Greg Howe “Jump Start” cover

That´s amazing.
NIce playing, good sound!
Tried this tune a long time ago but i never actually got the scalar tapping licks up to speed.
These are 32nd notes at 120bpm, which is equivalent to sixtuplets at 160bpm.
i never got beyond the 135-140 mark; and then it already sounded kind of sloppy.
any tips on how to approach the hammer-on from nowhere scalar tapping?

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which focusrite?

I been using a 2i4 2nd gen for years now but I have often wondered if I can improve overall tone etc with a better interface

It’s the 2i2. It’s been sufficient for me thus far. When I get deep into recording my record I’ll probably upgrade to something a bit nicer . But so far the only issue I have is occasionally it loses connection and I have to restart it . But that could be a Mac issue .

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Great playng, are those upper frets fanned or is it an illusion?

Thanks. And yeah/ it’s a .5” fan on the 6 string Strandbergs. (25-25.5” scale).

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Again, this was great! Got a question: is the tapping strictly necessary for those blistering scales leading into the bend, or could one do them only with the left hand?

you can try it out for yourself.
It´s strictly 3-nps sixtuplets at 160bpm or 32nd at 120bpm
i can´t do neither one of those two (tapping or legato) at that speed

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Christian is correct- you could certainly just play it legato with 3 Notes per string. The sound won’t be EXACTLY the same, but the overall idea will still be intact.

I did a small series on my YouTube channel called “legato tapping” (that’s my own term for it :wink: ). It goes over the general technique , exercises, and then expands on it a bit. Hope it helps :slight_smile:

that would be 16 notes per second

its interesting because according to Willjays speed list, Greg Howe fastest picked speed is 13nps as is Steve Morse, Zakk Wylde, Joe Stump etc

from my own personal experience. 16nps is about 3 worlds above 13 nps lol

Its sort of hard to believe that if Greg’s fastest picked stuff is “only” 13 nps, that even his legato would reach all the way to 16nps. Something doesnt compute

I have always been somewhat suspect of Willjays list. in any case these numbers dont make sense to me


edit, okay I looked up the bpm for the song and saw it listed at 120 bpm and when I tapped it on a meter it was about 118bpm

that would make sextuplets = about 12nps which makes way more sense

What are your reasons for that?

just so much weirdness in it. Im a super huge John Sykes fan but is he really at 15nps while Joe Stump, Greg Howe and Zakk Wylde are back at 13nps?

Sykes is faster than Nuno? Sykes faster than Kee Marcello?

Nuno faster than Joe Stump?

and I know S Lane was fast but was he really THAT much of an outlier at 18nps playing those crazy lines?

dunno man. seems some odd outcomes

I have never analyzed the 3nps tapping for literal “notes per secund”, but a good example is the opening run that starts the sequence is generally 6 and 9, so a total of 15 notes ascending before starting the next group. Maybe it laps over a “second” by a hair, but it’s pretty close, just judging from my ear. (And attempting to play it up to speed a bunch :wink: )

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well its just math really. sextuplets are very easy to calculate at a glance. divide the bpm by 10 lol

for example, sextuplets @ 150 = 15nps

for 16ths you divide the bpm by 15 so 16ths @ 150 = 10 nps

do you know what bpm u did the song at?

It’s strictly for alternate picking speed. Joe Stump, for example, economy picks his fastest lines.

Zakk’s movements are huge. He’s maxed out his speed as long as he keeps using those huge motions for each pick stroke. All the guys close to the top of the list use much more economy of motion, players as different as MAB, John McLaughlin, and Dannyjoe Carter.

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Then backing track was at record tempo (I didn’t tap it to see exactly what it was . “Allegedly” it was 120, but maybe it’s not right on the money)

What I would point out, though, is the math gets sketchy if we aren’t talking about playing strictly “on the beat” , and in this case, that can be seen (heard) throughout the track. (The aforementioned 15 note sequence as a good example). Greg is sometimes cramming more notes in a space than a typical division would dictate at said tempo, and hitting the “down” at the end of the run when he reaches his “destination”.

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yes I understand that. Same with Yngwie…he often just jams in notes and lands “wherever”

This is why I have said that Paul Gilbert is way more “straightforward”, because its usually just straight sextuplets on the beat or whatever

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