Hey, I am Scott and ummm my picking sucks? hahaha
I have been playing since, about 1978 but I got really serious in 1988 or so thanks to Steve Vai, EVH and of course Yngwie J. Malmsteen. I am into progressive rock/metal, a bit of jazz fusion All kinds of stuff actually. I am a music school grad, so I understand the theory and I read well, hahaha I have a grasp of the basics I suppose…
I kind of encountered a “wall” in my playing quite some time ago and really haven’t been able to push past it. I thought it was initially my picking grip, and have since tried a lot of different grips (and picks) and I seem to ultimately end up at about the same “wall”. My “main” picking grip used to be kind of close to what George Benson does, although I became self conscious about it and reversed it… I can still play with that grip if I want…
I have been mostly self-taught, although I had lessons for two years while I was in music school. The lessons were more focused on reading, note location, fretboard familiarity, chords, jazz standard arrangements, not so much time spent on actual technique.
“Have you spent much time on technique before finding our stuff?” (Has shower to wash the shame off…)
Yes, obsessively. Eric Johnson, Yngwie, Shawn Lane WTF??? I kind of want that…
“What Cracking the Code material have you watched?” Umm, first two seasons, and
"Can you comfortably play a scale? At roughly what speed?" I can comfortably play scales. The “6’s” Yngwie thing I can do at about 112 bpm on a good day. Ascending and descending 4’s on a single string? 200 bpm (16ths) if I practice it.
"Any particular things you find yourself stuck on?" Changing strings. 2 note per string pentatonic stuff, anything in Frank Gambale’s “Speed Picking” book oh wait, ascending and descending 4’s across strings are a bloody nightmare, odd note groupings of 5’s and 6’s with pentatonics. That descending diminished lick in the sweep arpeggios chapter of the cracking the code, and ummm Yngwie’s stupid hyper burn ascending Eminor thing from his REH video (although, thanks to Troy - I play it much better now…) I am pretty sure I am missing something from the whole pick slanting thing because while it makes a whole boatload of sense, I am having troubles putting it into practice.
Watching Troy play is amazing by the way, just floors me when I watch the videos…
Anyways here is some “suck” footage hahaha I am almost scared to share it…
