Erotomania 3rd solo help

Technique Critique
#21

It may seem crazy that I reply after such a long time, but I was recently thinking about a related issue. Have you been stuck at 120 for a while? If so it is unlikely you will overcome this by simple repetition, and it is worth analyzing if the movements you are using are actually capable of 160bpm - it doesn’t matter if it comes out super sloppy, but are you already capable of that speed in principle - for example in one of the sub-licks that make up the solo?

PS: luckily I think the speed of the recording is more like 156bpm, so just a tiny bit more doable by humans :slight_smile: When examining some live recordings I noticed they may even slow it down a bit - like 150bpm or so.

PPS: As for me, I can hit the song’s tempo all-picked on a good day, but it never feels relaxed/controlled enough and as a result I don’t think it sounds that good. With the “Andy James” method (one pulloff) I feel that I’ll soon be able to reach the right balance of speed + relaxation. Maybe I’ll eventually post a comparison video here if it can be of interest.

#22

Yes please do if you have the time, Tommo! I’d love to hear and see that!

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#23

Well, I think so. I will try to post a video. Recently I have been working in burst. That way I am trying to increase my top speed. What I have found so far is that most of the time I keep a pronated wrist position combined with UPS so for the last note of every 10 notes phrase I will rotate to pick the first of the next 10 notes phrase in a DWS sort of position and immediately reposition back to pronated UPS. The main speed issue I believe is this recoil movement.
In my mind ideally the sequence should be:
4 notes DWS followed by a note + rotation to UPS
4 notes UPS followed by a note + rotation to DWS and to start over.
My execution is more like:
9 notes UPS followed by a note plus a double rotation back to UPS. Being the double rotation composed by first rotation to scape in the upstroke (supination) and the second rotation to come back to the pronated position on top of the next string to play. And definitely that double rotation is taking too much time at high speeds.
On the other hand I can play some fast lines on a supinated DWS but the movement seems to come from forearm rotation while my pronated UPS seem to come from wrist deviation so even at moderate speeds I am unable to switch back and for properly from one to the other specially from UPS to DWS.

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#24

Love your enthusiasm @qwertygitarr :smiley: - I’ll se what I can do, I don’t have much time to practice these days so the top end of my fast playing is suffering (and the erotomania solo - with its 13 notes per sec and wide skips - is pretty much at the limit of my ability). Worst case scenario, I may be able to dig up some old footage where I more or less played the thing - but wasn’t too happy with it.

Incidentally, you should be able to rip through this solo with your “dwps +swiping” strategy, let me know if you want to try it! Unfortunately I’m not yet that comfy with this approach otherwise I’d use it. As I stated several times, this is how I believe JP actually does it.

I would not advise this approach, most TWPS players do the rotation quite late, say 8 notes UPS and only 2 DWPS when needed (see e.g. Batio). This way you only have to plan your transition points, and not micro-manage your pickstrokes for the whole lick!

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