Pretty open ended question. I could also title this - How do you Practice?
I’ve been working on the sweep picked opening to Alaska by Between the Buried and Me for several years. I can’t say that I’ve done it consistently. I honestly think if I was to master that lick, I would need to practice it daily for a month or two. The several thousand repetitions I’ve played over the years have seemed to help very little in mastering it. I’ve tried it ultra slow, like starting the click at 60 and playing whole notes and progressively running the click slower and slower. I’ve tried flooring it. I’ve tried the old time start slow and gradually speed up. Even after jumping back in extensively this week, I am just marginally better at it.
I will try to post a video of me playing it.
How long does it take you guys to learn and master a single lick? How would you guys go about learning something that is difficult?
I often wonder if I’ve written so many bad repetitions for these licks in my neurons over the years that maybe it would be best to trash them and find something new to start fresh with and practice with a more mindful, focused approach.
I also wonder if I’m starting too difficult? Maybe I would be better off learning a more simple and slower sweep picked lick? What’s funny is I sweep very well naturally. My main technique when improvising uses lots of 3 and 4 string sweeps ala Gambale technique. But for some reason, I can’t seem to really get down a 5 or 6 string neo classical sweep.