Hello from the UAE

Introduce Yourself
#1

Hello everyone!

My name is Luca, I’m Italian and I live and work in the United Arab Emirates as an airline pilot in a lovely place called Ras Al Khaimah.

I came across cracking the code on youtube as I’m a guitar enthusiast, aspiring guitar builder and collector.
I’ve been playing since I was 14 years old so 11 years now (in and out depending on the free time and inspiration). I love anything related to blues and classic rock but I’m a huge fan of bands like Pantera too. I took classes and played in bands in the past and I have what i could define average skills.

Like many people on this forum I hit the “plateau” of my technique since years, feeling trapped in a box I couldn’t get out of. The biggest issues I’m facing are:

  • Tricep, shoulder and upper arm rigidity, apnea, contracted abdominal muscles (aka huge tension)
  • when practicing USX I feel too much resistance from the strings and movement is greatly inconsistent between attempts. One time it’s ok, next time it’s really bad.
  • When practicing 2 notes per string patterns I start string hopping (especially descending)
  • I just can’t pick fast!
    My natural picking motion is DSX with a pronated arm, and when I try to accelerate I feel my USX just wants to revert to DSX causing the trapped pick problem you all know.

Below is an example of my practice on a shortened version of the pop tarts lick

Nice to meet you all! Can’t wait for your critique and suggestions!

3 Likes
#2

Hey @LucaV welcome and sorry for the delay!

Your pop tarts lick looks indeed like a primary-DSX motion with an occasional “lifting” motion to perform the upstroke escape. This is a very common approach for DSX players like Batio and Vinnie Moore, but the question is whether the “lift” is done efficiently: can you do it this way also at high speed or do you experience a speed limit?

Of course the easiest way to go here would be for you to start the pop tarts lick on an upstroke and then just shred it with a pure-DSX motion :slight_smile:

To answer this particular point, have you seen the recent YT videos on Gambale’s technique? They cover much more than just sweeping - this chapter in particular could be useful to address your “resistance” issue:

#3

Thank you @tommo !!
The speed limit is there, but it starts being relevant at around 165 metronome, which i think is ok, I’m just not that fast and coordinated. With practice it will get better maybe.

I will try now with the DSX starting on an upstroke, i can go muuuuch faster with upwards pickslanting but ascending is still a problem with string tracking and switching for some reason. Descending is butter smooth. I will take a look at Gambale’s video and see what I can do! Thanks again!