I wouldn’t say “probably.” I’d say possibly. The reason is that you can play what you play on a regular guitar without having to tie things around the neck to dampen the sound of open strings ringing out and you don’t have to pick right at the bridge which makes it impossible for him to palm mute.
I wouldn’t mind having Roy’s speed but not if it came at the cost that I couldn’t switch anytime I felt like it from playing a lead to playing an open E or open A chord and not if I couldn’t do palm muting if I wanted to.
Besides, you say you can only pick on one string with your hyper speed picking but what about some of the videos you’ve posted such as the one that is titled “A Tasteless Shred Lick” That’s certainly hyper speed picking isn’t it? It’s not relaxed arm picking, right?
Roy has some unorthodox methods of getting his sound, and it works well for him. I do use string dampness from time to time, but only for tapping stuff, because it becomes very difficult to mute when both hands are on the neck. I also couldn’t pick that close to the bridge. Not necessarily because of palm muting, but because I like the warmer sound nearer the neck. But I like what Roy does, he’s got his own style which I really like, but it’s not necessarily a style that would be that useful fore me for the reasons you mentioned.
As for that lick, that feels like a slightly different mechanic to me. If you’ve watched the Martello video he talks about ‘three levels of picking.’ Normal picking, speed picking and hyper picking. This could be seen as overly simplistic but it makes a lot of sense.
I’d say the ‘tasteless’ lick was NOT hyper picking, despite being quite fast. My arm is tense and it’s all elbow movement, but there’s no clenched fist and it’s a little more controlled. So I’d say that lick was in the 'speed picking tier.'
The one note tremolo stuff is where the ‘hyper’ movement takes over. The clenched fist starts happening, and while I guess it is technically the same mechanic, it feels different. Certainly more tense. I appreciate this is hard to explain, so hope I’m making some kind of sense here!
I sent some videos to Troy for the upcoming analysis where I tremolo pick to a metronome from 160 to 400bpm (400 probably falls apart a little but it was included anyway!)
160 to 200 (quarter notes) was the speed picking stuff. Relaxed fingers, slightly tense arm but still elbow. After that we got to the hyper tier where the fist clenched and the arm tensed up even more.
Anyway that was quite a long explanation but I hope that make some sort of sense!
Yes it does! Thank you! BTW, I forgot in which threats "“Tasteless Lick” is posted. Could you tell me where I could find that and other similar licks from you?
You mean sextuplets at 160 BPM to 200 BPM, right? Quarter notes at 160 or even 200 BPM is slow. 16thnotes at 160 is the speed of the open A string riffing in “Hit The Lights.”
Besides being more tense, are there other ways that it feels different from the regular speed picking? Such as, does it feel like a controlled muscle spasm? Is your whole arm vibrating? Sorry, I’m just curious as to f it really is a different mechanic entirely from “speed picking” or just a somewhat more tense form of it. Thank you!!
No, I mean quarter notes. 160 is pretty slow, so can’t do that with the hyper movement. Interestingly, from I’d say 200 to 240, I use the Hyper picking movement, but it feels a little slow for that mechanic. Possible, and could probably be made easier if I practiced it more. It’s not a mechanic that really works a slower tempos, it’s high speed only!
I think it feels like a more tensed for of my usual speed picking movement to be honest. Apart from the difference in hand position (which I think is only done to tense up the correct muscle, bracoradialis I think some people are saying!) but other than that it feels the same. ‘Controlled Muscle Spasm’ is exactly how I’d describe it! And I think my whole forearm is moving, the upper arm is pretty static.
As for ‘Count Licks’ I think that one was posted in the ‘Count’s Hyper Picking’ thread. If you want more, there’s my youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmTGui7BwhA1dEIz4hhha3A?view_as=subscriber
But I havn’t uploaded much for a while since I’ve been focusing on getting the new EP recorded which is taking a while.
I’ve uploaded a few licks to Instagram recently, mostly tapping and hybrid picking stuff since I’ve been focusing on that more recently. https://www.instagram.com/the_countguitar/
Thanks for taking an interest! Much appreciated!
I’m pretty sure that his pick takes some work for him there.
I guess that the round design forces a flat pickstroke go above the strings, without thinking of slanting.
That’s the main reason i play around with getting the wrist relaxed, you can use string dynamics to your advantage.
Quite possibly, he says he can’t play without one. I’ve been tempted to buy one, since he’s mass producing them now, see how much difference it makes. They’re a little pricey, but they are massive, and he hand finishes every one, so it’s fair enough. If I ever pick one up, i’ll be sure to update everyone on how it feels!
That’d be great!
I thought of ordering one too, but then i thought it might by just useful if it really fits to your motions.
I listed him a while ago when there was a thread about whom we want to see next in hope we could get some insights on pick-design, it’d be so cool to have an individual pick.
Short update on recording: my sun had some dirt underneath his eye-lid, needed to get to hospital with him. Everything is fine again, but I need some beer and intense noise on my headphones after seeing some kind of giant q-tip in the eye of him … he’s granted to use the palystation for the rest of the evening
I’ll try something over the week if I’m not too tired.
I would have also listed Roy as the next guy I want to see interviewed in Masters Of Mechanics. That old man he has interviewing him doesn’t know the correct questions to ask and besides that, I find him very irritating. His mannerisms including the sounds he makes while Roy plays just really bother me.
So while I find his ability to play the things he plays to be fascinating, I have no desire to have an individual pick. I also have no desire to develop a technique where the only way to get an acceptable sound is to tie rags around the neck of the guitar to stop open strings from ringing out. As far as I’m concerned, if you can’t play guitar without using bands to tie around the neck to keep any open strings from ringing out, then you have not mastered the guitar, not by a longshot!
Do you realize with the guitar set up the way he has it with those rags or bands tied around the neck, he couldn’t even play Eruption? When Eruption was released in 1978 it was state of the art virtuoso rock guitar! While it’s still an impressive solo and it still sounds cool, it is certainly not “state of the art” anymore, not even close. Yet Roy couldn’t play it with those bands around the neck of the guitar because he wouldn’t be able to dive bomb the low E string for starters.
I like the ability to be able to hit an open E or open A chord and then play a lead guitar fill like many guitarists including Eddie Van Halen and Randy Rhoads liked to do. Roy can’t do that either because he can’t play an open E or any open chord!
I like having the ability mute like Yngwie Malmsteen does in part of the solo to Kree Nakoorie and like Al Dimeola does in many of his solos. Because he needs to play right at the bridge, Roy can’t do that either!
Don’t get me wrong; Roy plays some licks I enjoy. The best lick I’ve ever heard him play is a lick he played at the end of one of his picking drill videos and the lick was entitled “Wile E Coyote.” It was absolutely amazing! I’ve never heard anything like it!
Yet as much as I like that lick and some of the other things he plays, I would not want to change my technique to his technique even if I could play the Wile E Coyote lick because I don’t want to lose the freedom to mix rhythm and lead guitar playing, I don’t want to lose the ability to do DiMeola style muting, and I don’t want to have to rely on having bands wrapped around the neck of the guitar and needing a special custom made pick just to be able to play a little faster. The trade off would not be worth it to me.
Concerning the pick I’m really just curious, I’ve no idea if there’s really any benefit, just i see the possibility that we miss something in the equation. If I think of the bow for violin or cello, or the mouthpiece (hope that word exists) for sax or oboe, and compare that to the piece of plastic for a buck of less which connects us to our instrument it think it makes sense to have a closer look on that.
For Roy’s playing I can’t reallay say anything to it, I saw just demos of him so far.
But based on that I think we can assume that he has technically the talent to get all the things you mentioned down (if he hasn’t yet), so I’d say he plays the way he likes most, if I like that I can tell after seeing him on stage.
But beside that even if he (or anybody else) would be technically ‘bad’ on his instrument but produces great music, I see no problem there. Mastering the instrument is work, mastering music is art.
The reason (for me) to get all that technical aspects involved is the chance to stumple upon things I can’t play technicalwise, and to be honest it helps me to get in the tunnel when I see that my fingers can do what they do (which unfortunately is not the case actually after a long break).
I agree a little concerning that ‘old man’, but you should give him a try, he can play and I found Roy over his channel … I mean drugs are not good, but hey it’s fun
Hello German Guy, Regarding the interviewer Roy uses, the old man I mentioned, I did give him a try but I just couldn’t take it after a while. I think he’s one of the worst interviewers I’ve ever heard.
To be completely honest, don’t you think Roy would benefit from a better interviewer? He can play a little, sure, but he cannot interview people!
I’m curious about something. Since you are from Germany, English is not your native language. Don’t you find that old man difficult to understand? English is my native language and many times I have trouble understanding what he is saying.
Speaking of Germany, and I know this is off topic but I’m curious, is Accept very popular in germany, or at least were they very popular in Germany in the 1980s? I think Wolf Hoffman had a good guitar tone. Udo’s voice is sometimes grating though. I had never heard the name Udo before I heard of Accept. Are many men in Germany named Udo? I have never even met anyone named Udo.
Do you remember a German band named Warlock? Their vocalist was a woman named Doro Pesch and she was good!
I saw Accept open for Dio on Dio’s Sacred Heart tour with Craig Goldie taking over for Vivian Campbell and I thought Craig Goldie was very good. I loved Dio! Ronnie James Dio was one of my favorite vocalists ever! I was so sad when he died!
For the record, I think Rowan is a legend! I get that his humour isn’t for everyone though. Obviously I’d love to see Roy in a proper MIM interview, but NYC and Scotland aren’t exactly next door. I know he talked about getting some footage for Troy to analyse. Not sure if that’s got any further, I know Roy’s mum has been very unwell so that’s put a hold on things, and Troy has so many things on the go that it may not be any time soon. Who knows? With any luck they’ll be some analysis on him at some point!
That’s good to know. I was never sure if he’s just funny or a little off in general. Probably he’s the scottish version of EytschPi42, he’s german and it seems to me they’re pretty similar
As a german english is an accent in general
Interviews aren’t too hard, there’s always context from question to answer, so in that case no problem (or not bigger than usual)
I think they were in the 80’s. I listened to Marillion and Springsteen at that time, to be honest i didn’t know they are german until now
Udo is common (or was some decades ago) but not typical I’d say.
She’s still active and kindof popular, the music is weird now though.
I emailed him a few questions when I was writing my final paper for my degree and he talked with me for about an hour on Skype to make sure he gave me proper responses for everything. He’s an all round great guy! He has some great tuitional material, and, to keep vaguely on topic, he’s one of the only other people I’ve seen do my weird ‘clenched fist’ hyper picking movement.
I think you should ask him to join us!
This is really interesting and by the way shows (at least to me) that he put in a fair amount of time on thinking about what he’s doing.
So technically i have a guess - as always - by angling the pick you remove the snap which can cause quite a lot of resistance. If there’s enough angle in the pick the displacement kindof moves from the string to the wrist, if the wrist is not locked the pick glides over the string. That happens even with thin and light picks.
When you play flat, the pick bends and the string is moved out of the way.
I think that has pretty small impact on players with huge pick motions and lots of momentum, when you try to get the pick through with as less effort as possible it’s probably a game changer.
I played stubbies pretty much from the begining, they remove the angle question almost completely, They always hit the string with a round part. But from sound view they are limiting, there’s simply no agressive sound on the pickstroke.
When i was an active player in the past, I spent most time on accoustic where that had little impact, now playing exclusively for fun and on electric I’m thinking of changing the pick.
Which now leads to a question, do you know how the picks with the twisted top are called? I think John plays them and it seems to me the twist is designed to add attack when playing with no or small angle, which I do.
Edir: Forgot to mention that, I’m totally jealous on Rowans left hand, even in that clip with no sound you can see how flawless his fretting is.
The resistance of the pick could be a factor. Personally, I don’t angle the pick a lot, but I do use a small amount of the actual pick (just a tiny bit of the tip.) I didn’t notice this until I had the magnet, but I think it helps, less pick to go through the string.
John used to play Sik Piks, which I used for around a year, they were great. Sadly the owner of the company died so they don’t make them any more. I’d still use them if they were available. I’ve got some left, maybe i’ll look into 3d printing them or something. They certainly made a difference, but I think I could do it with any pick as long as it doesn’t bend at all.
Also, yes, Rowan has some insane legato abilities!
Oh man … life’s unfair.
So I’ll put my hope in another company to continue that one day.
Even thin picks don’t bend anymore if you play them angled and the top is a little rounded.
I read somewhere Paul Gilbert uses 0.5 (or 0.6 I’m not sure) now, I think angled it’s more the shape than the thickness.
In addidtion the curve you get lifts you over the string which should make slanting easier.
I try to use that when I’m crosspicking, just it feels and looks strange.
I think I’ll have a look on some of Rowans lessons later on, I saw just one or tow of his clips before (and honestly i had the impression he might be a little drunk there, which I’m totally fine with with when I’m drunk too, but mostly I’m in office when tubing), but it seems he can give some interesting insights when talking seriously.
wolf Hoffman still has a great guitar tone! I saw Accept two months ago in Filderstadt and it was incredible. Wolf is almost 60 and looks incredible He could take Bruce Willis’ spot easily.
Udo left the Band a while ago to form U.D.O. . I never really liked him, so I like the mew singer better anyway.
Yes, but they are usually 50+
She is also still active, her Band is called “Doro”. We played the same festival 2 years ago.
She headlined the “20 Bucks entry friday”, we opened the “free of charge saturday”, but hey! I’m almost a Rockstar now
There is bad singers, good singers, incredible singers and then there is Dio
It’s a real shame. I’ve thought about doing something similar, but with a more durable material. Those things wore down FAST! But me becoming a business entrepreneur?.. probably not! I might 3d print some personal ones, but I don’t have to time to devote to it at the moment, and Swiss Picks are doing me fine for now.
Paul Gilbert uses super thing ones, clearly didn’t do him any harm! I just can’t get on with them myself and can’t achieve the hyper movement using them. Maybe I could if I got used to it!
He’s not drunk, that’s just his style of presentation, doesn’t take things too seriously! If I ever start doing youtube lessons, I imagine they’d be similarly crazy!
Hopefully Dunlop or another of the big guys take over, if they have enough requests.
So for Rowan drunk or not, there’s way more depth in his statements than I realized on first view, so my fault.
There’s so many cool guys out there, it’s easy to judge too fast.
He could take Bruce Willis’ spot easily.
