Ok this question is rather difficult to explain, sorry for my english.

I just asked my self how i should slant the pick- parallel to the upper horn of my guitar or to the lower one. I mean, you will actually not always pick the strings with the flat side of your pick, so we have to slant the plek slightly. My question is, in which direction I have to slant the pick.
I did it parallel to the lower horn for some years now, but i start thinking that doing it the other way round would be helpful, especially when playing pinch harmonics.
thank you

1) try to pick as fast as you cant on one note. you need to be precised and be costant at your picking. whatever position youre in now keep it and transfer it to low speeds. if youre not very fast with alternate or picking try to follow this . if you got it down and it feels comfortable try to build up speed on that base.

2) you can do pretty much do everything with your pick if you got the time to do it. what i wrote in 1) is for very fast playing where every movement you do must be very precised very accurate otherwise you wont get the next note in time.

3) for pinched harmonics etc .. there are thousand of methods. you need to fuck arround with it alot and find out what suits best to you. noone will ever be able to tell you whats the best way for you cuz there is no 2nd guitarist like you. i personally have the slant like shown in the link. this works out perfectly for me and till now i havent found anyone who told me that this position sucks for him.

pick placement is very essential for kickass playing so take it serious. i think i dealed with it for about 1 year. dont lose motivation. good luck

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thank you, man

well its just that i actually have quite a precise picking technique, but i am having problems playing some Necrophagist stuff because of my picking hand, and i found out that using a diffferent picking style (concerning the slanting), especially if it comes down to pinch harmonics inside a fast picked riff, e.g. Stabwound.
Thanks for the link, that is the way i have been picking all the time.

Panda, since you have a lot to say about picking, what about the unused fingers on the picking hand? I have always curled mine into a loose fist, but I see in countless videos (people on here, pros) that most metal players have those fingers in more of an extended position, and either anchoring on or barely floating above the body just below the pickups. It can't just be coincidence that like nearly every extreme metal guitarist plays that way, right? But when I try to do it, it feels very awkward, especially trying to play on the low E and A strings.

i use to mute strings im not playing with my hand and ecspeacially with my pinky. if u dont want semi fingerpick just make sure that ure able to mute all strings with your picking hand. if your able to do that you can "hide" them in your wrist... schould be no problem then. just if your playing style now hinders you on muting strings i would consider to change to the "usual" style. otherwise keep your style ... whatever feels comfortable to you.

btw you might check out paul gilberts tecnique. he has that "wrist thingy style" as well an he fucking rocks.

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the fleshy side of my palm is mainly what i use to mute the strings. i experiment with new stuff, like sometimes i hook my pinky finger under the bridge pickup bezel as an anchor. but ultimately the "wrist thingy style" as you call it just seems to work best for me. i checked out a Gilbert video on youtube and you're right.. i have seen Shawn Lane play that way too.. perhaps there's hope ;P thanks.

i recommend using the side of your thumb to mute the 2 strings below the string you're picking. it seems more consistent than your palm and doesn't require you to rest your hand on the strings which tends to get people lazy and doesn't allow for easy fluid movements.

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^ side of your thumb? i assume you mean the picking hand thumb, but when you say two strings below, do you mean if you were picking the D string, the side of your thumb would mute A and E, or G and B? because i don't see how you could mute beneath the string with your playing thumb.

i dont get it. how do you want to mute 5 strings with your thumb when playing with a pick?

and ... you should always rest your hand either on the bridge or on the strings because it will go easy on your arm muscles , let you play easeful and without noise ( you will notice that when you play at very high vol). if you need to do " fluid movements" which is only 1! that doesnt work out with resting my palm on the bridge - a up stroke sweep over 5-6 strings - you need to raise you hand a little bit while sweeping ... but thats just normal. after raising you palm your able to set the part of you palm down again immediatly after you played a note that needs to be quickly muted. i dont see any problem here.

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