There are several schools of thought on this. Some say lock your wrist, some say play from your wrist. Personally I've found the most efficient and less fatiquing way is to use your whole arm in the movement. Which ever technique you use though, you should use a metronome. Start slow, say 40 to 60 beats per minute and try and play even 16th notes. Every day or so, you can increase the tempo a click or two, and you won't even notice, but your speed and endurance will increse.
Of course it isn't always straight 16th notes, but rather there is usually some syncopation involved (I liken it to morse code; ta da da da da da, ta da da da da, like in miserlou).
The important thing is don't worry about speed, rather concentrate on acuracy and rhythm.
I can't overstate the importance of using a metronome and practicing consistently everyday. Never increase the speed until you can play acurately and cleanly at the previous tempo. When you practice you are programing your muscles to do certain movements in certain ways. If you practice mistakes or play sloppily, you will program your hands to make these wrong movements. If you practice slowly and correctly, your muscles memorize the right movements, so that when you increase the tempo you are less likely to make a mistake. Never rush, when people try and play a fast run, there is a tendancy to rush, especially towards the middle of the run. A metronome will help you prevent this. Do this and you will see an improvement a lot quicker than you'd think

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Last edited: Apr 12, 2013 10:26:19

Good advice from psychonaut, Use a metronome. Drum/rhythm machines/loops work as well but the player can have a tendency to develop unintentional accents without being aware of it and that's something you'll want control over.
Timing is EVERYTHING!
Now, where's my metronome.......?

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Always - ALWAYS - stretch out your arm, massage it a bit, loosen the wrist, etc. beforehand. Being relaxed is incredibly important to this. Whenever I fail to do the above, half way through a hard picking song my arm starts falling off!

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I hear all of you say to use a stiff pick. However, I just can't do it without a thing pick.

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I've gotten my picking steady and even on every string except the 6th, I just keep getting hung up. Must...keep...practicing...

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For me the great downfall is trem picking while standing up, very necessary if your going to play live. Needless to say the cure is to practice standing up. As noted relaxation is vital, and that includes a relaxed state of mind. Like many others I'm still working on it, and in the process noting that you can use the technique in many other genres besides surf.

I still working on Trem picking too, its an art. Lately I focus on trying not to move my hand to much, to keep the travel of the pick to a minimum, seems to make for a cleaner trem picking sound.
Can take years to get the technique right
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"Practice, practice, practice"

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Last edited: Apr 12, 2013 16:06:01

Pay close attention to Dick's right arm in this video. Look at all the movement, it almost looks like he's struming. He's using his whole arm, from the shoulder throught the elbow, to the wrist -- they're all being used. I believe it's an adaptation of 'rest-stroke picking', where the down strokes are from the arm and the upstrokes are from a flick of the wrist and the whole arm is adjusted for each string. Ther's an arc happening where the bottom strings (closest to floor) are picked near the bridge pick up and the upper strings get picked nearer the middle pick up. This take into account the natural arc your arm would make across the strings. Ergonomics should never be ignored.

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Horax wrote: So what do you guys do to improve your tremolo picking?

Hello,

There really is no wrong or right way. It comes down to what works best for you. As you see, not everyone is exactly the same.

A common point is precision. Control of the pick, the movement of the stings and hand/arm position guys use is to find a way to maintain precision even at a fast tempo.

I will add the way I trem pick in case it helps you.

I rest my hand. For bass strings I rest on or above the bridge. For treble strings, I sometimes rest on the bass strings. Here I put my hand depends on what strings I will have to play. I want to keep my movement as small as possible.

The driving force is my wrist. I flick my wrist so to speak. The forearm has oome movement, the upper arm has less. But all the movement is driven from my wrist movement. Therefore I have to keep the entire arm relaxed. Right down to the grip on the pick. If you put a death grip on the pick, that tnesion tightens up the arm. Tension is the enemy of speed in any athletic endeavor. Keep your grip relaxed so the whole arm is relaxed.

I am of the thick stiff pick school. If the tip is flexing, I have trouble controling it. I want little or no flex in the pick. I use a standard grip on the pick. I expose only about 3/16ths of an inch of the tip. That way I cannot dig in too deep. I seem to brush the strings more with the edge side of the pick than the flat face of it. I can tell that by how the edge wears on my picks. I also prefer thicker strings for trem picking. I have 11-50s on most of my Strats these days. I have 12s on the Jaguar and Jazzmaster. But my favorite Strat for trem picking has 16s on it. Thicker strings mean more string tension. That translates to less string movement and more control for my picking.

At about 1:02 Dick does some picking. This is very similar to how I have always done it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8CnurLcxRY

Dick's a showman, In later years he makes more of a production out of his picking than he used to do. This video is old school Dick Dale style of trem picking.

Here is another video of the early Dick Dale style.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIU0RMV_II8

In recent years, Dick has become more flamboyant in his stage style. His old school style is easier to learn.

Talk to you later,
Norm

Last edited: Apr 13, 2013 00:29:56