2nps slow, 3+ nps fast

Playing Technique
#1

I’ve seen references to this issue but no discussion. I realized it’s a problem I’m having.

I can play 3 nps or 6 nps relatively fast and clean, 1/16 notes at 160+ bpm. This is with 2WPS (3 nps) or straight DWPS (6 nps). However, when I try something with 2 nps (a la Zack Wylde or EJ) with DWPS, my max speed is down around 120 bpm. Is this just a string tracking issue? And is this something that just gets faster with practice? Or is there potentially a technique limiting factor?

I’ve been very careful to maintain a DWPS to avoid string hopping.

Thanks.

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#2

Loosen up.

I don’t want to over explain this, just, go to your guitar, think “loose” and rip out some 2nps runs.

Let them be inaccurate at first, just stay loose.

You know how MAB plays extremely precise 3/6nps stuff? With tiny movements? Think the opposite of that.

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#3

Post a video - everyone here is rather helpful…and…I tend to learn alot from other peoples problems too.:wink:

#4

That’s how I approached it and it worked almost immediately

#5

I think this is surprisingly common. A lot of it is just practice, but I think string-tracking is not the only thing to work on. I haven’t seen your form, so I am just assuming here, but as a general rule, the fewer notes you play per string, the harder it is to use small, minimally escaped picking methods. I’ve found that ‘escaping more’ helped with 2nps runs… sorta like E.J.'s technique. You might want to play around with that. Initially it might be slower, but after a while, you may find you can speed it up quite a bit, and you may find that larger escapes makes precise string tracking less of an issue.

2 Likes
#6

Not to resurrect a dead thread, but…
I’ve been having a really bad case of the same issue as OP, and the advice “think exactly opposite of Michael Angelo Batio” seems to be helping a lot.
I’m not that far down the road yet, but it definitely gave me a welcome kickstart from my 2NPS deadlock!

Just thought that it is sometimes worth adding a few extra “yes, this works” to things that, well, probably do in case someone else was having the same issue.