ASTN Tremolo Clip


I tried to play something blacky… Looks like I’m not good composer, at least in this style )

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I dunno, it’s really nailing that “we burned our advance and recorded this in a forest” kind of vibe.

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This is some damn good tremolo playing! I was expecting something a little more uncoordinated, but I dropped this in Logic and these are legit sixteenth subdivisions at 220. In other words, these are not simply “as many notes as I can play, regardless of tempo”. There is possibly a little drift, off by a note at some point - but that can be corrected.

There are probably a lot of players right here on this forum that would like to be able to do what you’re doing here. So your feeling that this can’t be used for musical purposes, I would disagree with that. Whatever your mechanical form is here, it’s a great start for adding two-handed synchronization.

I would try developing two-hand synchronzation with this movement, using chunking methodology, accenting the downbeats. I believe you said you worked on the Yngwie six-note pattern, and something was painful about that. You should never practice with so much tension or for so long that you experience pain. But there is also no reason to throw away this movement, and use the super slow deliberate method which seems not to work as well. You have already found the path of least resistance, and now it’s time to follow it, even if it is sloppy at first.

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Dude, this rocks. Need some black metal drums in there.

That is really impressive playing man!

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Very cool. As @Troy said, having the ability to pull this off with such rhythmic precision (and endurance) is no small feat.

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Sorry guys for not answering earlier. As a newbie I have some restrictions on number of posts. Anyway…

@Troy thank you. Actually I was afraid that what I hear as 4 notes per click may occur something else. In fact, plucking fast is not a problem - problem is to keep rhythm more or less. I tried 240bpm but after first seconds of playing I totally lose the feeling of rhythm. It’s about 15Hz so it becomes more like low freq sound than a number of discrete events.

I don’t usually play fast. It was “Cracking the Code” series that showed me the world of shredders. The only shreddy thing I practiced consciously was 6-note pattern ) But seems like your idea makes sense. If I would develop syncronisation in fast tempos it’d be easier for me to play slow things. Thanks for advice!

@Hanky_Pooh Well, it was kind of a parody on genre. I don’t really know how to write these kind of things. Especially drums which scares me as hell with all that crazy double bass blastbeats.

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Post up the 240! Let’s take a look.

That’s right. Playing fast is how you get the general sense of they way a movement works when it is working at its most natural. Then slowing it down is how you make it accurate, provided you can make sure it’s still the same movement. The reverse, starting out super slow and trying to get faster, can lead to awkward / robotic movements that aren’t natural and can’t be sped up.

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Well, that’s all I can do for now. I’m not even sure that I was doing 4 notes per click. Though I tried…

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Here’s a slowed-down version. Short story - this is quite good:

You are indeed doing four notes per click for certain stretches of this. Not all of it, but that is to be expected. Tremolo tempo coordination is difficult with no left hand patterns to help keep time.

Great work on these. What picking motion are you using, elbow? And do you have a phone with a slow motion mode on it?

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It was fun. Espacially considering the fact that I never practiced right hand speed on purpose. If it wasn’t the poll on your site I’d never know what my picking speed is.

Sorry, I have no slow motion camera on my phone. In fact, it doesn’t have any camera :frowning:

Yep, it’s an elbow. I feel like any high speed picking include elbow movement somehow. It’s like hand and fingers are quite precise but they lack some abruptness. I try to make movements as short as possible, which makes me keep my plectrum almost parallel to strings (reducing “edge picking” angle). The same reason makes me play closer to bridge. Also I use the very tip of plectrum.

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Excellent. I wouldn’t worry too much about the amount of edge picking or the amount of pick on the string. Let your choice of tone influence those variables. Research evidence suggests that the speed of the movement causes the small size of the movement, not the other way around. And there is also evidence to suggest that elbow may have a higher top speed than other movements. If by “abrupt” you mean that you feel like you can cause the elbow movement to change direction more quickly than wrist or finger movements, then this makes sense.

This all looks great. I would try slowing this movement down a little to 200 or 190, whatever is comfortable for your left hand, and doing the Yngwie pattern, or something else similar. You seem to have great sense of time so I think you will do just fine achieving synchronization. Let us know how you make out with that.

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Exactly. I feel like forearm reacts almost immediatly comparing to wrist. Disadvantage of using elbow motion is lack of preciseness. I tried to play it without anchoring but no matter how much I tried - it just didn’t work. Although, when I used acnhoring (palm or pinky) it worked well.

:astonished: …no way I could do this! I guees I should start from 100 or 110. It took almost 2 month for me to get more or less clean 6-note pattern at 85bpm.
Anyway, I’d try to practice and I would keep in touch.
Thanks everybody.
P.S. Gotta go sleep. It’s almost midnight here

That’s the thing, don’t try and work your left hand up to speed a bit at a time. Get your right hand going, close to max or “comfortably fast”, and then just drop your left hand like a needle on a record and fret some notes to coincide with the picking.

I don’t know if it would be useful…
My friend with an iphone visited me today so I had a chance to record some slo-mo videos.
It’s my 220bpm playing. Sorry for the absence of audio. I’m not a pro in video editing.
To make a record I had to change my sitting place and my guitar position. Moreover I tried to use more edge picking.

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Hahahahahhahahahahaha!!! YEAH!!! :sunglasses::+1:

Hi guys! First time commenting. I read the whole Downpicking thread and then watched @ASTN’s tremolo picking videos and WOW! I can play the Yngwie 6s pattern comfortably around 130bpm (triplet 16ths) and do some other shreddy things but I cannot hold a steady tremolo picking riff at those speeds like @ASTN. I envy you and will have to work on that! I was just so impressed that I had to comment! Stop talking so negatively about yourself brother! You’ve got serious skills and potential! And yes, as @Troy mentioned, tension is the reason you got injured. Don’t give up my friend!

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Thanks for your kind words!
Actually it was my left hand which was injured. Right one doesn’t give me any troubles. And I think it’s not about tension only.
In fact, there was an accident when I was a kid, so my left hand was damaged. It was a reason that I had to leave piano school. It’s not easy for me to play guitar, as it’s not easy to control my left hand and my pinky is kinda deformed. Although it gives me a lot of fun! So, even if can’t reach average level of playing I could always play slow tearjerking melodies ) or superfast tremolo ))

Hey!
Got my new webcam last week. Spent some time with wires and LEDs. Messed with some iron corners, screws and nuts… Now I get my Magnet cam! ))
However I’m still trying to dig how to use it’s slo-mo thing (100 fps)
Anyway, here’s my test shootout. 260bpm. (well, as my metronome has no 260bpm I used 130bpm and played 32th).

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Great angle. Plus enough of your arm is in the shot that we can see the brachioradialis flex when you do the speed bursts.

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