Downstroke Puns

whiplash's riff is downstroke or alternate

We’ve all heard the story about how they would only use downstrokes. But that shit is exhausting, especially if practicing while sitting. On the opposite side of the spectrum Fat Mike from NOFX claims he uses a shit load of upstrokes and a thin pick to play at speed. Do you think the downpick style is distinct and useful enough to master?

My handwriting is awful and I've been looking into some better ways of writing. (Just pencil/pen on paper, not calligraphy.)

A big theme I've noticed is that I'm not printing my letters "correctly" according to all the elementary school printing guidelines I can find online. For instance, I start letters like N, P, R with an upstroke. But the resources I've found say you should start with a single downstroke, then pick up the pencil, and complete the letter.

So "N" has one downstroke, pick up the pencil, then a slant down followed by an upstroke. (Some guides say the last part of the N should also be a separate downstroke, drawn before the slant. So M would take 4 strokes!)

Is this helpful for decent handwriting? What's the rationale behind it?

Looking for a bit of guidance. I've been bumbling into Copperplate for a while for a bit of fun, but have so far found I've been unable to achieve nice flat tops or bottoms on my strokes. The guidance I had read from Eleanor Winters' copperplate book was to pause at the top of the downstroke before moving, and again at the bottom of the stroke before raising the nib - "[t]he brief pauses at the beginning and end of the line will give your stroke a precise, squared-off top and bottom," - but I find this doesn't seem to be the case, and I'm still leading to rounded ends.

Example here - (misquoted excerpt, rendered child friendly through judicious application of clipart, of an Arrogant Worms classic).

I'm not seeking critique of the rest of the page - I'd be first to say I've not yet put in the time on my basic forms - but I was trying to get those nice squared-off strokes starts and finishes, such as, for example, here.

For reference this was done with a Nikko G in an oblique holder w/ Tom Norton's walnut drawing ink on some scrap paper (but I've seen the same result on nicer treated paper as well).

Halp, scribes (and thank you).

I can’t decide which technique I want to commit too to learn it clean. Any tips/pointers?

Thanks!

I’ve been using alternate picking and I was wondering if you follow the down-up-down pattern all the way through the strings. For example if I play a note on the A string down, would I have to use an upstroke if I want to play a note on the D string? Would I just use a down stroke on the D string and upstroke the other notes on that same string?

Thank you guys so much for taking the time out of your day to give me a thorough response. I really appreciate it.

This morning, my first guitar hero controller arrived in the mail. I had been looking everywhere for one and I finally found one at a reasonable price (seriously, my local goodwill didn't even have one). With the controller, I was finally able to play Guitar Hero: Metallica on Xbox 360. The game itself works perfectly. On the other hand, the controller was unresponsive when strumming downward. It worked perfectly with upstrokes, but not for downstrokes.

Does anyone know how I can fix this?

My Conklin Duragraph received some unintentional abuse when my lovely girlfriend angrily had to sign a receipt after we had a pretty horrendous lunch. She couldn’t get my pen to write but pressed pretty hard down on the nib. No visible damage was caused to the nib but it sure did hurt to watch. What I’ve noticed now is that it writes okay but its throwing more ink down on downstrokes then cross or upstrokes. Like you can visibly see more ink coming out on a downstroke. I don’t think its normal as I’ve looked back on some older notes written with the pen and don’t notice darker downstrokes. I don’t know if theres a fix for this or not but would love any info or help if you folks have it, thanks!

PS: My girlfriend is wonderful and understands the delicacy needed when handling a fountain pen. It wasn’t her first time she just got a little carried away. To me, things are just things and I’ll purchase another nib if necessary. All love.

I've been learning and practicing by playing downstrokes all these while, and was always curious about learning alternating plucking. Does it help you to pluck quicker and more efficiently, or it's perfectly fine to stick to just down stroking?

Just curious. I recently finished Johnny's book and I really thought it was interesting how Johnny only briefly talks about his guitar playing.

When I am putting load on the crank (Connect Sport bike), such as when out of the saddle, an issue has developed where when I pedal down with the right pedal, it will make a slight thumping feeling. I have only done about 14 rides so far, with each of the rides having sections where I am out of the saddle and pedaling under a 60ish cadence.

Pedals are tight, pedal axles are tight, crank arms are tight, and it's not anything like my shoes hitting the bike on every revolution or anything like that. I am thinking it's the bearings in the crankset.

The problem does not happen when I pedal backwards out of the saddle though. I am worried about it starting to happen when I am pedaling sitting down.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks all!

Edit:

Fixed it> In the pics I am posting, this is the nut you tighten if you have this issue. Also, 2nd pic, this is the amount of sweat that collected in the case after 6 rides (I opened the case previously at 8 rides).

https://preview.redd.it/97vd7gk93xl61.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=52ac29a5c42de92faddda214b3140c19ef4abb4d

https://preview.redd.it/lux6mfk93xl61.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8554c36369e56624da46284da26137f777c681a3

Pilot CH92, new, it feels really nice to write with, smooth, wet, and it starts even if you leave it uncapped for a bit. The issue is that on downstrokes (letters such as I, t, l etc.), it often skips a millimeter. What could be the cause? Maybe baby bottom? Thank you.

Edit: the pen is inked with Pilot Iroshizuku.

https://preview.redd.it/jg6le68dmnw61.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5085331c65dee0c0af6ae4d6adb88230cb6fdaa3

https://preview.redd.it/k5gom98dmnw61.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4cd0d5f55d50901c6e6d36071b58dbcc2622f4c2

I frequently play like this but have no idea how to write it down in terms of ↑ ↓.

I strum with my thumb and index finger at the same time. My thumb does a downstroke on the first 3 strings and my index finger does an upstroke on the last 3 strings.

So if a I played a C chord, my fingers would be hitting them in this order

e----0

B-----1

G------0

D---2

A--3

E-0

That's neither an upstroke or a downstroke.

I've always heard that you should trust the bounce when it comes to drumming. I've recently discovered how that is. That being said, what percentage of my wrist strength should I use on my downstroke when practicing my singles? I'm taking it slow at about 100 bpm 4/4 time.