Alternate Fresh Start

Technique Critique
#1

Hello,

First post for me, long time lurker, great form and amazing videos (I watched the whole primer serie)

I play guitar since 2006, however I consider myself a forever beginner, I started playing classic rock songs (led zeppelin, black sabbath, deep purple, ecc) but my enthusiasm stopped when I hit a wall in my alternate picking at 16h around 110 bpm, I then slowly gave up the “fast playing” style and proceded doing only blues, until I discovered Troy Grady last year.

I’d like to start over with my (very poor) alternate technique.

I’m trying to isolate the tremolo movement now, between the three techniques that I tried, the forearm motion seems to me the best.

I watched the “first try fastest” video but it seems impossible to me to achieve 16th over 110bpm with any of the techniques.

My question is: should I keep practicing slowly?

Is my technique correct for a decent playing?

I feel like I got a movement from the join of my thumb that get involved almost all the time, probably it shouldn’t.

Thank you

(sorry for my incorrect english, I’m not a native speaker)

#2

Hi! Thanks for posting. What are your metronome results with the various table tap tests? Numbers please! That’s the first step.

#3

Here are my tests, 180 bpm, 200 and 220

The knocking feels a lot easier, the wrist falls apart at 220

The feeling of the knock is a lot different when I try it on the guitar, it’s more a “turning” motion, and I feel like stuck

1 Like
#4

Part of what you called forearm still looks like predominantly wrist movement. Your motions in all the videos actually look pretty good and controlled. I would just pick whichever you find easiest and then stick to that for now. One thing I noticed is that you tend to anchor your picking hand near the top strings, and use that as a pivot, which may be causing you to make a wider arc with your hand than you really need to. It’s not a bad thing to do, but may be causing a bit of extra swing above and below your target.

Honestly I wouldn’t get to caught up on utilizing one predominate movement to play. I think a lot of times with very proficient players, there is a combination of movements working synergistically for the end result. Don’t think of defined movements more than a series of nervous twitches.

I would definitely not just work at a slow tempo though, it changes things immensely! And what may work for you and feel good slow, may be murderous when applied to faster playing. and I wouldn’t really worry too much about locking into a click at first either. Try to play with a somewhat distorted sound, something that’s going to reduce transients enough, and then test yourself to see what you have to do in order to play faster than 16th at 100-110bpm. Don’t worry about timing, or being dead clean, but just watch your motions, how wide you are making them, and what you have to do to gain speed. Then I would transition out of tremolo picking on a single string, and pick a real, but simple lick to build on, one that is conducive to the picking technique you predominantly use. Your picking hand is only part of the equation here, and you want to get both hands active in this as soon as you can.

1 Like
#5

Hey @sebaUD thanks for taking the tests and sorry for the delay!

These numbers are good! From here I would try to experiment with various pick grips and hand/arm positions until you can do a similarly fast tremolo on the guitar. Let us know how that goes!

#6

Thank you!
I’ll try moving around a bit My anchor point and try a new grip