Really struggling to get my speed up on this. I can get to 180 in spurts. Am I on the right track? How does this look? Please advise.
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This looks and sounds pretty good to me. What’s the issue, does it feel worse than it sounds?
In general I use rest strokes for this. It looks like you’re doing that. When I do this, there’s a sensation of turning off the downstroke and stopping the “push” during the rest stroke. And then starting it up again to get the next downstroke. In other words the string is stopping the pick, but I’m also at the same time stopping pushing, however briefly. For this to work it helps to not push super hard for the initial note, so it’s easier to shut off. Baking this “down, stop, down, up” sequence into memory is I think is what allows you to do it faster while maintaining even timing. It feels like a coordination thing, not an athletic tremolo-style feeling.
I have a feeling not everyone plays these this way, and some people might just push straight through both strings in one motion. I myself might do that at faster tempos. It’s not clear, we’d have to hook someone to an EMG.
Another thing you can try is starting with the downstroke, and making that your chunking landmark. That just gives you another way to try and memorize this mechanically. Sometimes the same exact sequence of motions, but starting on a different note in the sequence, makes it feel like a whole different pattern. Ditto for changing the left hand. You can do something like this, which is the same picking sequence, but gives you the opportunity to feel it from a different perspective:
https://troygrady.com/seminars/volcano/clips/arpeggios-trilogy-arps/
It might also help to try a bigger more gypsy style motion for the first downstroke note, with the rest stroke. That might give you something more obvious to chunk on in terms of feel. This doesn’t have to be a giant slamming accented downstroke - it can be only a slightly larger motion but with a little less force so the timing and sound isn’t thrown off. Again, you’re just giving yourself a different way to feel this.
When you’re looking for results, add variety. Change something, evaluate whether it made a difference, and change it again.
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It feels and sounds ok I guess. Just not smooth and even and fast enough. That is a lot of information for me to think about. I will try all of your suggestions. Many thanks
How very true. Also, sometimes it gives you another perspective on how to use it
Your picking hand looks fine. Keep practicing with the metronome and you will develop the muscle memory and the speed will follow.
One thing about I’ve found about getting two string arpeggios sounding right is to make sure you’re lifting your fingers off the fretboard after every note. It’s hard to tell if you’re doing this in the video.
I can do this in most forms, though if I lead with my rpinky finger, and my index finger is on the next string’s note, I have a very tough time with my index and will leave it stationary. I have shorter than average fingers, though.
Thank you I will keep at it!