Elbow vs. Wrist?

[KilPhollins]

Hey dudes,

I’m struggling with fast alternate picking and not sure if I’m doing it correctly. I’ve already made a post about this, and I’m now convinced that my speed barrier isn’t caused by stringhopping but rather by the movement itself.

Specifically, I notice with a certain lick (see videos – starting at 110 bpm with 16th note triplets and ending at 140 bpm) that I hit my limit at around 130 bpm. I think I’m picking too much from my arm (elbow movement?). At higher speeds, I feel like I’m losing control, and after longer practice sessions, I also experience slight fatigue in my elbow. You can already see at 110 bpm that I start using my arm slightly, and at 140, it get’s completely out of control.

I’ve been practicing a lot and have been stuck on this plateau for what feels like forever. Recently, I tried starting this exercise at 80 bpm and gradually increasing the tempo each week, but I just can’t break through my speed barrier. From what I understand, proper picking should come almost exclusively from the wrist, right? Or maybe some arm involvement is fine at higher speeds, but then control starts to slip.

My plan now is to start over again from the beginning and really focus on picking exclusively with my wrist. When I do the “tremolo test,” I notice that I tend to either:
A) naturally default to using my elbow, or
B) after some time, I can manage 140 bpm with only (or mostly) my wrist, but only on a single string.

Do you have any tips on how to fix this and improve?

Thanks in advance!

[4 new items · Album by Marco] Unbenannt

[Troy]

Nice playing! I don’t see any speed problems here in the traditional szense. You’re playing at the equivalent of 210 beats per minute sixteenth notes. Remember that John Petrucci “only” gets to 216 on his instructional video, Rock Discipline. Other motions may be faster - you can experiment with the “tall mouse” motions in the Primer if you’d like to experience one of those. But players like Rusty Cooley achieve amazing speed with a combination of elbow and wrist motion, so this particular joint combination is not necessarily an obstacle.

If you’d like more detailed feedback, feel free to make a critique in your account on the platform – it’s much easier for us to track progress that way, and we don’t regularly monitor forum threads. I just happened to see this.

[KilPhollins]

@KilPhollins

Hey dudes,

I’m struggling with fast alternate picking and not sure if I’m doing it correctly. I’ve already made a post about this, and I’m now convinced that my speed barrier isn’t caused by stringhopping but rather by the movement itself.

Specifically, I notice with a certain lick (see videos – starting at 110 bpm with 16th note triplets and ending at 140 bpm) that I hit my limit at around 130 bpm. I think I’m picking too much from my arm (elbow movement?). At higher speeds, I feel like I’m losing control, and after longer practice sessions, I also experience slight fatigue in my elbow. You can already see at 110 bpm that I start using my arm slightly, and at 140, it get’s completely out of control.

I’ve been practicing a lot and have been stuck on this plateau for what feels like forever. Recently, I tried starting this exercise at 80 bpm and gradually increasing the tempo each week, but I just can’t break through my speed barrier. From what I understand, proper picking should come almost exclusively from the wrist, right? Or maybe some arm involvement is fine at higher speeds, but then control starts to slip.

My plan now is to start over again from the beginning and really focus on picking exclusively with my wrist. When I do the “tremolo test,” I notice that I tend to either:
A) naturally default to using my elbow, or
B) after some time, I can manage 140 bpm with only (or mostly) my wrist, but only on a single string.

Do you have any tips on how to fix this and improve?

Thanks in advance!

Oh yeah, that’s pretty cool, didn’t knew that! Thanks for the Critique Troy!
I tried to uplode videos in my Library. Unfortunately, it won’t let me do it. It says, I should try it again later (I did it as the explanation video told me). Is this a common problem, or am I doing it wrong?