What’s hit or miss about it?
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@weealf, if you are anywhere near sextuplets at 130bpm, very cool!
Given the videos presented for examination, I’d look for global system issues. For example, and for what it’s worth, my fastest runs are not achieved with the guitar neck parallel to the ground, thumb wrapped behind the neck, and sitting.
I like @Troy’s “1” or “2” question. Also, do you have the full speed video for reference? Peace, Daniel
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I think it’s a combination of things.
The picking accuracy starts to suffer so I’m probably not concentrating on the chunking aspect properly
And the actual fret hand finger speed is just a little fast for me right now.
I’ll tell you what…
Give me a day or 2 and I’ll get a video up on it. I’ll start another thread for it. .
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That sounds plausible. There is a point where concentration is no longer necessary because the motions become learned and essentially pre-recorded. And this pre-recorded state can exist at some tempos and not others. Why is that? That’s the operative question. Guesses are:
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The motion you’re using at various tempos is actually different, and one of them is learned and the other is not.
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The motion is the same but the tempos are different, and that’s enough to qualify as “different” to your motor system. In other words, the baked-in “recordings” only work for certain speed ranges, because the speed at which the pre-recorded thing plays back is also a learned quality. And if you try and play that back at a different speed, it no longer works, so you need a new “recording” for that speed or speed range. If that’s true, how wide of a tempo range is one recording good for?
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???
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Ehrm, I see there are a lot of long replies already, I only skimmed through so forgive me if someone already said this.
Have you tried moving away from the “picking all notes” mindframe, and doing a mixture of picked notes and pulloffs? It can be an “easier” way to explore higher speeds without getting your picking hand exhausted (as the right hand essentially does some bursts and then gets some breaks while the left does the pull-offs). It results in a cool sound as well.
During the “bursts” you may be able to temporarily break out of your typical picking speed barriers. Someone called John Petrucci gives some nice examples here 
:
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I’ll add to what @tommo’s presented here to add that in order to get the pull offs, or “all-hammers” a la the Holdsworth approach, as a sort of cross-training, adjustment of the thumb position behind the neck, elbow position, posture all come into play. I swear by it, as my picking speed overall jumped up very quickly when I started to get the left hand moving.
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I don’t know if I’ve speculated about this on here before, but in the Martin Miller interview he mentions that the motor system also works in a chunky way, i.e. past a certain speed you don’t send signals and get feedback for every stroke but rather “check” a larger chunk for successful execution. I had the thought that problems might arise when your “mental” chunk is the wrong size for the currently operative motor chunk, that is, if on the one hand you’re thinking “I am playing a pattern of 6 notes” while your motor system is going “2, 2, 2” for example.
Does this make any sense?
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Sure, why not? I don’t think we really know yet what’s going on at the level of the circuitry. And it could very well be something like this. I know Martin is enthusiastic about this subject and the researcher whose work he was quoting. I don’t know what specific papers that individual has publishes and how far these subjects have been looked into.
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You could try doing bursts to a metronome, i.e. play one group of the six note sequence and then the first note of the second six. I find this effective for cementing a chunk in my brain. So for a bar, I conceptualise it as 4 chunks instead of 24 notes. Think this was something I saw Martin Miller advocate for speed, and found helpful. Might be worth a go.
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Hi @Troy thanks for the quick response I think you have nailed what I am after. I will try and be concise here.
The reason I thought 130bpm sextuplets is the goal is this is what you play it at on the seminars. So I thought this was a benchmark before progressing. Also there are hundreds of metal & rock solos that require sextuplets at >130 which are all songs I wish to be able to play.
Last lick in Solo to “Bark at the moon” by Ozzy. Anything Yngwie, Steve Vai or Slash. These artists are all very well covered on YouTube by bedroom guitarists so this must be a common skillset?
Going back to your points above I think I am looking at 1. Learn smoothness of motion. My motions are not smooth 100% of the time and on reading your post I conclude that my motion is not totally learned yet. Like you say I am in the category of floating between movements. Thanks again for your input as it has given me motivation to go with trial and error and get the motion as smooth and effortless as I can.
I recorded a couple of normal speed clips but I think they are not required as I just need more practise to smooth out my picking. I can feel it is not smooth and effortless just now.
DWPS Yngwie 6 120bpm Normal speed footage
DWPS Yngwie with different view 120bpm
Thanks again
Alan
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Hi @tommo I will definitely try this as you are a picking machine as shown on your 2WPS posts. I have tried picking 6 notes then legato 6 then pick 6 and legato 6 all back to back as it feels like I can lock into the rhythm with the picking hand better.
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Hi @RockStarJazzCat I did think my left hand was tensing up and this was causing me to tense overall and it maybe was not down to my picking hand. I tried playing the phrase just picking the first note and then legato or a bit to get the phrase under my left fretting hand. Do you play classical sitting position or guitar on your leg?
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Also thanks everyone else who has posted responses, it is very much appreciated. You guy are such awesome helpful Dudes 
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I don’t know! We did that picking poll and the midpoint came out around 180bpm:
https://troygrady.com/2016/08/22/survey-on-picking-speed/
It has drifted upwards a small amount over time but not much. This was pretty much where I figured things would land, if you had asked me to guess, so I will admit to thinking this admittedly non-scientific questionnaire is realistic.
Anyway all I was really getting at is that no matter what, in musical terms, 200 bpm is pretty fast. That Bark at the Moon lick doesn’t sound too clean to me, and there really aren’t too many examples of players from the '80s hitting that kind of mark with absolute clarity outside of a handful of famous players we all know. I think I’m always trying to set expectations to a realisitic level just because I think people get all worked about where they feel they should be versus what they can do. And I’d rather everyone be thrilled with where they are, and thrilled with every advance they make beyond where they are.
That said I think these clips look great. I don’t see why you can’t hit those goals eventually when you get these movements ironed out. If you’re still in the “searching for smoothness” phase, from the looks of things I don’t think you’re at the beginning of that road. You’re probably somewhere in the middle.
I’d turn off the metronome and demo as many different arm setups, grips and motions as you can to see if you can find anything that clicks and feels more fast and smooth than what you’re currently doing. And if you do find something, do it for a minute or so, then put the guitar down. Come back a minute later and see if you can reproduce it, by feel. If you can’t, start over. That’s the guts of how I do trial and error and it’s all about trying to find something that works and then learning to do it again, and again, by feel, after a break, until you can do it every time.
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Just to kinda approach this from a different angle. Something that might help with increasing speed is ‘mixing in’ another mechanic to help with the exertion/speed. The most common ‘mix-in’ mechanic I’ve seen is the elbow.
So basically… you can continue to do the same mechanic you use at the slower speeds (ie wrist, etc)… but the elbow acts as sort-of a ‘helper’ to ensure you get from one side to the next quickly enough. Troy talks about this in a recent video. I think it’s called dwps elbow mechanic or something.
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Hey there @weealf, these days I play standing religiously. Keyboards in my practice space are set up for playing standing, ergonomically. At my day job I’m similarly most comfortable programming while standing.
All that said, I started on classical and have always referred back to that. When I do sit, I try to approximate my standing position as much as possible. That can mean leg, custom cushion on leg, classical footstool… My focus is more on things like the elbow position produced, and keeping thumb comfortably behind my other fingers.
The all-hammer-on practice is great for ensuring I’m not clutching the instrument in a way that encumbers my playing. With the disclaimer that I use all kinds of techniques. The hammer technique just helps me with everything else already under hand. Keeps my left hand index generally more mobile.
Hope that helps. Thanks for your interest. 
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To me, your picking movements looks pretty good, tho as other said, you might want to try some other types of movement in order to fine tune it.
On the other hand, the full speed clip suggest that your sense of rhythm is not on point. It’s difficult to say for the first rep, but everything sounds shifted compare to the actual beat. It’s kinda like you’re starting somewhere between the beat itself and the up beat but not where the second 16th note should be either. Also it sounds like your rhythm is not even, on the slow mo you posted, it sounds like your not always playing at the same speed.
I think that on top of working on technique at higher speed like you do here you should also try to really work on your sense of rythm. To me, it looks like your problem might be that you’re no quite in sync with the beat, rather than not being able to reach the speed technically speaking.
Here is a cool Adam Neely video that gives a bunch of stuff to work on rhythm :
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Adding to Lanoit’s point, I’m going to put in a plug for some cross training with “melodics.com.” Honesty in rhythmic conception matters. Enjoy.
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Hi @Lanoit thanks for the Rhythm info I’ll have a look when I get in from work. You are correct my timing is well off. I thought I was hitting the beat but when I played back the clip I was well off. The 4 Bars i posted were the best from a longer clip with most even more off time. I didn’t even realise until I went in to trim down the clip. At least I have things to go and work on and improve. Thanks again for your input it is good to get constructive feedback. 
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Wow that is a good metronome lesson. Can’t wait to try this out. Thanks very much for sharing. It keeps rhythm practice interesting
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