Do we actually even KNOW how to get faster?

Sweeping is a whole different thing and for certain type of arpeggio playing a great and more easy to master technique.
But you can not sweep that arpeggio part in the Steve Morse song, or for instance sweep a pattern like this: D string G string D string and then back to the D string in triplets.
Also will sweeping give you a whole different rhythmn feel and sound.

OK, I see why all that time and energy is worthwhile to you - it enables you to play different patterns such as the one you described. I suppose the reason that never occurred to me until right now is that those patterns never come up in the music I write but if they do come up in the music you write, then yeah, I can see why it’s worth it to you to learn that technique.

The one thing I disagree with though is “Also will sweeping give you a whole different rhythmn feel and sound.” It may give a different sound but any rhythm that can be played with alternate picking (8th notes, triplets, 16th, sextuplets, etc) can also be played with sweep picking. It takes more practice to get the rhythm of sweep picking precise than that of alternate picking, but it can be done.

What i mean is, you can’t sweep and have that real stacatto accented sound. You always can tell if someone is sweeping or alternate picking, it’s a different sound. Of course you can play all the the rhytmns but it sounds very different.

And indeed, in the music i like to play thise kind of patterns occour more often.
But besides that, mastering the Martin Miller technique will also help a lot with playing all kinds of stuff much more precise; it is just very great alternate picking technique!

And struggling with something which is very time consuming is a good thing, that’s where you learn and find ways of doing things.
It took me years to improvise over difficult Jazz songs with lots of chord changes; realy struggled with that. But now i can do it!

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Thank you that is very flattering :sunglasses: . But I can’t really play faster than 190-200 bpm, so I’d recommend to aim for Batio or @troy levels, in order to stay on topic in this thread :wink:

BTW I shared this already in other threads, but I found the mixed legato+picking approach to be very useful for experiencing speeds beyond one’s comfort zone. The short picking bursts in between the legato bits can be much faster than your “nonstop” picking speed. This video by John Petrucci explains it better than I could:

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That’s still quite fast, Tommo! How many years have you been playing?

Yngwie is another guy who combines picked notes with hammer ons and pull-offs. I think it’s cool how he seems to have such a light touch even when he’s picking fast. He never looks tense and he never looks like he’s straining to play fast. This song shows both his speed and incredible sense of melody. The fast runs here are equivalent to 16th notes at around 225bpm I think.

That video for some reason wasn’t the best quality recording. This one is a better quality recording but is only audio Hiroshima Mon Amour - YouTube

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Yeah, that’s a nice technique, i also use that sometimes.
I cant’t say it is any faster then picking all the notes. It sounds to me John does both equaly fast. It’s is a different sound though. Picking all the notes sounds a bit more agressive and stacatto.
Of course you can’t use this combo-technique with one note per string aperggio’s.

no worries, this is a thread about technique

200 bpm is plenty for me. I spend a tiny bit of time above that speed, but it is only for ‘working out’ things, so that I can feel more ‘in control’ at lower speeds.

And yes, for the rare instances that I want to play faster than that, I usually just go to legato. :slight_smile:

I do still sweep some arpeggios. At the moment, not too often, linear 1nps stuff above 175 bpm 16th. But again, I’m still not at an elite level yet.

To me, sweeping is a bit like ‘EVH tapping’ I initially loved doing it, because it gave me instant access to something totally new, and it sounded awesome. But it is also limiting, and trying to get away from it’s limitations by adding legato, etc, never really worked for me.

But alt-picking totally opens thing up, quite a bit. Yes, it has a large learning curve, but you can basically do anything with it. And it makes playing new and awkward stuff so much easier, and it sounds so much more consistent, especially the 7th stuff.

For example, the diminished sandwich, ie this:
E|--------------10–13–10----------------------10–13–10--------------
B|----------12--------------12---------------12--------------12----------
G|–10–13----------------------13–10–13----------------------13–10–

I used to do this using sweeping and legato. It took a while to learn, and it never sounded that good. Now I alt-pick it, and it sounds so much better, and I can easy change it around.

And check out all the threads here that start with ‘how do you pick XYZ?’ The answers usually involve swiping, hybrid, swybrid, economy, mixing legato etc. I don’t even bother contributing to those threads anymore, because now my answer will now always be, I just alt-pick it.

What are some of the best clips in the interviews to start to sample his crosspicking chops?

This is what i am working on now. It is an Ab triad over all six strings starting with the Db on the low E string. it is so clean and fast, without hitting any surrounding strings.
Look how he traks with his shoulder.

And this one. Look again at the shoulder tracking.

And this one around the 9:00 mark. It is a signature Pat Metheney lick who plays this with a hammer-on from nowhere on the A string.
Martin alternate picks this. D string-Down G string-up D string-Down A string-up
Again super clean without any hitting strings that should not be hit.
This one looks easy but is realy difficult!

I said to START with lol

I just started looking at the glass prison diminished shape. Pretty basic for what it is I guess.

Its funny because I have previously looked at the Joe Stump and also Chris Brooks (or Yngwie) arpeggio stuff and for sweeping most of them recommend to start the lowest string with a downstroke even when coming back down with all upstrokes…for example:

e-------13–10------------
b------------------12-------
g-------------------------13

if one were to play that with sweeping, most would recommend U P U D. I have been loath to try to do that D on that bottom note because it just feels awkward and easier to do U then just switch to D on the B string. But if I am going to start to work on crosspicking arps then I may as well do that same sweep one as most recommend.

But if one wanted dead simple wouldnt we just start with this?:

e-----13—10-------10
b----------------12----- D U D U etc?

Haha, sorry! It Is what working on now.

Yeah that would be a great one to start with and then make a six note pattern of it: 13 10 12 13 12 10 and try ttrack with the shoulder ( i said ellbow earkier but i mean shoulder, will correct that)

If i had to play your example with sweeping it would be:
D P U U that is pretty easy even D U U U is easy to do pretty fast.

well point being when u extend it to 4 or 5 strings and you are going to loop it up and down, they almost all suggest just starting with with a D on the bottom string as opposed to going U all the way descending.

Like this:

e—10------------------------------------10
b--------10------------------------10-------
g--------------10----------10---------------
d---------------------12---------------------

most would recommend U U U D D D D, as opposed to U U U U D D D

I was just saying, I never liked that outside change at the bottom so the few times I did these it would be U U U U D D D etc. But if I am going to learn crosspicking then this simple outside change at the bottom of this pattern should be childs play

With crosspicking i would do: D U D U D U
For me a downbeat is always a down stroke

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Bill, what you’ve written here is an object description of how mechanical learning works. You tried something new, it worked, and you knew it worked because it was fast immediately. There was no working up to speed. There was just backing off and cleaning it up, then trying again on a new phrase, and continuing to mix and match those phrases and speeds as accuracy improved.

I know we’ve been around this semantic circle a bunch of times now, but when I say I don’t think speed is built or worked up to, Bill has described, probably better than I have, a textbook example of what I mean by that. If you’re trying to go fast, and it’s not working, then you have to change something and try again. Eventually it will click when you do it correctly, and you will know because it will be fast and it will feel effortless. Every technique breakthrough I’ve ever made has worked this way.

@Andjoy it is a lot like trying to learn to raise one eyebrow, and it is an analogy I like to use when describing skill acquisition. This is something I taught myself later in life, mostly for fun, because I could never do it. It is not dependent on genetics or ability, because like guitar playing, I didn’t have “eyebrow” genetics either! It’s a matter of repeat tries until you figure it out the coordination.

“Fake it til you make it” is a sentiment that has been expressed before on threads like this. I agree completely. It’s a great way to describe this process. The irony is that the player who practices by “faking it” is actually playing more realistically than the player who goes slowly and accurately, because the “fake” movements are more similar to the smooth, connected motions performed by experts. That’s why the “faking” actually works.

Keep faking it!

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Troy has 2 vids on 2 different methods. The wrist only, and the wrist forearm. So you can also add the M. Miller vid for adding the finger.

One thing I’d recommend is getting a nice double-escaped tremolo first. I actually didn’t even use it for 1nps stuff untill after about 6-8 months after starting down the rabbit hole. The problem with X-picking, is it’s potentially very easy to learn wrong, so make sure you have a nice, smooth, non-bouncy foundation first.