Blitzkrieg Intro Trouble

Technique Critique
#1

So I’ve been working on Blitzkrieg for a while and I can’t get reliability in those intro ascending runs. I think it’s a hand sync thing but I post this video in case something jumps out. I’m referring to the two scales that are played immediately at the start.

This video isn’t great and it may give the impression I’m just rushing the whole thing given the tempo I’m at. But I’ve got a lot of the song at that tempo without issue. When I slice up the intro one lick at a time in the recording I can then go on to play the rest of the verse reasonably well. I hope this quick and dirty recording is appropriate for critique.

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#2

Here’s another video highlighting a phenomenon where I am better able to play the two scalar shapes lower on the neck than higher.

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#3

Thanks for posting! I’m not 100% sure if you’re going for Yngwie style economy picking here but I’m gonna assume that you do, since it looks like it when you play the slower examples in your second video. Problem is, when you speed up, the economy thing is gone and it looks more like alternate picking. Maybe that’s what you’re going for but if not…

My advice would be to work on the sweeping part of the economy picking because, from my own experience, it is easy to intuitively go for a fast movement in the picking hand when you play fast with the fretting hand. Economy picking doesn’t have that feel, it should feel more like “milking” the strings for notes. I know that sounds horrible but that is kind of what it feels like to me. A key thing is that the pick can glide on the next string when doing the sweep. This way you can control the rhythm through the amount of presure you put on the string.

A good exercise is playing one note on the low string and two notes on the adjacent higher string, using down down up. In the Yngwie style, one should be able to repeat that phrase in a rhythmically even way. Here is a video from another thread that showcases this.

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#4

That’s really interesting! Thanks! I’ve been presuming my fretting hand was the culprit. I never considered that the economy regime might be falling apart at speed. I’ll look closer at that for sure.

#5

No problem! Well, I assumed it was the picking hand you were wondering about.

I don’t want to sound harsh but I get the feeling you can take it, to be honest, the fretting hand needs some work too. For example, look at the second ascending lick at 25% speed… this scale run should be eight notes, three on the A-string, three on the D-string and two on the G-string.

Looking closely, we can see that the fretting hand is actually only fretting three notes on the A-string, then jumps right up to the finishing note on the G-string. So there is a major sync problem here. But your right about the sync being better down the neck.

It might be a good idea to work on the licks just slightly slower that your max speed. Then you can feel when the sync is right more easily.

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#6

Yeah, there’s some fretting hand issues too. It’s a real bummer cause I’m feeling pretty good about the rest of the song. That skipping over part of the fretting hand phenomenon occurs worse when I have the backing track going, unsurprisingly.

#7

Hahaha. Interesting you used the word “glide” there because I feel a similar thing - it is like a momentary down strum to me. When I feel every string, it sounds bad (even though the timing is tighter), but when I “glide” from the upper string downwards, I might be off beat, but it’s much better sounding.

#8

Interesting indeed!
Milking, gliding, etc.
In my case I feel it like I’m “pushing” for the down downs.

@s_linste def great advice here, I couldn’t catch the fretting issue, folks here are fantastic!

My emphasis was on the fist note being pushed, then up, then the down down (DD) which is another push motion. I’m using the word push as opposed to the up which is almost always a wrist motion while the down can often be an arm motion for first note and string change (DD) actions.

In my journey I could never get the two sets of muscle thing, one for up strokes and another for down strokes, I’m beginning to understand why I went through all those months of excruciating pain, I was using wrist action for both up and down, all the time.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been taking a closer look at my picking hand thumb grip, I used to curl my index and my thumb was bent inwards as well. On looking at better players, “most” had their thumbs extended and straight for the “most” part, including YJM, though I’d notice a quick flick here and there, even blitzkrieg has it!

I’m pretty convinced now the thumb bend is induced only on the upstroke, perhaps it lends move velocity in combination with arm, wrist and a bit of thumb action to help tracking and emphasise a beat ( triplet, etc) feel.

At this point I’m probably over thinking it as i really have no control over it while playing, just that I wanted the thumb fully extended on down strokes, for power, hand position stability ( allowed for seamless and rapid tracking jumps without much drama) while maintaining consistent string muting too!

edit:
I guess I must add that trying to keep the thumb straight on down strokes has also helped bring more arm motion. This brings wrist, arm and thumb action into a blend that’s hard to describe still. But it has certainly helped reduce the effort required, and on the other hand increased power.

As to why I’m emphasizing power is in this clip. I need to slam (downward push) the string and equally provide muting pressure as my action is quite high to get the right tone and feel. Just a phone cam here:

The straight thumb and uncurled index finger grip has added a lot of good things to the mix in my case. Just wanted to stress that this might help others if they’re not aware of it :slight_smile:

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#9

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