This is why I was explaining my metronome methods above. If I hit any plateaus the only thing I do at this point is daily practice of speed over time using my current relaxed technique and just letting the speed gradually increase. Above I have the screenshot at 1 bpm every 1 second, but when I work in my max areas I increase this time to like 3 or 4 seconds. Once it falls apart, I stop, lower it back down, and repeat the speeding up. I don’t do this alot, as it will tire you out quickly. I do it about 3 or 4 times, then move on to something else. This is the only metronome I have found that has an extremely high BPM which I hate to say is a paid feature I am not trying to sell you on it. But playing notes along with the click at higher tempos can fine grain increase the speed as opposed from doing 110 BPM to 120 BPM which is like 660 to 720, you get a much gradual slope working in these higher tempos.
It only goes up to 900 haha but ya good luck with that I just go for 12 nps and leave the ridiculous stuff to the genetic freaks, or crazies who are probably damaging their bodies.
@sassek thanks for posting the examples! In your first example (of these recent ones), I see what you mean about he escape flattening out. Are you sure it’s totally gone though? To me it looks shallow, but not trapped.
Another comment I have in watching that first clip, and I’m sure you’re aware, the little ‘breaks’ you take where you slow down look like a drastically different motion from your fast attempts. They look like DBX. I don’t know if that’s throwing off the faster attempts or not and I think Troy made a similar comment in reviewing one of my submissions. I was just using these ‘breaks’ to lock into the rhythm but it’s possible that it sends some confusing signals.
Also, I’m not sure, but in some of the faster USX attempts, do notice the elbow slightly engaging? I could be seeing things. If I’m not though, that can be a big USX killer. Guys like Zakk Wylde play from the elbow and still manage USX through some means that even Troy himself admits he can’t quite define. It’s some helper motion that makes it work though because the elbow joint only does DSX. This was actually my problem. Again, I could be wrong and just seeing things. the 0:15 - 0:20 second range is where I think I saw this though.
My only thoughts here are to try something drastically different. Since I could only do DSX with wrist or wrist elbow blend and had difficulty doing USX, the path I went down was the forearm rotational motion. It felt like something I could do pretty relaxed and had good endurance. I think your USX is mostly from the wrist, correct? Maybe engaging some forearm rotation would help?
Lastly, you seem very locked into a tempo. What happens if you just floor it? One of the surprising things for me was that when I just went for a tremolo that I was pretty sure was above 190 bpm that some good things started happening. Even if I couldn’t hold it for very long, I experienced a motion I hadn’t yet felt, and this was what I was missing. I used this to teach myself the correct motion, rather than staying in the zone of ‘where it’s good and not quite falling apart’. While the speeds your USX attempts are above what’s possible with string hopping, advanced players like you can still get away with making it work, though it may have some small mysterious inefficiency that’s holding it back from the shred zone. Your early DSX clips prove you’re already in the shred zone, so I think it’s just a matter of smoothing out the USX and flooring it may help.
It’s a very interesting approach. I have a metronome that has a feature like this too, very cool. I’ve actually tried doing the opposite lately though, where I start with a high speed and have it decrease. I’ve noticed in my own playing that on any given day, I have these pockets of bpm ranges that I just can’t do. For example, a 16th note tremolo at 210 for a few measures feels ok. For some reason 190 is a mess though, which I wouldn’t expect. I’m guessing that my motion starts to change and I just can’t control it at any tempo. But this gradual slowing down along with a metronome seems like it’s aiding in control. I don’t do a ton of it. Thanks for sharing the cool idea though.
Yes this is why I was asking him about a lick tablature because as you said about the tremolo, I utilize a different motion here as it is one string, now if I start string skipping around my technique is going to change. But very high BPM setting using my rhythm pattern above on that metronome utilizing the 6 notes in swing tempo fashion before the 6 note burst helps to uncover this technique gypsy pickers use to go fast, and can help with tremolo. But this isn’t the only motion in a very professional guitar players trick bag of technical picking approach. This is why one should try to develop them all, then utilize the ones they find the easiest for them that they can execute fast more relaxed, and continue to work on the ones they are struggling on.
And I will use weightlifting here as another comparison. They are not the same, I use this as an example because I use to be a gym rat. What one finds out quickly here is that you are going to discover your genetic potential and your genetic failures. For myself I will use my back as it’s the strongest in the chain, then legs, then chest. So now on to the point we aren’t all going to be extremely talented at picking, or even as fast as we desire to be. But you need to try to understand why, and then develop a plan to achieve your goals, whether it might be developing your musical comprehension and theory knowledge, compositional writing, or technique.
What alot of players need to understand though is that your favorite players are doing this daily as their job. So a daily playing of a list of songs with some swing tempo ones thrown in the mix. They are going to get faster, because the tempos are going to fluctuate that drummer isn’t always going to be slow, he might try to push the tempo without even realizing it cause the band is flowing well and having a good time, and the atmosphere of the room is driving a faster tempo cause everyone is super positive. Watch Stochelo Rosenberg play live with the Rosenberg trio.
So really everyone, well more intermediate players, should be focusing on getting songs to their current genetic speed limit, and playing them daily. Maybe improvising differently during solo sections, and then after a few weeks or months, you will notice significant speed gains.
Do you have tabs of this riff you’re playing that you could share?
@sassek sorry to spam you but I just thought of another pretty important subtlety in your videos. The double picking stuff is obviously palm muted, whereas the tremolo you showed us had an air gap between your palm and the strings. I know setup things like these have implications and cause slightly different motions/joints to engage.
Hi @sassek , killer playing! Looks like a wristy DSX with maybe a little elbow. Sync is great and attack too!
Looking at the first video you posted:
My impression is that your 2nps playing at 21s uses a different motion compared to the awesomeness of the first 20-ish seconds of your video. In slomo it looks like curved pickstrokes that escape at both ends. Your reported discomfort makes me suspect that we are looking at stringhopping.
The segment at 40s looks definitely better - but it does not look like pure USX to me, you can see in slow motion that the pickstrokes are still a bit curved. This motion however looks better than the pentatonic segment and you may be able to use it for some cool fast one-note-per-string lines, maybe give that a shot!
One thing I’d like you to try is to try and play these 2nps lines starting on an upstroke. This should allow you to exploit your excellent DSX motion with these kinds of lines with very little practice.
If you are not happy with that, then you have to keep experimenting until you find a truly USX fast motion.
Thanks for all the suggestions and feedback guys! I certainly have a lot to think about and experiment with now.
I’m going to keep experimenting and try and find a solid usx motion that works for me. I really feel it is a necessity for me for some parts I would like to play and have them sound the way I would like. I will start with just trying to do it as fast as possible and see if anything interesting happens.
I will also look more at starting 2nps lines with an upstroke. I have experimented with this before but I never really put that much time into trying to make it work for me. Now I understand whats happening with my picking better it certainly seems worth revisiting if I can’t find an usx motion that works for me at higher speeds.
I will probably post some more videos at a point where I have had a chance to do more experimentation.
I really didn’t expect the amount I feedback I received so again, thank you to everyone for all of the suggestions. Highly appreciated.
