Alternate Picked Stuff - Another attempt

Okay, just when I am sure I have given up and decided to move on, I sort of stumble onto something a bit different to try that seems to kind of hold promise… I am starting to realize that even if I think I’ve tried it all - I still haven’t tried everything! Lots of subtleties and many avenues to explore. Part of the fun I suppose?

Okay, so I was trying to further my understanding of the movement definitions, and for kicks I tried to do some scaley stuff with more pronation and as much of a forearm rotation as I could muster, also a 3 finger “pad” grip, whereas I normally just have a pistol grip and have been trying to get deviation down for my sweep/economy stuff. Then I thought I might just play guitar like this for the day and one thing led to another and I was able to play a bunch of 1nps stuff a bit faster. So, I thought I’d try Tumeni Notes and Demon Driver arpeggios and I was able to play them pretty clean up to about 132BPM, and a very sloppy but still recognizable 168BPM. I decided to film it real quick, and compromised at a metronome marking of 144BPM, which was just a bit too fast for me to play without error.

A few successful things, lots of mistakes, but I felt like if I just got used to it a bit more I might be able to go faster. So I slowed it down and worked my way up to sloppy superspeed and then did a quick closeup/slowdown video, both videos are in one and shared at the bottom of the post.

Some observations, maybe y’all could chime in and let me know what you think;

  1. I want so badly to mute - but playing this way makes how I normally mute impossible. In order to progress I think I need to let that go and learn a new way of muting AFTER I get used to playing at faster tempos

  2. The Low E string is kind of tough to get going on. I think it’s because my hand position changes/drops without any strings to rest on - this problem goes away on the Low E string when I play my Ibanez Universe, but then it’s a Low B string problem.

  3. Some of my scaley stuff is improving and getting faster right away - The PG lick can be now done with outside string changes and no swiping, BUT it sounds a bit swishy. (I use Dunlop Ultex 1.0 big Triangle picks)

  4. Am I actually rotating or is it a blend of rotation and deviation? It’s a weird feeling to get used to.

  5. I am noticing a real tendency to lock in to the groove a bit more, and I think it makes me a bit tense and my best success happens when I am relaxed. If that makes sense? lol

Now I don’t want to get too excited, because I have deluded myself many times while trying new things out (All good, we learn from everything) But this seems like an OK starting point to develop that motion and perhaps see it evolve into a situation where perhaps I can successfully play quicker 1nps passages.

So yeah, take a watch, lemme know what you think and I’ll post another clip of it only a bit faster and cleaner. Hopefully! :grinning:

1 Like

Looks good and sounds good! I also like your attitude regarding the learning proces of playing the guitar (read this in some of your other posts as well). Enjoying it even when your picking is not yet at the ultra speed you would maybe like it to be. For the rest I am not qualified to give a technical critique, but it does seem that you are on to something.

Thanks man! I appreciate you taking a sec to check it out! Yeah, it feels like I might just have something here; I made it to a VERY sloppy 184bpm, and a pretty clean 144bpm, so I compromised again and took it up one notch to 152BPM.

lol Very messy, and totally imperfect, but I am having a lot of fun just kind of making a mess and working backwords tempo-wise. I may be losing my mind (I am at that age) but there are moments where it seems like it’s passable. I guess we’ll just have to see what the week brings!