EJ style descending 5s with downward pick slanting

Technique Critique
#1

Hello all,

Somewhat new to cracking the code. Can do 16th notes economy picking a basic major scale at 140-150 bpm. However anything above 80 bpm (5 notes per click) on this EJ style lick and I start to lose timing after the second or third beat. I cant keep an endless flow at these tempos. However, the first 5 notes I can play at about 100 bpm if I do short bursts. So how can I improve the stamina and endurance here. Is 80-100 bpm a reasonable speed for a 2 note per string pentatonic lick like this? I’d definitely like to speed it up but I’m having trouble getting the “running” motion like I do with standard alternate picking. Also feel like I was picking a little heavy, but I hadn’t warmed up yet.

thanks for any advice.

-Ian

1 Like
#2

So, I’m probably the wrong guy to comment, because I’m still reasonably new to guitar (started playing a little over 3 years ago, after being a drummer for 40 years), and since I don’t have the available time to devote to guitar that I would have when I was 14, I only practice about an hour per day. You are very likely a much better guitarist than I am.

However, there are a couple of things that I can comment on:

  1. Your time is pretty shaky - you don’t start with the metronome, you’re a little off. I’d focus on really nailing that down before speeding up the tempos.
  2. I may be wrong on this, but I think you have the concept of the 5’s off, a little (someone please correct me if I’m wrong). Don’t play quintuplets - 5 notes per beat. Play 16th notes - four notes per beat. It’ll feel awkward at first, since you’re playing note groupings of 5, but it will start to feel natural pretty quickly, if you don’t cheat the process, and just that alone will speed up the tempo you’re playing at, because you’ll be playing 20% fewer notes per beat.
  3. Don’t worry too much about how fast you can play them; get them in time, and concentrate on being loose and relaxed, and consistently work on it, every day. The speed will come.
#3

I thought I had replied to this but I guess the comment didn’t go through.

Do you have some clips of you pushing your limit to see what might be giving you trouble?

1 Like
#4

I have the same comment :slight_smile:

A prerequisite for playing the EJ stuff is to be able to do a fast upstroke escape (USX) motion. Do you know if you can do that already?

In any case, it would be good to have a look at your fast tremolo picking on a single string. If you have multiple motions with which you can do that, that is great as well, just show us all of them. Let us know :slight_smile:

2 Likes