I think that’s firmly in the category of reflecting more on them than it does on you.
2 Likes
Thanks for the kind words, but I think it’s time I finally came clean. I’ve been found out, I really am just a “hack” spouting “pseudo-intellectual drivel” in an attempt to “piggyback off of @Troy 's successes”.
No you see, none of that actually counts for anything. Nothing I say can actually be helpful or meaningful feedback, it’s all just an attempt to use complicated jargon I “don’t understand” to “get attention”. That, sweet, sweet attention from a dozen or so guitar nerds on a forum who I’m unlikely to ever meet in real life. Can’t you all understand?! I just couldn’t help myself.
You and my other students can’t attest to my capability or credibility. Nothing you or my other students have seen me do counts because some random forum lurker here hasn’t seen me do it, and I can only continue posting here if I prove myself to him, after all his opinion of me is truth.
Don’t even try to vouch for me guys, everything you’ve seen in lessons was an elaborate fraud using sophisticated deepfake technology. That’s the only possible explanation for what some of you have seen.
I guess it was just too much to hope that people would believe I was honest and well-meaning, that my contributions here have been made as a genuine effort to help people improve and share the findings of twenty years of studying, practicing and analysing guitar technique, or that I have struggle with performance anxiety while playing in some contexts but not in others.
Some folk believe the earth is flat, that 9/11 was an inside job, that the royal family are lizard people, that covid isn’t an illness, moon landing was fake… some people are just idiots.
The comment sections on YouTube, instagram, facebook etc etc are a dumpster fire.
2 Likes
Just ignore this crap. Anyone fool enough to say this stuff on the forum here will get an earful from me.
3 Likes
Thanks @Troy. I’m fine with it, it’s just an inevitable consequences of putting myself and my ideas out there. I know plenty of people have tried to throw mud your way too. The sheer level of disrespect towards you is one of the reasons I avoid TGP, by the way.
The only bit that really annoyed me was the accusation that I’ve attempted to piggyback off your work.
I posted here for more than five years without any financial incentive at all. I only started making myself available for teaching because users here kept messaging me, and because it offered me a venue to improve upon my presentation and explanation of concepts after the discussions we had privately.
I’m just a guitar nerd who enjoys nerding out about guitars with other guitar nerds.
4 Likes
I’ll take that as a compliment. And yes, in this light the stakes for you don’t seem very high 
Keep up the great work.
2 Likes
The idea that you (or anyone) would have to justify why you do guitar teaching is silly enough on the surface that I really wouldn’t spend another moment worrying about it.
Ditto for what random people say on forums. Gear Page is actually a good example of why this typically doesn’t matter. Any time a critical thread pops up over there about things we teach, it’s really only populated by about 5% detractors and about 85% people saying hey that stuff really helped me, and explaining to the detractors why they (almost always) are just misunderstanding something.
You can only worry about the bigger picture of being on the right side of what you do. When you do that, the balance of opinion will always be net-positive, and you won’t have to micromange or even care about the small number of weirdos.
5 Likes
Echoing what’s been said here @Tom_Gilroy - you know you have plenty of positives in your life and you know what you’re capable of. It’s an unfortunate nature of the beast that there are always detractors and disrespectful people, they usually have something totally unrelated going on or some deep seated insecurity. Putting your material/ideas/performance out there on the internet means losers behind a screen with nothing better to do will sometimes crap on you. You can’t control that, but you can learn to ignore it to one degree or another. Still, that can wear you down over time.
I think there’s also the effect of scale here, once you build an audience that supports you, they tend to drown out the negative weirdos, but it can take time to get there and it can be a real slog at times. I’ll have randos comment on my videos that X was Sloppy or Y is unimpressive, but I’ll get plenty of positive feedback.
I’m someone who is generally able to totally divorce my emotions from my audience if I need to though, healthy or not, I’ve done enough customer support work when I was younger to build up that dissociative mindset. I think it just gets easier with time and exposure.
3 Likes
Aww man, Tom rocks. He’s helping me sort out all kinds of stuff on guitar that I just couldn’t reach on my own. Sometimes we just need a coach to help out a bit - I know I did/do.
10/10 Tom.
(Just checked again, my forearm doesn’t wiggle during wristpicking. I thought it might have, but it was just a trick of the light…)
4 Likes
I’m currently in the process of recreating how I learnt my USX wrist+forearm motion with a DSX wrist motion with great progress so far, I’m hoping to post an update on my thread within the next couple of weeks!
My new motion has no forearm wiggle at all, it’s visually very similar to Andy Wood’s motion where the wrist looks like it is flicking outwards diagonally. I’m not seeing this flicking in your playing, it looks more like deviation. My form looks a little more pronated then what you’re using in your video, which I think also helps get rid of forearm motion.
This makes a lot of sense. I was an (inefficient) USX wrist player for 10 years before I discovered my new working motion. When I try to do a purely USX wrist motion I find it really hard not to have my forearm move (even though it is slight and doesn’t help the motion, I think it’s actually a negative thing). I guess I should count myself lucky that I have a different axis to work from without a motion already baked in that doesn’t work interfering!
My advice would be to not brute force any motion, find a way to do it effortlessly - at speed. Aim for picking smoothness but don’t worry about attack, I think focusing on attack (at least in my case) encourages a less efficient technique when the focus should be on speed/smoothness/effortlessness (my attack when learning has actually been quite weak but once the motion became learned I could just do it more aggressively).
I could go on and on but I’ve already said quite a lot. If I can learn DSX wrist and subsequently learn DSX elbow I’m gonna try and condense everything I did down into a new thread 
1 Like
It’s not your fault. This forum’s approach does use big anatomical, scientifc, and mathematical jargon. Not something most guitar players could relate to.
Naw, totally my fault - I take full responsibility for my understanding or lack thereof. I must say that I’m much further ahead in respect to Troy’s definitions/explanations. Going good!
I just wanted to say thank you - once more - “qwertygitarr” for giving me those few pointers. After 3 years, I have broken the barriers, cracked the code, etc… I use forearm rotatiion with some kind of wrist motion involvement - that’s my technique. I get zero or near-zero tension, precision and speed up to 160 bpm (32nd note “small triplet” groupings) - I can’t play all my sequences at that speed yet (mainly linear ones), but I am getting there. And guess what - for hair metal, I don’t really need to go any faster than that. So, once again - thank you - below is the link with the mentioned results
3 Likes
Would love to know the details of your journey, what your plateaus and breakthroughs were, and how you practiced
is this question for me, Austin?
Yes, if you don’t mind sharing
No, not at all. I firmly believe that knowledge should be shared - then, all things being more or less equal, creativity of each individal will matter the most.
Now, where to begin. Well, I played/practiced the guitar for 10 years, from 2000-2010. Then I stopped for reasons I wouldn’t get into. I restarted playing again in mid 2020. That’s when I “discovered” how much everything in guitar world has changed - from pedals, effects, DAW’s … evertything. It was as if I had been living under a rock for the past decade or so.
So I stumbled upon this forum and Grady and qwertygitarr (and I asked him to help me out, and he did, bless him). So, basically I’ve been playing/practicing (this mechanic) for the past 3 years.
The trouble was, when I started playing again, it was just because I wanted to record an album. So, I got a band together and pretty soon I made a bunch of songs. So it was hellish experience, I was under a lot of stress and pressure, because I knew my technique was not stable and consistent and we were about to hit the studio. So, somehow and idea formed in my mind - like - what sequences could I play both in picking and in legato style (should my picking fail due to red light freeze). So I devised 12 sequences which were all grouped in 12 note chunks (twelves- I have a “tutorial” on that on our band’s YT page, you can check it out if you want) - which I could play both in picking and in legato and they would still sound huge and cool.
At first, I wanted, like qwertygitarr, to have my right hand in floating position. But it only worked for ascending sequences and to some extent to one string sequences (which I created by deriving them from and modifying them from either Gilbert or Di Meola) - I specifically wanted to avoid using as many Yngwie’s sequences as possible on my own recordings (in all honesty, Yngwie has only a couple of sequences - Yngwie’s triplets (Jet to jet intro solo), Yngwie’s fours on one string -ascending and descending-, Yngwies fours descending across all strings starting on high E which tends to make your pick entangle if you a) don’t have extreme control over your picking motion b) don’t infuse a few legato trills on few critical spots -which is a huge hassle if you ask me; Yngwie’s fours ascending , starting from low E (think I am a Viking riff), and Trilogy sequence. That’s how many… 4 sequences. Yep, he made a career out of those 4 sequences. BTW. Yngwie’s triplets and fours on one string - those he stole from Uli Roth (Chek out Earthquake, the last 20 seconds, song by Uli Roth), but ok.
Basically I practiced like crazy, every day or every other day (both my solos, which I had to compose because I wasn’t able to improvise because my techniqe wasn’t stable and broken in , so to speak - and my own sequences). So, we went to record the first song “Burn the night”. And I managed to record the solo almost exacltly as wanted it. Turns out, 3 days later - our sound engineer fucked up the mic’ing and the raw recording was shit. So I had to redo the solos for the song. This time, my picking just wouldn’t work. I spent like 5 hours in studio trying to recotd it and failed. So I resorted to playing it legato. Oh, by the way, I kept a studio diary of sorts… I’ll try and find an entry from that day…
I’ll give you the truth
We went into the studio on Feb 13th, 2021 – to record Burn the Night
Dante recorded the drums, but Steve did a take of his own too
I’m not sure whose take was finally chosen and quantized
because neither of them could play to a click (a metronome)
but Steve was closer and had fewer oscillations than Dante
so maybe it was his drums who were quantized and put into a “grid”
and then locked by our producer Wolfy
The following day – Feb 14th, me and Maverick went into the studio
and then Maverick plugged his bass straight into a Neve console
his sound was fantastic
he nailed the song in two takes, I think
he was so full of himself afterwards, and especially after he got
praised for both his playing and the sound by the studio owner Cheda Sr
and then
it was my turn
but,
before we went into the studio, which was around 3 o’clock PM
I had had 30 minutes of sleep and I had listened to some lo-fi smooth jazz
to ease my nerves and calm myself down
it helped me, both that short nap and the jazz
so, let me get back to the story
after Maverick finished his part
he stayed for a while
-while I and Wolfy set up and tried my amp Origin 50c
and while he mic’d it
he used two mics – shure sm57 and some other (unknown to me)
close miking technique
he did all that …in let’s say 15 minutes
I wasn’t very nervous, but I did feel a bit of anxiety
I couldn’t take any medication nor alcohol
‘cause I knew it would slow me down and
I would be unable to play in sync, in tempo
so, Wolfy set it up, while I was trying to muster and dredge all the
self-encouragement I would need to perform
and in the process, I was completely out of focus as to
what was going on around me
namely, I didn’t notice that the sound coming thru
the monitors was plain shit
but, as bad luck would have it – Wolfy had to go ‘cause he had stuff to produce
at his home
so, only me and Cheda Sr and Maverick remained
I recorded rhythm guitars, hard left in two takes, hard right in two takes
and instantly I didn’t like the way they sounded combined
Wolfy had told me that I would have 2 choices – either to play exactly the same
on the left and right channel, or I could do a slight variation on one of the channels
so that’s what I opted for ‘cause I thought it would give it the overall “loose” or “live” feel
but I was wrong
ok, never mind
then, it came to the intro and the solo parts, respectively
my picking wasn’t really up and running by that point
so, I asked Cheda Sr to leave me be (he went off to smoke and drink brandy)
while I started practicing, warming up, unplugged mostly
because as soon as I would roll off volume on my guitar
that same sequences which had come out clean unplugged
sounded mushy, not clean, inarticulate – no matter how hard I tried
so I continued practicing for about an hour or so, alternate picking, everything
then we tried to record it
again and again and again
we even split the solo part into two sections (two different takes)
and finally it sounded …well, passable
but I wasn’t satisfied, at that point I realized that the problem was not in my
playing, but in the sound
so I reduced the amount of Drive on my pedal, by a lot
and then I finally got some articulation and clarity
it must have been around half past 9 pm
when Cheda Jr arrived to relieve his uncle
and he gave me that much needed boost, both in confidence and in spirits
my right hand went loose and somehow left and right hand locked on to each other
in perfect sync
and I started alternate picking everything I could think of…
I went berserk, I was so free, I had been familiar with that feeling
the feeling of absolute freedom on the fretboard
that’s what it’s all about – the ability to play whatever comes to your mind
slow, fast, one note, over a hundred notes…
it was like magic, in a way
he too went bonkers seeing me play that way, live, in person
so we started fooling around, having fun basically, that was the best part of the day
and at some point he suggested that we redo all the lead parts (intro, intro1, solo, outro)
so we did
it took us a while to do it, because I strove for maximum possible perfection
and we did it, and I was beyond tired, mentally and physically
when we packed and got up to the smoking lounge area
where we smoked a few cigarettes and made plans for tomorrow
it was half past midnite when we parted ways
I was hungry and everything, but satisfied, happy even
I went to bed at around 4 am and woke up at 7 am (not tired nor drowsy)
tomorrow, it was Steve’s day to sing
but when they played the track on the monitors
my guitar sounded worse
than two DS-1 cranked and stacked together and played thru plastic computer speakers
yeah, the guitar parts were played almost perfectly
but the sound was beyond horrible
it had all been for nothing
little did I know that I was about to suffer another mental breakdown
because of Steve
Maverick showed up late (he needn’t have come but chose to)
Cheda Jr was at the console again
we used Neumann U87, the best mic really
directly into Neve console, because it sounded better than thru a mic preamp called Avalon (having Steve’s coloratura in mind, of course)
although Steve bought quite a few cans of various beer
and we all drank it
it was, at least for me, very intense situation
Steve would yell at me from the iso booth
he was frothing over some parts I had suggested he tried to sing differently
or more cleanly, etc…
I had to compromise, so during the penultimate chorus there was a place where he should have sung something I arranged specifically for that part to spice it up a bit
but no, he chose to sang that part a few beats later
I couldn’t fight him, I was already a nerve-wrack, so I just let him do it the way he wanted it
and that was that
our former keyboard player kept phoning me and asking about when he was supposed to come and record his parts, so I would tell him “I don’t know, it’s up to Cheda Sr”
but in reality, I knew
I knew that I would have to re-record all the guitars again
in the meantime I spoke with Wolfy about the guitar sound
and he was still in the middle of the production of some French singer
but he gave it a listen and concurred
but he was like “Don’t worry, we’ll find the sound you’re looking for”
so I started poring over the forums, asking people for advice, asked Elmo Karjalainen for help
and he responded kindly, and gave me few pieces of advice on what to do
and how to set the amp up
so I wrote everything down, every possible setting people had recommended me
and then nothing
I called Cheda Jr and asked him when we would be able to set the sound
and re-record the guitars and he told me he couldn’t tell me the exact date
but that it would be “very soon”
and March was approaching
which would put the whole project/band/whatever we were
in top gear
why?
well, the only way we could make this work out
was for the three of us – Dante, Maverick and myself
to go back to AKC during the entire month of March
and have at least 3 rehearsals per week, 2-3 hours a day
…we would only have to rehearse 4 songs, which we had been rehearsing since July
to basically “tighten “ them up
as far as the lead guitar and drums were concerned
but for the past few days Maverick has been evading me, avoiding my texts, calls, etc
and I know that he is not reliable, that’s just how he is and I have made my peace with that
but this was no time to fuck around
I was unemployed, Dante was unemployed, Maverick was unemployed
only Steve had a job, a very good and well-paid job –which also meant that he wouldn’be around too much for our rehearsals
and the money was drying up
now I had the money for only 7 songs
but I still had to buy strings, order them from Thomann, HB ones, the cheapest
so that would cut my budget down to 6 songs
I had nothing to sell
and I prayed my guitar tuners would hold out
because the set cost about 60 euros
I had been looking for a job, but couldn’t find anything within the city area
not even a menial, labor type thing
I could only resort to taxi driving
and probably unskilled construction work (which was well underpaid and totally not worth it)
on the other hand, Maverick and Dante had no such concerns
they weren’t looking for work, don’t ask me why
so they had tons of free time
but despite that, Maverick kept inventing chores (taking care of his 20 plus cats and the recently born son) to make himself look occupied
I don’t get it…
I do know one thing, however,
if we don’t spend the next 30 days
rehearsing those 4 songs
we will not be in good position to record them
one after another
in April
when will Steve sing them? I don’t know, and I don’t care
the important thing is to have the foundation laid down
rhythm and solos
then we would have 5 songs recorded
which would make up one half of the record
then we would have to repeat the process
erase those from our memory
and start anew with the next 5 songs
without Steve, of course, he will be unavailable
and all that – without a keyboard player
for a heavy keyboard-laden songs
that’s the truth
and yes, I am still alone
and totally fucked up
and no – I don’t see how all this
will pan out
I just don’t have any other options"
Basically it was all ups and downs, mostly downs. If you think the air in Mobile is bad you should see Beijing at 5 am on Monday.
On a serious note, the real breakthru happened during the latter half of October 2023. I had acquired Spark 40 amp like a month before and the sound I made really pushed me into overdrive. I soon, accidentally discovered that if I place my middle finger on the pickguard firmly - I can have perfect control over descending seqences and over one string ones. For the ascending ones, I had to basically brush my middle finger (not firmly plant it on the pickguard) so as not to restrict the motion, the movement - this holds true for “Gilbert lick” as well. So I practiced like a madman for 2 years and 10 months and in the last 2 months (reaching the third year) I made the breakthru. I will record a video about my picking hand and post it on our band/project’s YT channel. For now, you can watch my left hand sequences.
Ask me anything else should you find the need.
–UPDATE–
Also, I noticed on Instagram a street player, an Italian called Emanuel Victor or something like that, he plays classical guitar - his right hand mechanic is almost exactly the same as mine.
Links to my right hand picking mechanic:
Right hand picking mechanic explained part 1
Right hand picking mechanic explained part 2
subscribe to my channel, if you wish, cause I do a lot of old-school shred style covers, and I upload pretty reguluarly, either there or on TIktok ( usually on both platforms)
1 Like
@TS035 and everyone:
Thanks for sharing!
I reformatted the diary entry for the sake of readability (otherwise the forum post would appear enormous) I did this by putting 3 times the ( ` ) symbol before and after the relevant text:
``` diary entry text ```
1 Like
thanks Tomo, I didn’t know how to do that
1 Like
Thanks Tommo! Just watched the video of Kim getting to 210 BPM on her second try at tremolo. Incredible stuff, but that why we’re here!
1 Like