How the hell do you tremolo pick like EVH and Yngwie Malmsteen?

Playing Technique
#11

I recently started using middle finger a lot more, and the deviation from a straight wrist is defiantly how you do it. Though Eddie did more Ulnar deviation than flexion.

Anything that puts a kink in your wrist will change forarm rotation into up n down picking. This been on my mind and want to be correct. Focus on “Ulnar deviation” and that is how Ed did it. With a touch of flexion.

You can really see it here. The wrist is Ulnar deviated very clearly. As long as it’s got that kink it will work.

#12

Everyday I try to tremolo it almost feels that the reason I am unable to sort of control it better, getting in and out of it is because I didn’t learn it when I was younger. I can haphazardly get it going eventually, sometimes I can do it super impressive one day, and the next it takes me some adjustment to do it. The earlier in the day I can do it easier, the later in the day is when it gets a bit tricky. All of this I am speaking of is the pure wrist motion, using no elbow, completely relaxed loosey-goosey tickly blood flow, floppy muscle feeling. The turning gypsy wrist angled wrist motion, not the back and forth one. I have to really move the wrist to get a big stubby 3.0 through the string though, and it feels like it has to be the tip and at a certain angle. I try not to look sometimes cause I feel like I will lose it if I try to think about it. :smiley:

And its not like I can go all day long or forever, once I get it going its good for about 15-20 second. But if I try to go again, no way, it just isn’t going to be near as articulate, and it might not even happen. I have been working on this well over a year now, about a year and a half. So it takes time to develop this, or it can so don’t give up. This is all one speed, I dont dare try to control how fast or slow. It is as fast as my body can gyrate my wrist, no more no less. If I had to adjust speed or possibly even dynamics, cause it can be quite tricky to dynamically adjust volume for this one sometimes i can but it is not easy, I would utilize another motion to tremolo.

I think I would consider this like one of those just go for it motions. Don’t psych yourself out, the motion you are doing is the correct one. It just takes time for the body to figure out how to align things right to get it to sound. Like learning how to play hacky sack might be a way the body is trying to figure it out. You just fail over and over, but dont think I am not doing it right. If you can take one of those really thin dunlop picks the paper thin ones, angle the wrist and do the really fast chord thing that most beginners can do, this is the motion, but you gotta just keep trying. Don’t over analyze to much, just try to do it everyday. And then forget it and move on to learning something else. Trying to do it on one string, is why it is so tricky.

#13

When I was practicing it, I used to do it out of habit everywhere, not in front of people cus just doing that tremmlo move out of nowhere in the air would look very weird. But it definitely takes time to get the hand used to it. Once the muscles adapt it just works fine, takes ages like you say tho.

You can even see Ed himself having a bit of an awkward time keeping it smooth.

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#14

I do this ALL the time, because I was really interested in getting a rotational mechanic going. Super helpful if this motion doesn’t come naturally. I guess some people can just do this motion, others (myself) need to learn it.

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#15

You know thinking about it maybe the only reason I sort of was able to develop it at 37 years of age was because I could do the dunlop thin pick thing when I was in my teens. Some guy from a church was playing that full open E chord, and sliding up the same fingering to the other places at the fretboard doing that pretty chord progression. And I copied his technique cause he showed me, but going from this super huge motion into one string has been quite the challenge.

#16

I can do a fast forearm and wrist tremolo, it’s actually the only way I know how to play fast. I could never get wrist only to work.
But I can’t do it suspended in the air like this, well, I can do the motion, but without a depth reference I’m all over the place haha.

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#17

You can do it then I almost broke my guitar thinking i never could but i perservered. I wanted to be able to cover the intro to hot on your heels. I kept the thought in my mind, Yngwie isnt some robot it has to be possible. So everyday I play the tremolo at least once just for fun.

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#18

Also, if you want to supercharge forearm and wrist, add in the elbow! I do this when playing above 200bpm. Although I didn’t consciously add it in, but noticed that I need it at my fastest speeds. I don’t spend a lot of time playing at those sorts of speeds though

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#19

Just want you to know to just laugh, cause i know how frustrating it can be. I have thrown my guitar, plenty of times, alittle more than lightly only to be disappointed in myself for letting rage get the best of me. So this is the level of frustration it can give you, but just say in your mind i will get it eventually, and keep grinding. Never give up.

#20

I thought I was the only one, I broke my guitar last year in a rage fit :joy: It cost me a couple of hundred euro to get the neck fixed :man_facepalming::joy:

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#21

Sometimes I think if I burn one instead of breaking it then it might actually help me. I have to sacrifice one like Jimi and Yngwie did. ROFL i am joking by the way, or am i? :smile:

#22

Yngwie actually does this in his fastest playing on one string

and also this:

“Ok here…here’s…here’s one…here’s one!”

It starts as rotation then elbow creeps in. Subtle.

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#23

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#24

That was supposed to be a pic of my guitar break, I think I uploaded wrong … haha

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#25

Let me see if I can find some footage of his more wrist variation. He does the very light angle version of the gypsy way i thought. Or am i wrong?

#26

Oh yeah sorry, for the most part he does a lot of rotation. I think that is his primary motion for scalar stuff. Arps/economy we get the thumb/finger flex-stension, then when he goes really fast on one string (tremolo), elbow creeps in, sometimes. I’ve heard plenty of people who are very into Yngwie comment on the similarity of his picking to gypsy stuff. Not as arched wrist of course, but he does a lot of muting so his hand has to be in the position it’s in.

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#27

Yeah it’s very similar to gypsy in many ways, just the resting point is often on the bridge or strings for noise control, but the mechanic is very similar for sure

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#28

I want to get it beyond this into the Django gypsy jazz slide chromatic thing. Sometimes I come across players who are so incredibly accurate at hitting each note as they slide that it is unreal.

This guy has a great lesson on how to properly do it with the fretting hand to help with the synchronization of both hands. The main take away that helped me was how he kinda leans his finger into the motion, and supports it with his index finger. He talks about this around 12:30. I know though I can guarantee if I do this alot in my living arrangements someone will definitely break my guitar cause they will get tired of hearing me do it. :smiley:

#29

My experience with learning rotation, FWIW:

I could always do a fast rotation in the air with my right forearm, but it took me about a month to convert that into a fast tremolo that was reliable. I can do it easily and maybe never get exhausted. (I tested it once and stopped after 5 minutes because I didn’t feel any fatigue at all and I figured there was no practical application to go any longer. I don’t play those kinds of songs :metal:t5: :japanese_ogre: :skull_and_crossbones: :face_with_symbols_over_mouth: :skull: :jack_o_lantern: :crossed_swords: :coffin: :metal:t5:)

I couldn’t do it in the air with my left hand at all. Not fast, not even slow. My approach to bending and vibrato was sloppy and based on wrist extension rather than rotation, so I decided to see if I could learn how to rotate fast with my left hand somehow. I isolated the muscles by starting very slow (40 bpm quarter notes), and eventually started speeding it up. I practiced it for 30 seconds at a time, about 10 times a day. It took me about 2 weeks until I could do it fast and reliably. That was maybe 4 years ago. Once I got it working, it never felt like there was any danger I would lose it again. (I think it’s just like flaring your nostrils, crossing your eyes, or raising one eyebrow: once you’ve isolated the appropriate muscles you don’t forget how to do it.) It’s not as fast as my right handed rotation, and it gets exhausted pretty quickly: after about 60 seconds or so it starts to get a bit uncontrollable.
I mention this for two reasons:

  1. It can be learned, but it may take some time to get it started and the tail may be very long.
  2. My vibrato and bending were immediately and dramatically improved after this experience, which was my goal in this case.
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#30

For me it doesnt feel like some muscle stressed fatigue, but I fatigue to where I cannot do it back to back. I have to wait a minute or two, maybe its the blood flow getting flooding into the arm from the gyration. But it isn’t the same feeling as a muscle fatigue for my body.