Hello, CtC community! I’ve been lurking for years, and I’ve finally worked up the courage to post a question…
I feel like I’m starting to comprehend all of the amazing resources collected here. But it seems like there’s a step towards the beginning of the process that is counterintuitive and invisible because, essentially, the thing we’re searching for only appears once we’re doing it right.
That’s tricky! So what would help me — and maybe some other lurkers out there — would be if some of you who’ve already made to the to the top of the mountain would check my understanding and let me know if I’m missing something key.
HOW TO CRACK THE CODE (I THINK, BASED ON WHAT I’VE READ)
[Stage One: confirm that you aren’t broken]
1 Do the motion tests. This is to prove (to the CtC team, but maybe more to yourself) that there’s nothing physically limiting you from playing fast.
2 Use one of your more promising motion test scores to choose a pick grip and motion that doesn’t feel too strange. At this point, don’t get too hung up on DECIDING anything — don’t think, ‘I want to play the music of player X, so I should…’ Just start with something roughly in line with your motion test scores and move on.
[Stage Two: go on a mystical journey]
3 Now you have to find a fast tremolo on a single string. No metronomes, no manually cranking your wrist back and forth as fast as you can while your muscles burn…
Instead this is like some kind of walkabout, vision quest thing where you just let your body do weird movements until it discovers/uncovers one that it likes — essentially, your job at this stage is to wait patiently until something surprises you by its speed and effortless when compared to your usual string hopping foolishness. Until that motion emerges from the mists, you’re basically just an observer. Just keep making time every day to let your picking hand flail around until it figures something new out.
4 Once you find #3 once, keep coming back day after day until you can start to rediscover it more regularly. It will come and go, and you will get frustrated, but eventually it’ll arrive more often until it’s something you can summon up at will.
5 Once you have an on-demand fast easy tremolo on one string, make sure you can find the same thing on all of the strings. Cool, now you have a “primary motion.”
Maybe do your first TC at this point to make sure it’s as right as you think it is?
[Stage Three: preparing to chunk]
6 Start paying attention to how many pick strokes you’re doing. Tips here seem to be thinking about it like the motion tests, counting only the down strokes as if you were tapping the pick into something. Once you can count your strokes without it messing up your tremolo speed/form/feeling of smoothness and ease…
7 Start adding an accent to the first in every group of 4/6/8 notes. Don’t let that slightly louder note ruin the form you’ve been discovering — no need to bash into the string, don’t let it make you tense up. It sounds to me like this is another one of those step #3 ‘you just have to let your body figure out how to do it’ things?
Once you can routinely play a fast tremolo while being aware of how many notes are going past and accenting the first in each chunk, you’re ready to start bringing in your fretting hand.
Probably definitely submit a TC here to make sure things are going as well as you think they are.
[Stage Four: playing actual notes, but only on one string at a time]
8 For the first time, begin trying to synchronize your hands together in the playing of “music.”
Start by learning single-string versions of patterns/licks that are compatible with the primary motion you’ve been building here. Only once those are happening at something close to your raw motion test numbers should you actually start thinking about changing strings…
Submit a TC to see what people think.
[Stage Five: playing actual notes spread across more than one string]
9 Here FOR THE FIRST TIME, all of that ‘escape motion, pick slanting, DSX vs USX vs…’ material on CtC will actually apply to you. Now you can consider what escape is connected to your primary motion, and that will guide you to whether you’re going to learn Yngwie licks or DiMeola licks. (You will eventually be able to play anything, but it will require a little translation so at first just stick with things built for your escape motion.)
10 Melt faces?
——
Personally, I’m trapped somewhere between steps #3 and #4, just trying to reassure myself that things are gonna work out soon if I just keep believing…
CtC Community, am I on the right track?
Send help,
Beau