They have phrasing that does even more like this one which is much more difficult than what you are trying to do here. 4 half rest strokes in a row span across 4 strings to then get to another down by string skipping.
For me that is much easier to do because it is going all in one direction, descending in this case.
yeah i mentally see the rest stroke as true traditional one way escape. but while yes it is easy try doing this at a tempo that is just way far out there like yngwie malmsteen sweep speed out there, thats how fast these old school gypsy jazz guys can do those 4 strokes… they like bend space and time…
I do not know what is the tempo, but i can do this pretty fast.
Also in Eric’s lick it is that repetitive motion that kills me. I can do it one time at his tempo, maybe 2 times but then i am off…
Al di Meola has this thing where he plays 2 up 1 down at a fast tempo repetitive over 3 strings. For instance first position chord arpeggio: up high E string, up B string, down D string.
That’s also something i struggle with.
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This is where a rest stroke might help you as if you can find if there are moments of rest (even if just a fraction of a rest appears between chunks) during his phrasing fragments you could rest the pick on the string where the next note is to get a bit of a hand relaxation instead of float it in the air. i havent analyzed that far on this guys phrasing so i wouldnt be able to know.
I do not think a rest stroke is gonna help here.
Have you tried the lick?
Like I have stated that is what the player is doing, except he is doing half rest strokes. 
To try to incorporate a rest stroke somewhere will definitely help, is it possible I have no clue I haven’t fine tuned analyzed the phrasing.
Still trying to grasp the “half rest stroke!
Maybe i will never understand….
But why do we need to (Do all downstrokes)? lol No… that makes zero sense to me. Great if it works to him, but nope not for me! hahaha
The guy sounds fantastic but that makes no sense to me to only hit on a downstroke, I mean, might as well hit it on the way back up, right? Likely be twiece as fast…
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It gives a different sound with all downstrokes.
And, good luck playing it twice as fast with down, down , up! For me it is doable to get it at his speed with an upstroke on the G string. But playing it faster…no.
With alternate picking you could go crazy fast.
I can do that, but not yet super clean. Have to work on that.
I meant just alternate pick stuff instead of doing all downstrokes my man. Sweeping would likely be 4x as fast hahahaha
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You can’t sweep this lick. It is 2 down on the D string and one down on the G string
It’s a tone thing. There’s another thread about it on here:
I used to do a lot of heavy metal rhythm playing and got decent at it. Ironically it came very naturally to me. Anecdotally, I don’t recall EVER practicing it slowly. I was probably 13 years old and saw James Hetfield just killin’ it and I went for it. The hands tend to figure things out for themselves when they’re put in a certain position and you make them play specific patterns. I do remember if I did it for too long I’d tense up, but I could play phrases that required the all downs picking when playing either Metallica songs or stuff my band did. I quit the band almost 15 years ago and haven’t tried that technique since. I know master of puppets is sort of the litmus test for the technique. Curious if I’ve still got it…
I sort of do!
Not as fast as Eric obviously but at least it’s in the ballpark
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Alternate picking this one is very tricky though because it’s a three note phrase.
I remember this! To me this was just a testament to his stubbornness of not wanting to economy pick. He even called playing that pattern, at the speed he was doing, “impossible” to do with pure alternate picking. We’ve seen people play at those speeds and alternate pick it all. He even toured with Steve Morse while he was in his prime, and steve could easily handle stuff like that. What’s more, Al is a great wrist player, so he had all the raw materials to do the exact thing himself that he said was impossible lol
Great player, hugely influential/inspirational. Unfortunately, spreader of dogma.
Yes, it can be played with alternate picking, but it sounds quite different and not as percussive as Al does it.
It‘s the same with this Eric lick, You can play it with alternate picking but it has a totaly different sound to it and it’s not so percussive.
I always sucked at it. Funnily enough, I can do all upstrokes a lot faster than all downstrokes… maybe I’ll start an upside down thrash metal band
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You’re on to something here… 
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