Help me, I just can't do it

[Frylock]

@jpsychc

Yes, i can do that, but the pick doesn’t leave the plane of the strings

If it really is true that you hit the adjacent string when you try to switch strings, try making small adjustments to how your arm and/or wrist is positioned to try to get the picking motion off of parallel to the plane of the strings.

But the direction of movement of the pick doesn’t have to be drastically off-parallel in order for escape to happen. It only needs to be just far enough off parallel for strokes in one direction to escape the plane of the strings (of course some approaches, like the Gypsy USX approach, employ an angle that gives a surplus of clearance on the escape strokes).

If you’re interested in a David Grier type vocabulary, pronating your arm a little to try to get the essential motion you have now shifted slightly so it becomes more of a DSX motion could be helpful. Personally, I’ve found that an approach like your example 2 or example 4 has been useful to my experiments with DSX, because the contact with the ring finger or pinky against the body can help regulate your hand position, which may help you discover a setup that gets the pick to move along the line that you want. Another crude way to think about this is to consciously let the side of your thumb brush the lower pitch strings on upstrokes as you figure out a feel for the picking motion. Don’t overdo that, or you could give yourself a blister on your thumb, but some sparse experimenting at that extreme could help you get a feel for a motion/setup that will help you work your way into DSX without the thumb friction.

[Frylock]

@Troy

You’re not trying to run a marathon, you’re trying to learn to do the moonwalk. And you only need to do it right once to start, to give you a foothold.

I really like this metaphor.

[jpsychc]

SO, i did what you said and i am able to clear the plane, the problem is i just cant put smooth notes together when i have to change the string. Like, i cant play that smooth motion, and change strings. The problem apparently is not that it’s a trapped motion, i just, i don’t know, i can’t do it. I am trying though. I have engineered some grier licks and made sure they’re all down-escape and i am trying to play them blazing fast, and I’m missing like every other note, but I’m just going to keep trying until i get it once.

[jpsychc]

I appreciate your comment. The truth is my hand sync is garbage and even if i get one pattern like the yngwei chunk up to 140 bpm 16th notes, i still cant do a foreign one at 110. So how can i be expected to play an entire transciption, let alone do my bluegrass improv which is my primary musical desire and activity, if i can’t hand sync faster than 110?

Ultimately, bluegrass involves a lot of 1nps rolls though, and that requires zero hand sync, and i can’t do that over 110 either, so i think i ultimately need to learn a double escape motion. So here’s my plan.

Stay with dsx motion for now, and write out a bunch of bluegrass parts in that form, and practice playing them fast ONLY, even if sloppy, until i get it. And do tons of general hand sync exercises and patterns as well. until i am able to play fast. And then once i can do that, perhaps i can venture into trying to learn the double escape motion

[PickingApprentice]

@jpsychc

The truth is my hand sync is garbage and even if i get one pattern like the yngwei chunk up to 140 bpm 16th notes, i still cant do a foreign one at 110. So how can i be expected to play an entire transciption, let alone do my bluegrass improv which is my primary musical desire and activity, if i can’t hand sync faster than 110?

Looking through the post above and in this thread, you seem preoccupied, concerned and frustrated with how long are or might take. I hear ya, we have all been there ( I never leave!). Hand synch wont take long to get it to a good level (more than enough to get you going), so don’t overestimate the difficulty of this. You will not have to work on synch for every lick you ever learn. The yngwie one will set you up well to tackle others with ease- its kind of cumulative power.

Good luck and most of all - try and enjoy the journey!

[jpsychc]

i honestly don’t care how long it would take. It’s just the endless hours spent trying with zero to show for it that is Frustrating. I understand I’m not supposed to drill speed. I need to get it fast on one string (which i have) and then just use that motion across the strings. I can’t do that. I have spent a ton of time just trying to do that.

[Frylock]

@jpsychc

Ok, tried to improve, i was holding back actually because my wife was napping but she’s gone now.

What happens when you try to use this motion to do tremolo on one string for 16 or 32 notes, then switch to another string for 16 or 32 notes? I’d take the motion that feels fast and smooth, and attempt that sort of switching with it. If you aren’t able to do that, try the following:

1. Synch up your single string tremolo to a metronome
2. Make a note of the tempo
3. Attempt the switching as described above, at least 6 notes on a string before you try to switch, but more should be easier, up to say 24 or 32.
4. If you don’t get a result you like, try reducing the tempo by 10bpm and attempt step 3 again, but take care to ensure that when you reduce the tempo, you are still employing the same setup and motion as your fast/smooth single string tremolo.
5. Repeat step 4 until you find a tempo where you can make the changes cleanly.
6. Alternate attempts at your original “fast” tempo, and the “slow” tempo you discovered through step 5. Compare how these two versions feel, and how they look on film. Is the “slow” version truly a “slowed down” execution of the “fast” version, or is it a qualitatively different movement? If it’s truly a “slowed down” version, maybe you can refine the cleanliness of the fast version by practicing step 3 at a variety of tempos. But if the picking motion of the slow version looks or feels significantly different from your fast version, you’ll need to figure out how to force yourself to do a slow version that looks and feels more like your tremolo in order for “variety of tempos” refinement to give you results at the fast end.

[jpsychc]

thanks - i am trying changing after lots of notes, and i can successfully change strings if i have to play 6 notes per string, usually, but not nearly as fast as my tremolo. Like, i can do it at about 140 bpm 16th notes. So i guess i just n eed to keep practicing.

but when i try to play bluegrass lines that have two notes per string, or EJ sixes which also are like that, it is totally hopeless for now. baby steps i guess. i also just feel like my left hand speed won’t go faster than 140 no matter what my right hand can do, so that combined with difficulty changing strings when it’s not a set “pattern” and i have to change often, is daunting. But at least i have some improvements to build on.