How should i accent the notes? At the start of the new set of 4 16th notes on the downstroke?
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While I’ve been on my lil’ USX journey, I’ve been kind of re-developing an ease in my picking at lower tempos. Since I’ve found “my motion” I’m working to get that same level of ease with USX as well. It keeps me at that particular tempo for longer than is probably necessary but I just turn on 175 and leave it while I play and put on some movies or marathon a show. I want everything I pick to feel like that, regardless of the motion I use for whatever I’m playing. It’s making that journey take longer but is that really a bad thing??
What I’ve noticed at that tempo when I’m not actively “practicing” is that my casual descending 3nps (pure economy) is so at ease that I barely look like I’m playing anything. It’s weird because no other lines look like that, I never tried to learn it or develop it, and if I had a guitar with 33 strings, I could probably keep descending until I ran out. I’ve tried it ascending and it’s not even remotely close. I can do it at that speed but not with economy. Descending 3nps is the only place that happens… Perhaps someday…. Lol
Yes. Once you get that down and you want to be self loathing and tortuous, you would switch the accent to the second, third, and fourth.
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Right, what @Fossegrim said. I did put accents in that soundslice, they are attached to the “notation” though so they’re easy to miss if looking at just (which I am sure most of do, me included). They are right on the beat though. The idea is to be able to start the cycle on any finger and keep locked into the rhythm.
So there is a funny quirk in what Murph is playing in the vid that makes both of these approaches one and the same. It is all very valid, and honestly doesn’t really require a huge shift in focus.
Maybe if the winds blow correctly these next few days, I may come out of hiatus to post something that might help from my perspective and experience with the technique.
after working on that hand sync for the past couple days. i have realized that has been a huge problem for me possibly. im up to 80bpm on it. i have also started counting the rhythm in my head while playing 1 e and a, 2 e and a…etc do you guys ever do that while your playing?
Hmmm I guess the speed I usually practice it at is too fast to say all the syllables, which is the point of “chunking”. Just leaning into the accents is how I keep my place. But yeah, for starting out, do what you have to do.
With economy picking, I used to find it helpful to isolate the right hand. Control over the timing of the sweeps for me was always the hardest part. Even harder when it’s the two way economy method.
I wouldn’t do it for too long, just make sure I can control the timing, then add the left hand in.
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Not really. When you are working at a slow enough tempo that’s fine to count it like that, but once you start speeding it up, it becomes hard to do. Really the focus is typically on emphasizing and tracking the first down beat of each note grouping trying to be as even as you can. Even if every note isn’t perfectly even but you are still relatively in time, that’s all that really matters.
Would practicing the rest strokes by inserting a pull off or hammer on before the next string change be useful?
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It might, but I think, for me at least, it was controlling the timing of the swept strokes, trying not to rush them.
I used to just practice the right hand, with muted strings, whatever lick or sequence I was working on first before adding in the left hand.
This is all just my own experience with it and what I found helpful.
My sweep timing is okay as I’m addicted to all the cliche 3 and 4 string sweep licks. I’ve just never done much Gambale style mixed sweeping and multiple notes per string economy scalar/arpeggio playing
I always throught it was solely a jazz thing but I finally watched Monster Licks & Speed Picking last night and was intrigued at the applications of this stuff in a more neoclassical context when it’s laid out in terms of chordal ideas.
This was stuff I’d heard people like Becker and Romeo do that prior to really understanding escape/pick slanting mechanics I had no hope of playing.
This is just like 
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I had that dvd back in the day. I never managed to get very comfortable with the control of this sort of economy picking. I may start practicing a bit of it again to see if I can gain some sort of control over it. Can’t hurt to try anyway 
Marshall Harrison also talks about this jazz guitarist Jimmy Bruno that has an almost identical methodology of economy picking.
I have come to the conclusion that a big part of my problem currently is my fretting hand is not able to keep up at faster speeds with economy motion yet.
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i mean if you are trying to move it at some crazy tempo you could be trying to fret upwards of 12 notes per second, possibly higher, with 4 fingers. with a typing keyboard you have 8 fingers and the thumbs hitting the space bar to help with the task. it can easily wear out your left hand very fast depending on the style of phrase you are attempting.
that explains why my fingers were sore last night. 
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everybody on here can practice this and it will still make them feel the burn as long as they are playing at their redline and pushing it for faster speed. if you start to feel sharp pains though that means its time to put it away for awhile maybe until tomorrow.
The best fretting hand advice I’ve seen on the forums are these links
Similar to how if you’re using an inefficient picking motion, things feel “hard”, the same thing can happen with fretting. I have to constantly remind myself that if I feel fatigue in anything I’m doing, that means I’m probably doing it wrong. The best players have found the easiest way to do things, that’s the main reason they’re better than us. It’s rarely that they have some freaky physical capabilities.
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I don’t know if this same methodology will apply to the fretting hand though, chords will take time for your hand to develop into. And when you first do them it will make your hand feel like it just went to boot camp depending on the kind of chords. Heck my hand still cannot do some of those crazy jazz chords, my ring finger just won’t banana while the thumb is trying to lip over to grab that fret on the low e string.
You are basically doing this kind of legato, but with fleet footing to go faster. So legato can be harsh, and this isn’t much different it is just a more fleet footing so at the redline you are still gonna feel that burn even though the right hand is helping to sound out the note. Now of course electric guitar gets a much better time here if they have one of those nice freboards with that wizard neck that has some extremely low action.