Help With Super High Speed

Technique Critique
#1

Hello everyone. I was hoping to get some feedback on these clips. I’m trying the super high speed stuff I’ve seen @Troy doing lately on Instagram. My main concern is how to increase the size of my picking motion when doing this. When I see Troy do it the motion is quite large and that allows for easier string changes I think. Currently when I do this the motion is pretty small and I get intermittent feelings of tension where my forearm takes over completely and the pick just sort of taps on the string. Also, for some reason YouTube isn’t uploading my slow motion clips in slow motion anymore. I will keep trying to figure out why that is, but I’m hoping that the slower playback speeds on YouTube can help a bit with these. I think these attempts are at 260 bpm.

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#2

I’m not entirely sure what your end goal is, but the motion seems fast enough to play most things. Do you have a particular passage in mind that you’re trying to hit speed-wise?

What speed can you maintain in which this doesn’t happen? Could you post a video of that?

#3

Do you think maybe you just need some time to get used to this? It seems really fast! I’m guessing playing this fast is new to you or maybe even the motion itself is too? It might just be part of the motor learning process.

I think that’s a great follow up! Another thing you may want to try is to create more randomness by targeting speeds that are still fast but not quite this fast and try to use the same motion you’re doing here. Like jump around from 190 to 240 and then back to your max.

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#4

Well not anything in particular I guess. I would like to be able to play a variety of things that fast I suppose. I don’t really know what my end goal is either honestly. I guess just be able to pick comfortably around 255 which is 17 nps. Seeing that it’s possible I guess just makes me want to try.

I will post a video of that when I can. Probably tomorrow. That’s a good idea.

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#5

You are probably right about it being part of the process. It’s been about 9 months to a year probably where I have been positive about how my picking works, how to make it work, and how it feels when it is working. Unfortunately I still have some days where my arm just gets too tense and my forearm takes over completely and causes the weird pick tapping. When it’s working my wrist is what is really driving it and my forearm is there as some assistance if that makes sense. The tracking is also sometimes just not wanting to work. Most days I can comfortably rest my arm and hand in the right spots on the guitar and comfortably reach all 6 strings with the flextension tracking that Troy has covered in the forearm rotation part of the primer. Other days though it feels like each string change is a distinct movement and I have to restart the picking each time. Sometimes my arm and hand just can’t find a comfortable spot too. I’ll keep working at it. As disappointing as it can be sometimes, at least I can see my motion is working and very fast. I just need to make it smoother and more consistent.

#6

Thank you for the replies you guys.

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#7

So I think I have discovered maybe what one of my issues still is. When I tried playing at lower tempos as was suggested I realized I was actually struggling a little to play comfortable at 180-200 bpm. It felt sort of off and my motion wasn’t consistent. I think it has to do with the fact that when I start picking around 220-230 bpm my arm tightens up a bit. So I think I need to work on playing at those lower tempos where my arm doesn’t need to have that extra tightness. Or perhaps I could eliminate the need for it altogether. I will post clips when I can. I figured out why YouTube wasn’t retaining the slow motion so I think that I can work around it now.

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