Ben Eller attempting to learn Tumeni Notes (w/ magnet clips)

General Music Discussion
#1

It’s actually pretty interesting to see not only the struggle to get it completely alternate picked and how technique can fall apart with speed under slow motion camera with the Magnet (even though Ben is pretty good at alternate picking in general). But you also see him try other ways to find a compromise between not playing it with full alternate picking and still having it sound “right”, by trying to mix alternate picking with pull-offs after trying to incorporate sweeps.

And it’s still a bloody hard piece of work. The tempo is 209BPM with 8th note triplets, so around 10.45 notes a second if my math is correct (equivalent to 156ish 16th notes). I wonder if or how you can build the stamina (not just physically, but nervously and mentally) to play it: I’m pretty sure some players can get a couple bars at speed, but the form can break down when alternate picking that fast for any longer period of time, nevermind a whole solo or a whole song!

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#2

Interesting analysing his DBX motion under the magnet. I think the flexion portion of the movement isn’t escaping outwards vertically enough so he is compensating by tilting his wrist but in turn that is making his upstrokes trapped. All of his attempts look quite string-hoppy to me but his sweep version sounds good!

It’s a shame he doesn’t want to try copying Steve’s form, that really unlocked DBX for me and I occasionally go back to it every now and again to lock into the motion. Then you switch back to a normal grip and it feels like your motion is working perfectly, it’s weird :grin:

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#3

Man! What a great job that Ben did here! lol I actually kind of gave up/settled on DBX and instead play this tune (Tumeni Notes) with hybrid, sweep AND alternate. Because, well - I suck. hahaha

Tempo check because I was inspired, I made it to a messy 200 on the first intro part.
(I made it to 210, but as a messy sweep/legato/hybrid method. I’ll see if I can refine it a bit…)

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#5

This is a song I’ve messed with off and on throughout the years, but I’ve pretty much given up on it. I don’t think there is a way to play this fully alternate picked without eventually paying a physical price for it.

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