How long does it take you to master a lick?

Playing Technique
#1

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.

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#2

Alaska is my favorite by them! They recently remixed / remastered it, definitely worth a listen if you haven’t already. I remember the album coming out and a few friends really trying to nail this arpeggio, as well as Selkies solo. I never did because I’m not an arpeggio fan, but maybe I’ll try to alternate pick it. I still sometimes wear the Alaska tour shirt lmao.

I had a few instances here of me trying to nail a lick, probably the one I posted the most about was this one:

https://forum.troygrady.com/t/request-someone-play-shawn-lanes-gray-pianos-flying/

One thing that helped me in that one (and others) that you didn’t mention is really working out the crux of a riff. Do you stumble in the same spot or two? Tried making some practice patterns based on those trouble areas instead of running through everything at once?

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#3

Looks like the videos you posted are no longer available. I’d like to see it though!

Yea the Alaska album and especially Selkies represents a very important shift for me in the development my musical tastes. The first time I heard Selkies, it got me high. I had never listened to anything like that before. And yea the remix/remaster is amazing.

I’ve also worked equally extensively on the Selkies sweeps.

There are problem areas with it that I’ve identified are the hinge/rocking motion with my 3rd finger on the first Am shaped sweep. Once I rock the 3rd finger from D to G, I cannot seem to lift it in time at real speed to get to the 2nd finger on the B. I’ve been experimenting with using 3rd and 4th instead of rocking the 3rd finger down. It does seem to be a little smoother.

Also the 3nps scalar section after the 4 sweeped arpeggios kills me. It’s the hardest part of me.

I’m playing it in standard tuning. So for me the lick is

G - 13 14 16, B - 14 16 17, e - 17 16 14

That 17 on the B to 17 e kills me. At speed it ends up being real sloppy.

The next scalar run too

B 17 16 14 13 14 16 14 13, G 14 13

I use 1 3 and 4 on that B string run and shift down with the 1st finger at 13. That is also quite awkward for me

Hopefully the tab examples come thru looking right.

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#4

@Jburd77 seems like the first videos “timed out” from the filesharing, but the last one should still be there:

Have you tried other fingerings that fit more to your strengths? I commonly change fingerings to what suits me better; if there’s finger “roll overs” in your tab (I see some I think), those would definitely be reworked IMO. I could try to give the fingerings a try to see what I would do.

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#5

That’s burning man. So how long do you think it took you to get a solid grasp on that lick?

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#6

@Jburd77 thanks man! From the timestamps, it took me about 2 months to get it decently good all the way through. Had to factor in some time to rework fingerings (also “borrow” them from that video that was linked) then slowly burn it in my brain (also a couple weeks in there for trips / the holidays). I think technique was mostly there already, just a different style that I’m not used to since there are no repetitive phrases that I can think of. That being said, I think it slowly changed my picking style to be more DBX with finger motion.

If you get a moment, you should record a benchmark of yourself playing it all the way through at the fastest speed you can get it at currently. Especially when recording to a track or on video, the heightened pressure IMO makes you more susceptible to the crux portions, making them easier to identify.

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#7

I think maybe the problem for me is that the raw technique isn’t there yet to play this at the level I want. The way I’ve always thought about practicing is to pick something that’s too hard for me, then practice it until it isn’t. But that doesn’t seem to come to fruition.

The main issue is sync between both hands. When I floor it, both hands can do it at any speed. Just not together. The right hand seems to be the most difficult. I’ve noticed that I can’t seem to sweep the pattern in time with just the RH across open strings. So this is something I’ve worked on a bit.

I will try to get a video up soon

#8

I’ve been working on an Alcatrazz Yngwie lick for about 11 months. On average 1.5 to 2 hours a day, 5 days a week. It’s a 56 note phrase so lots to keep me interested!

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