Choosing my own path

Playing Technique
#1

When I came here I already had a way of playing notes just not shred speed.

All I knew is that sometimes I could get it to work for a second then not.
It was very inconsistent.

Now that I understand the escapes Im able to map things out slowly
While still adhering mostly to my way of playing but the pieces fit

Now when I go to volcano 4s as mentioned in another post.

He starts eco then resets on the 5th note.

I worked with that for a bit then I mapped it out my way.
Without the resets.
Meaning pretty rigid eco.

Is it important that I play it the way it is written here or is it important that Im able to now use the tools to get through ascending 4s in a way more natural to me.

My aversion is this.

I donā€™t want to spend 6 months mimicking exactly Mr. Malmsteen.
Then 6 months playing Erics way
Then 6 months like Batio.

I donā€™t mean that in a negative or lazy way. I simply mean if I now understand the mechanics and have a style wouldnā€™t my time be better spent marrying those two.

This sounds like a simple question but to me it isnā€™t.

Of course there is value in learning anything but Im talking big picture.
I also see that if you arrived here as a strict beginner with no habits engrained that playing it their way would make sense.

Thank you

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#2

For what itā€™s worth, Iā€™d agree with that! You can always spend a little time trying to add new movements to your arsenal, but exploiting what you can already do goes a long way.

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#3

Spend 20 years trying to sound like Yngwie and youā€™ll probably sound like a 2nd rate version of Yngwie.

Spend 6 months working on just the bits of Yngwie, MAB, Eric Johnson etc that you really like the sound of and youā€™ll sound like a better version of you.

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#4

I agree with you but we gotta admit that would still make a damn good player :wink:

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#5

For sure I would settle for 12 rate.
That would still make me ā€œinsert poor rock stars name hereā€

#6

Iā€™ve been on this forum for couple of years. I remember myself decided to practice everyday an hour at leastā€¦ And so you sitting and practicing but then you find that jazzy backing track on youtbe and you like ā€˜oh, screw it! Iā€™m gonna improvise that baby!ā€™ )
Music is about fun. Not sone kind of sport. IMHO

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#7

Sports are some peoples version of fun. Lol

#8

Kinda. But not for me )

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#9

just to be clear
Thereā€™re moments when practicing IS fun. So Iā€™m playing some scale faster and faster, and itā€™s kindbof exciting. But sometimes itā€™s just booooring. And if topicstarter doesnā€™t feel joy of doing that - then why do it? I understand him totally. Itā€™s not an USMC where drill-sergeant yelling at you: " faster! faster!! play that goddamned lick faster!!!" )) though it could be a nice idea for some extreme shred-bootcamp

#10

Ideally, practice is never just focused on the technical aspects of playing- but for myself, when Iā€™m working a picking pattern or some other technical puzzle, I find myself doing a lot of musical things with it. Itā€™s never just mechanically playing a group of notes.

Iā€™d also say that when I feel like my playing has a solid technical foundation, all aspects of it improve because it frees up my attention from picking and lets me think about rhythm, vibrato, phrasing etc. That may just be me, but itā€™s definitely a confidence thing that helps in other areas.

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#11

its weird. Ive never sounded like anyone except myself anyway. I guess thats a good thing overallā€¦unless it means that I just sort of sound like a lot of nothing lol

I think thats mainly because I was always too lazy (not good enough too) to really copy anyone

Its one of those weird things where others can have a clearer view than the player himself. Essentially, I have no clue what I sound like. Maybe just diatonic drivel lol

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#12

When I posted this I was fearful of
Learning someone elses style only to have to go back to mine later.

But the good news is I bit the bullet and used the volcano pick pattern.

Super glad I did,

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#13

I think the whole starting with an upstroke was freaking me out.

When you started with a downstroke forever to think of changing
Sounds almost impossible.

In reality it took about a week.

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#14

yeah the whole ā€œstarting with an upstrokeā€ is so weird to me.

I only recently starting doing it one ONE EJ classic blues lick where u bend up and you just hit the one note on the high E then u descend the pent scale with dwpsā€¦so that high E note has to be upstroked.

its weird because I had played that lick for years by bending up and hitting it with DOWNstroke and then coming down with more uwps lol.

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