PickIt!
- Zachary Cavanagh - Team Lead
- Alex Hale - Communications Director
- Brandon King - Research Manager
- Brian Le - Documents Manager
- Kurt Sprague - Finance / Procurement Manager
- Hoiwang (Terrance) Wong - Codebase Manager
Project Sponsor: Team-Initiated
In modern electric guitar music, the popularity of speed playing or “shredding,” has risen substantially due to artists such as Eddie Van Halen, Steve Via, Joe Satriani, and many other great artists. Speed playing is rapidly playing guitar notes with high accuracy. There are many techniques that an artist can perform in order to sound “fast.” One of the most sought after and difficult techniques is to pick every note individually (staccato). In order to accomplish this, guitarists have been employing a technique called alternate picking, in which a string is picked with a downstroke is immediately followed by an upstroke in a pendular motion. One problem that guitarists encounter is fluid string changes while continuing rapid alternate picking. New techniques exist that can teach guitarists this skill, but they are very difficult to employ without the use of slow-motion video of the player’s picking technique. An affordable product that can perform this function has yet to be created.
PickIt! by Tuned Up enables guitar players to improve their speed playing technique by digitally recording the user’s picking at a high frame rate (HFR). This precision recording is transferred to a computer/mobile application via USB 2.0 or microSD to be processed by a custom algorithm through C++, to be displayed for the user to make necessary changes for improvement.
PickIt! helps intermediate and advanced guitar players hone their picking skills. This audience stretches from the hobbyist to professional guitarists. Though PickIt! targets guitarists specifically, any musician who relies on quick hand movements such as bassists, violinists, and cellists, can also use PickIt!. PickIt! is a low-cost and compact product, designed for improving the techniques of musicians without the complexity of other multifunctional devices (i.e. GoPro, iPhone, etc.).
A user of the PickIt! product can record HFR videos of their picking hand while playing. These HFR videos are converted using an algorithm produced in C++ to a playable PC format. The recordings will be played back automatically on Windows OS and playable across most modern devices with ease so that users are able to improve their playing techniques.