Here’s the slo mo vid again. Look much more then just targeted strumming to me. What do you think?
There’s no “just” or “more than” about what I’m saying, obviously what he’s playing is super accurate and precise.
From that angle with that video I can’t tell if he does or doesn’t ever hit the skipped string, what matters is you don’t ever hear it.
I’m suggesting that it might be helpful, if you want to achieve this, to get the feeling of playing fast and loose at the right speed and then work on making that more precise and accurate.
i still beleive that some people just have those extra abilities to do things others, no matter how hard they practice, will never achieve.
It is with a lot of things the case, also in sports for instance.
Of course if you are very interested in something and put lots of effort in it you can do a lot, but some just have that extra thing going on.
A lot has to do with the age you started gettingn very interested in something and realy study on it, in my opinion.
Anton for instance started at a very young age on the violin and already played Paganini stuff on that instrument before he switched to the guitar.
We all know that at a young age the brain makes all the connections and learns very fast and very efficient.
Have you ever watched his vids where he plays those Paga stuff at the guitar already at a young age?
The way he plays it with that accurate alternate picking and unbeleivable left hand control is so out of this world.
So, that big advantage Anton has, starting at such a young age and already being very skilled at the young age is something else. It will be veeeery hard or (in my opinion) impossible to achieve that level starting with this at lets say the age of 20.
Well, just my opinion. I will still practice the stuff he does but i have no ilussion of ever reaching that level.
Anton certainly is a special person! All of the people we interview are. But what makes them special is not that they can play these things. It’s that they figured out simple methods for playing them without anyone showing them. That is their gift. The naturals show the rest of us what is possible.
If you’re feeling some negative pushback on this, it’s because people are reacting to the notion that some kind of special sauce is required to play this that cannot be learned by the rest of us here. This makes perfect sense. Look at what forum you are on. Everything I can do now, I once considered “impossible”. Our entire world view is about learning and empowerment. Suggesting that we can’t do something, in nerd-tastic terms, is actually offensive. I say that with pride!
However nobody is attacking you personally, and your frequent enthusiastic contributions to this forum are appreciated. I would just like you to take a step back from the negativity when you post stuff that directly criticizes the attempts of others to get better. It’s not what we’re about.
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I just have a different opinion on this as i explained already.
Take someone like Rick Graham, he has that very special ability to make this superfast spasm movement, which only very few people in the world can do. How hard i trie, even if i would practice this 24 hours a day for the rest of my life, i will never be able to do this; it realy is something special.
Anyways, of course we all can achieve things we never could do before by practicing and learning from and watching at all those great players.
I realy I love this site, your enormous work at Cracking The Code, and the contributions and discussions going on here.
On this specifick topic it just was that he stated he was very confident that he could pull it of. Then the vid came and it was…lets say, a little bit disapointing 
But, i will back off and keep enjoying all the great stuff on this site.
Cheers!
I really don’t want to make a huge deal out of this, but just so we are totally clear on this, what I am saying here has nothing to do with Anton or Rick. This has to do with how we treat each other on this forum. It’s fine if you were expecting something different from the clip that was posted. What is not fine is calling someone else’s playing ‘bad’. Honesty is saying hey you’re not nailing the technique yet. ‘Bad’ is just belittling someone’s efforts.
I think we’re probably on the same page here, and again, it’s not like this happens all the time. I just think we should all act like we’re in the same boat here when it comes to learning – because we are.
Onward…
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Ok, now that things have cooled down I hope this is the right place for this comment 
I was always amazed at Anton’s effortless string-tracking. From the few videos I watched, it seems to me that he can track all 6 strings almost exclusively with the wrist! I believe this is possible because he has Gilbert-esque (huge) hands. With smaller hands, I think the introduction of additional moving parts becomes necessary to reach the same results.
I think you are absolutely right!
I don’t buy this. Check out Molly Tuttle, or Andy Wood (who doesn’t strike me as having large hands). They have similar 6-strings reach from mostly wrist deviation.
On the other hand Anton already did this at very young age, where is hands were not developed yet.
Ah I see happy to not sell it 
. From what I recall, I thought their typical licks involved a 4-string range but maybe I’m wrong.
About young Anton, true, he was already doing the 1-6 mega skips!
Yes, that is true. Those big mega string skip jumps at those blistering speeds i have never seen anybody do this that accurate with alternate picking.
But he did it already at very young age, with much smaller hands.
On YT there some vids where he was 8 years young already doing the Pagagnini stuff; it is just rediculous
Look at this. 8 years young little Anton ripping it!
The guy is just very special with abilities most of us only can dream of…
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You must not forget that Anton already had a classical training in playing the violin, doing all that Paganini stuff at even a younger age.
So his brain/muscle coordination was already programmed at the most efficient period in live, where all the connections in the brain are made.
I do think that larger players have a larger sweet spot for wrist motion, and if Anton is playing a Dreadnought-sized guitar here then he is indeed a big dude. Even if he’s playing a Dred Jr.-sized guitar, he’s still substantially taller than me because I don’t have that kind of air gap between my arm and the guitar on any sized instrument.
However…
Large picking distances can be covered by almost anyone, even smaller players like me, with only wrist and almost no arm movement. That’s because the wrist operates in exactly the plane you would need to cover these distances. There is nothing magic about this and there are no barriers to regular people doing this type of wrist motion. It is what the wrist excels at.
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…and me too,so far!!!
It’s a bitch!
Also because of those accents on every 3rd of the triplets on the high E string, which alternates between a down ad a upstroke, Aaaah!
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@Troy, could you please do a tutorial on the first part of this clip?
Since you almost can tackle anything it would be great to see how you would approach this.
What makes it even more hard are the dynamics; those accents on every 3rd of the triplet alternating between a down and upstroke.
I would be very gratefull if you want to do it.
I think that using both the wrist and the arm together can be done as well for those with smaller hands. But the key is to be ‘super’ loose in the arm… otherwise, the arm/elbow motion will reduce the range of motion for the wrist.
Also, something to remember is that some people develop their mechanic to use only wrist-tracking and nothing else. I think Ynvgie does. But other’s have a hybrid system… where they move their pivot point with their arm/elbow, and have a 3-4 string range with their wrist. And some people use mostly the arm, and do very little wrist-tracking. So for those of us who do less wrist-tracking… it’s a bit more of a learning curve.
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