise picking is playing the same solo or impro on classic/accoustic guitar and even better on the electric guitar (without hollow body) with switched off the amp, especially distortion! Then even legato can't work sometimes and we can hear all the mistakes just very clearly and precisely. There will be problems with even getting some harmonics. Again it was great analysis, so Like & Sub :)

Here's an update After working though this technique with Alberts way of flextension I had to try it with my standard upward pickslanting and use the flextension above the string on the upstroke and man does it feel good. Weird how it took me to do it Alberta way then reverse engineer it haha but hey that's how we learn I like the fact know that I can do a bunch of different kinds of picking styles/techniques if I need to I don't think they will feel as comfortable as my upward pick slanting but are very usable none the less Thanks again

Gain definitely hides mistakes a lot more than a clean tone haha.

I noticed something interesting today. I watched the Albert Lee and Steve Morse videos and was interested in this downward 'dextension' movement i.e. on downstroke a combination of ulnar deviation and extension of the wrist. This movement provides downward pick slanting but finishing with an escape movement that facilitates string changing that ISN'T string hopping. I think this is affected by pick grip. If I hold the pick between thumb and SIDE of index finger, probably the most common way of holding the pick, the further I hold the thumb up the index finger the greater I have to flex the index finger to curl it up and bring it closer to the base of the thumb. This requires contraction of the flexor digitorum (the muscles that curls the index finger = flexion). Because this muscle is contracted, and so shortended, I can feel a tightness when I then try and extend my wrist in the opposite direction. This could be the origin of the tightness Eric Johnson mentions when he uses string hopping, an extension driven movement. But it's this extension that gives Albert Lee the escape movement on downstroke. If I hold the fleshy tip of my thumb against the fleshy tip of my index finger, i.e. a pinching movement with fingers almost straight, and most markedly when I place my thumb, index, and 2nd together in the way I hold a pen, then wrist extension feels much freer because I'm not contracting flexor digitorum. I notice both Albert Lee and Steve Morse hold the pick a bit more like this so maybe the beneficial combination movement of 'dextension' , as opposed to the con of pure extension in string hopping, is dependant (partially? wholly?) on pick grip. No doubt Troy has covered all this elsewhere. No stone unturned and all that! The problem is a 'flat' pick doesn't naturally lend itseld to this grip whereas a cylindrical pen does. How about a pick that's like the front portion of an arrow with the flat head plus a bit of the cylindrical shaft? Hold the cylindrical shaft and pick with the flat head!

I don't know how much he plays with his fingers but kind of overlooked is he is doing what sounds like chicken picking (with his fingers) but he is actually picking.

Rotating your picking-hand forearm away from you to achieve a downward slant on the pick to facilitate down-strokes has been done by hot jazz players for years. Typically, players like George Benson not only rotate their pick to achieve a downslope, they also turn it sideways to present as smooth a profile of the pick as possible to the string. Benson uses this method to smooth out the attack on the string and to allow more-effective slurs, sweeps and glisses - the better to get that sought-after horn-like articulation so sought after by jazz players. Benson was using it to imitate horn players and maybe Wes Montgomery - and not to play country-rock runs, but the effect is the same. You can bet Albert Lee knows this, too, despite the fact that he isn't a straight-ahead jazz guy. When you add in his hybrid picking using several of his RH fingers and his awesome command of bends, slurs, glisses, hammers, pull-offs and open string use, you get his style. Of course, you still have to have his amazing creativity and musicality to sound as good as he does! ; )

Truly incredible content, analysis and presentation- thank you. BTW what do these players have to say after seeing your analysis? Is it obvious to them, or did they figure it out in a more intuitive and physical way, ie without consciously thinking of the details?

Informative! And very great video skills, man. That must take a year to edit...............

Thank you for these "guitar picking revealed" videos! I'd really love to see a video on Takayoshi Ohmura style picking...

Once you get the left and right hand in sync and the pick is a amp by its self you have licked a big part of playing guitar.

I think the "door knocking" (flexion and extension) motion mechanic might be the one that George Benson uses. I'm not 100% sure, there might be some forearm movement in there too, and Benson's wrist looks to have a serious downward pickslant.

General Lee!!

Could this added extension be used to play the Paul Gilbert lick efficiently with dwps alone?

Thank you Troy for all the videos on your channel! Just wondering have you heard of a guitarist called Takayoshi Ohmura? He is in the style of yngwie but his picking motion is pretty different from yngwie..

Thank God for cats like Steve Morse too,Albert has to put new fretboards on his guitars after every show...true story🤘😉

Great work Troy, got to say that I do find that occasional background strum sound (not sure what it is) distracting though.

It would be interesting for a default UWPS player to investigate using convex curvature when crossing strings when using a d/s to u/s descending from the high e string to lower strings ...there is an economy of motion in that move available for an UWPS not as readily available in a default DWPS position ... The concave curvature lee uses as a primary dwps player is not the only arc above the strings that is alternate ...convex is also 'up there' and it's not hopping ...

.... Also an U/s to d/s higher string to lower string... Repeated ... A convex curve above the strings seems to work for an uwps player ...