When it comes to using edge picking to control attack and tone, it's Andy Wood ( instagram.com/andywoodmusic/ ) and Teemu Mäntysaari's ( instagram.com/teemumantysaari/ ) world, and we're all just living in it!

I just wanna thank the guitarists in this video for reminding me how average I am. Anyway great work!

The production on Troys videos blow me away

I've been playing for 35 years. A lot of this is stuff I understand via experience but would never have been able to express so perfectly. What a wonderful job! For that, good sir, you have a new subscriber.

I'd love to see Chris thiles technique on the mandolin and then on the guitar, so you could examine it, every video you do is 1000 hours worth of education in picking technique.. you are like a master scientist of the physics of guitar picking science and techniques...

Troy, it’s really a great thing that you include frequency comparisons. I’m beginning to learn about music production so there is a lot to learn from your videos. Thank you for your work!

You are in your own league with guitar education. This stuff is amazing and likely ground-breaking. You are a service to all guitar players everywhere. Thanks Troy!

i was in middle school when I discovered Troy Grady's stuff. I have just started my first job this week. Nice to see him still doing this

You should totally tackle subjects like basic guitar setup, how all of the adjustments effect the guitar, and each other, with this thorough, visually supported format, would be fantastic. If you really feel adventurous, take on tonal differences between solid/semi-hollow/hollowbody, and the ever controversial DUN DUN DUN Tonewood! It may not be of interest to you, but this format and an obviously informed perspective like yours, would be THE standard for KZfaq guitar information videos. Just my 2c, love the vids so far!

This is so interesting and awesome to see being supported with actual audio evidence. I knew some of this just by playing around with pick angles, but seeing just HOW much this affects the tone on that EQ graph is crazy! 😳

I'm supposedly a guitar student and aspirant teacher, and I didn't knew a thing about this, simply wow

I really have to thank you Troy, because thanks to your site and this YT channel I solved so many technical problems in the past years on my electric guitar. But what is actually unbelievable is that now that I'm a classical guitar player this video on pick's tone, with all the scientific content, helped me finding the sound I like on my nylon strings! You do an amazing job for all guitar player. Wish you all the best 👍

Seriously dude... I looked bunch of your video's right now and i didn't find any channel which could come any closer when talking about mechanics. Best practicing channel ever. (sry broken english, hi from France!)

What a service you provide for us learners! As the only person who seriously applies science to this, you remove the BS and rumors. I wish you also did one for fingerstyle picado and arpeggios technique, such as what flamenco players do. :) Keep up the great work!

Your channel really shows how the internet raises general awareness. One step closer towards enlightenment. Clearing up all the old myths with science. I grew up trying to master picking and was told stuff like "it's genetic", "you are either born with it or not, so don't even try". So, this is finally clearing all these old voices out of my head and look what happens. My picking is now rapidly improving in terms of reliability, smoothness and thereby FUN (so I come back to it more often). Also, sweep picking works super smooth now, too. I'm in love with it now. Thank you so much for your work Troy Grady.

*If you want a really nice, light sound,* I'd suggest holding the pick sideways so the long edge is perpendicular to the strings, and then strum as if the pick is just bouncing.

My god!! The quality of this video! Wow!! Thanks for sharing!!!!

This is an absolutely brilliant video! I'm going to have to watch it about 10 more times!

This channel deserves way more subs!

I'm sure Einstein and Henry Ford would have loved these videos. You've taken such a strange and tiny topic and have become what I feel is the leading expert in the whole world on this stuff... picking. And you teach it with such great production and clarity on top of all of that. Thanks!

This might be one of the most guitar nerdy channels around, and that's why I love it

The sweeps at 11:28 where absolutely beautiful, very nice video!

This this awesome research. You're a legend Mr Troy Grady!

Digging the video Troy. Amazing visuals. Great information as always. Way beyond most teachers as always. Kinda surprised you didn't talk about PAUL GILBERT though. He's only talked remotely about this whole idea in just about every instructional video he's made.

It’s amazing how much you effort you put into this videos. Honestly thank you for that. Cheers

JESUS DUDE, make more of these videos man. You’ll be the biggest music channel in a year

Such a detailed investigation never disapoints. The team delivered some great stuff here. I hope the pick manufacturers will learn from this, if their own R&D hasn't. Who knows, maybe one day they will provide some jazz III picks with already existing scraps on the edge. THis will allows those mid boost right out of the box.

That physical explanation lines up very well with my kinaesthetic intuition. I like to pick hard and it always feels like edge picking smooths it out. I notice this ESPECIALLY when playing amplified.

Finally some attention to this subject 👏👏 Fender 346 shape in heavy celluloid gives the best “brown” balance of overtones, vs the usual (brighter) 351 shape, IMHO, using low edge picking. Also, smaller framed people seem to have a straighter pick angle due to their arms’ geometry (Paul Kossoff, Angus Young), but bigger people can adjust for this with practice. Conversely, high edge angling the pick during solos can bring in the subtleties of mothering notes (as Les Paul put it) and making a guitar cry and/or ghost notes. Great video!

... after 45 years of guitar playing, actually ANYTHING with strings (including the violin, mandolin, etc., ) it is really nice to be able to still TAKE LESSONS! Understand this: Playing the guitar and achieving your personal flare is a lifetime venture, just like anything else. I remember the first time I watched Troy's videos. I was kind of annoyed, to be completely honest. Breaking down every single mechanic and nuance and then breaking it down even farther brought me back to my teaching days. I did the same thing with EVERY venture in life. Too much stress. Everything about my playing became too mathematical. Where was the "feeling?" ~ Now, in retrospect and striking contrast, I find myself motivated to listen to Troy speak and play for hours on end each day while I work. Very intelligent, well-spoken and inquisitive human being. When you are no longer young, dumb and full of (yourself) ~ you will find, if you are a conscious thought-processing individual, that our lives NEED inspiration in order to keep thriving. What's my point? Troy Grady is exactly what every aspiring musician (not just guitarist) needs... at ANY age. Take Frank Gambale for instance. You would think that he rests on his laurels. He most certainly does not. He is constantly striving to be a better, more fluent, articulate, eloquent and fluid guitarist. Once you start thinking that you've got it all figured out, what's left to inspire you? Troy will NEVER 'master' the guitar. Nor will I. Why? Because we will NOT let ourselves! If you understand what I just said, kudos to you. You will strive to be the best you can be at everything you do until your last breath on this earth. If not, well.... good luck with your future endeavors. Thank you Troy for all that you have shared. We understand that you have to sell things to make a living and that we have to put up with annoying ads about Diarrhea and Heart attacks, at the same time, you are giving out so much information for free. I can't even imagine what kind of guitarist I would be if this platform for learning had been available to me when I was 15 or even 30. Social Media has its advantages and its drawbacks. This instructor and his channel are the advantage. I see no drawbacks here unless you are insecure about your abilities to gather information, apply it with your newfound knowledge, and turn it into wisdom. Knowledge is worthless unless it is shared. Obviously Troy knows this and he gives out proportionately more than he takes. Thank you Troy for your continuous inspiration. Younger folks will not appreciate this until they have reached the last third of their lives.... unless they saturate themselves with the wisdom of their elders. Too deep? My apologies. I look forward to each and every guit-fiddle autopsy and dissection. ⚜️⚜️⚜️

Pick edging and slanting have definitely improved my playing, really helpful stuff!

Fuck yeah, I thought I was the only person who picked like that. Awesome, is a great technique.

Brilliant work, thanks!

Interesting and educating video Troy!

Thanks for so much help really. Great work man!

This is one of the greatest videos I’ve ever watched.

Finally a label for that "other" way of picking that I find so hard to describe

I am so glad I came across this channel...

This is a fascinating video

Troy might be the first guitarist/ scientist in music history. Excellent work!

Jesus, I clicked out of curiosity but the editing and the production just kept me watching. Super interesting stuff.

Excellent video, very informative.

Damn production and research! You will be big!

Indeed an awesome video!!

Troy thank you for doing this amazing work! I’ve already bought some downloads but gonna do a monthly sub now🤘🏻

Incredible job !

This is an absolutely fabulous video! Both content and production quality!

Genious!! From content to graphics to everything.

I tend to use the trailing edge style of picking when I'm doing pretty fast tremolo picking riffs.

Hello Troy! I experiment a lot with picks, the most popular on the market and selfmade, even filing them to different shapes and angles. I noticed, with some picks its the other way around: more overtones at slanting. Those where the harder ones. Tests resulted to my favourite angles of the plec: 33-35 degrees bevel simetrical on both sides- the leading edge and the trailing, giving me a very pointy edge at parallel picking. (very similar to J. Petrucci's signature). I came up with this, because used picks feel the best, and get this particullar angle (at my playing). I tryed to analize, why some sound brighter by playing slanted. Came to 2 conclusions: 1.-the string touches slightly the trailing edge after passing the tip and produce the overtones, because the string jumps faster then my pick moves away from it. 2.- the playing edge is rough due to microscopically tiny broken out bits (i saw them under microscope) and induce a high pitch vibration during edge sliding till jumping over the tip. At an angle, the edge slides along the string and induce more vibration prior to release, at 0* the surface of the pick slides perpendicular over the string and perhaps with less friction. I don't know wich theory applies, ... maybe both...😊 A microscope and slow-mo camera and your analitical brain and knowledge could reveal that😃👍

Another great video!

Insanely sharp and insightful video 👍👍👍

Great stuff. Thanks.

Great vid!!!!

great video, as usual!!!

Very interesting show mate.

What a fantastic video!!!!!

What also should be adressed is where on the string the pick comes in contact with combined with the pick edge. this brings into the tonal affects producedand the various harminics due to the string length from the position the pick contacts the string. For example picking back at the bridge has different harmonics and overtones than picking over the front pickup or closer to the neck or up over the neck. Also the strings tension and tinsil properties a;so come into play for example when plucking flat or edge at the bridge hasa brillient sharp metal crisp attack sound because the string is more taught back at the bridge and doesnt vibrate the string very much and produces sharp attack with less richness in overtones, thus a brighter sound. There are areas of of the string that can create more twang and areas that create kinda hallow funkier tones. The factors also must include the types of strings and their inheirent properties for exanple round wound or flat wounds, springyness or the elastic - plastic rebound physical properties of strings,new vs older strings tententions over time fatigue the metals, metals used steel, nickel, phosphers, magnetic properties, pickup and pickup heights, frets all come into play Ha and pick materials used and pick haedness and shape, how the picks edge gets worn. These factors are like paints are to an artist, how we phrase the notes is like the aetists palet to mix colors and shades. Most guitarists who have played for any length of time have experianced and utilized all these factors and more. Thats how we create our signature sounds and styles that we recognize when we hear it. I am not a professional on this topic, nor do I play the guitar, but I do play bass and often choose to use a pick and all the same factors are at play. I recomend new guitarists to experiment with all thes factors to find what floats your boat. I been playing for almost sixty years and I stil discover new sounds to use everyday.. I would also love to hear anyones thoughts to add to this topic and thank you guys for explaining the scientific properties of using picking technics between flat and edge picking and effects on the string and acoustical properties. keep up the good work...

Amazing video. Subbed.... Dude i thought your phone holder was a giant crazy capo at first! lol =]

Your channel is the educational Guitar channel on KZfaq. Infotainment at its best.

in the jazz 3 video I couldn't understand what was making the tonal differences, now with images I get it, thanks Troy :)

For me, its just yolo, grab a pick, starts picking and boom! Done. Anyhow, a great video.

I've always found my picking to be more accurate when using heavier gauge strings. Especially when changing strings. The tension of the string acts as a small ramp to help the pick get into the air.

Great material

Great video.

This is essentially how Shawn Lane picked. He often spoke of how he held the pick at a “severe angle”.

this was so cool, I subscribed!

Troy you are a verry intelligent man thank you for your work / service

Dr Grady PhD of Guitarology is back in the house. Thank you for the always insightful content Troy.

Great video and editing

Nice playing from everyone here but mostly i am amazed be the graphics and the sounddesign, really nice work!

Unparalleled quality of video production and information depth. Thx for sharing great content!

great video

This truly is "guitar science" thank you for such an informative video once again. :)

thanks a lot, Troy!

Another great video Troy! Please tell us, when can we expect to hear your solo records? C'mon let us have it, as a fellow longtime player I know that they exist.

Wow, I just hold the pick in a way I think sounds nice, I didn't know there's a science behind it. Cool!

This is the first video I have seen of yours - the entire video I was wondering who the guest guitarist was that was in house. At the end the guest guitarist turns to the camera and starts talking in the narrators voice! Boom mind blown! Haha

My recommendation for the studio is Dunlop sharps, they are so sharp that there is not much difference between the angles so you get a consistent tone if needed... and if everything is the same automations are easy

Amazing! Incredible! Bravo!

My god these videos are ridiculously helpful

Been looking for a video like this for years!

Excellent explanation. I have so many plectrums of shapes,materials & gauges. My wife bought me a pack of picks made from 45 records from Think Geek. They’re great for bottle neck with some overdrive. The pick grooves swell the string like a violin bow. That’s if you play it flat against the string.

The Science of Guitar and Guitar's Einstein explaining and demonstrating to us.Very informative and mind blowing.

Troy. You're a Legend.

Haha so awesome! You really are a mad scientist Troy.

This is brilliant.

Ive been playing guitar 20 years and struggling 20years on picking. Now My play is another level like magic just for 4hours practice of this" slant stuff". Problem was that Ive been using double action picking(hopping). So after this lesson i increase my picking speed twice faster instantly... Bunch of lessons just talking about licks and theory. This lesson is real gold. Now i can practice more complicated licks without strrugling. Thank you very much.

Awesome vid! Oddly enough, I've always been an edge picker, and for many years have had no trouble altering the angle, attack, etc etc . . . . . . . . . . except! when it comes to just straight, flat picking, lol. For some reason, I can't keep that pick flat for any length of time and without pointedly concentrating on it.

Have you ever looked at the tonal shift in pick slanting. I remember being pretty young and trying to slant my pick to do the inside version of Paul Gilbert’s intense rock lick. But I consciously decided to stop doing it because I thought it would affect my tone. Kind of like when you pinch a string, pull it up and away from the guitar and release it back from a few millimetres, I though that the slant would affect the tone as it would take the string away from the guitar slightly. It wasn’t until years later when I started watching your videos that I hadn’t taken the slant out of my playing the whole time. I even remember seeing the malmsteen video and deciding not to do the slanting that he did for the same reason (although I hadn’t stopped to consider that his tone certainly hadn’t suffered and of course I thought he did pure economy picking rather than the dwps mechanics). Of course I didn’t give it that much thought in my early to mid teens, and I do wonder how much it held me back. But even in my 20s when I discovered your videos I have always wondered how big the effect on tone is.

14:15 is so important Jaco in his instructional video talks about playing fast close to the bridge. Why, because farther away from the bridge(he explained in the video) the strings become like rubber bands and your pick(for him fingers) gets caught up. Now we see this is because all the force of your attack is straight into the string, whereas when you are closer to the bridge the pick(fingers in his case) have less of a chance of getting caught up. All this is because of the 3rd law of newton, hit the string hard straight on and the string push just as hard back at you, very un- metal and very frustrating. Ok I new this already but how to fix it didn't come until I saw without your explanation beforehand that edge picking(in my case trailing edge [bridge side] not leading edge), made the pick stroke as if the former tension/resistance wasn't even there, but the angle I needed to achieve this required turning the pick so the trailing edge actually became the fat part of the pick with the point facing towards the bridge and only saw this because I took off every string but the low E to finally experience it(no floyd rose thank you).

Troy is a guitar genius. Full stop.

I use this on dunlop ,18 nylon and man it's great all kinds of effects

Thank u sooooo much! Troy!

Such a badass vid thanks

Brilliant Troy

Yhea but the real question remain: how do I achieve this kind of tightness? But anyway great video. Probably I never see anything so deep and articulate, especially for free. Great job

Would love to see a video on Shawn Lane (still unmatched technically in my opinion), he used edge picking combined with oscillatory picking if I'm not mistaken (George Benson style up/down wrist movement instead of side to side). Cheers!

Thank bro

the way i pick is i put my fingers as if i was holding an invisible pick and then i touch the string with the bottom right of my index nail finger, i figured the index finger is actually placed perfectly at 45 degree by being in this position, i wanted to originally start with a pick but after long years of practicing with that cheap plastic bit i found it easier to just do it with my index finger, in one of my videos i made i show how you dont really have to have a cheap plastic pick to even do tripple picks i can do downstrokes and upstrokes although i dont think im that good at controlling them and my forearm gets tired really fast when tripple picking