I was self taught and was picking wrong for over fifty years. I even wrote my Masters Thesis on proper picking technique, even though I could never do it. I found Cracking the Code and downward pick slant and it changed everything. Yes, I had to start over and yes it is frustrating, but after nine months of practicing it is finally happening. I figure by this time next year I should be playing competently. I am 68 years old and the only time you fail is when you quit trying. Find a teacher in your area and get going! How can you ever quit something you love?
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Don’t give up I have also been at it for years and have little to show but hey its not the end of the world.We are not doing it to survive just put it down for a while and come back and hit it again.
same here Troys teaching is the best
Hey there, I have to say I know exactly how you feel. I do not have the magnet and cannot post footage, so getting things going is very hard. Fortunately for me my circumstances force me to dissect every single millimeter of picking form. I follow every word Troy said and sure enough I always find that I did not notice that my forearm had tilted while I was concentrating on something else or not paying attention close enough. When I ‘Start with speed’ I end up butchering proper form so I supplement with practicing very slowly because 9-3 cf quickly turns to 8-2 cf if I do not pay attention. Habits ingrained for decades are going to put up a hell of a fight, but I wish you luck.
I’ve been micromanaging my playing the last week or two with a microscope basically just trying to play passages slow which is something i never do, and sadly what I’ve discovered is I’m not doing what I thought I was. 
Another words my “chunking” is completely off! A good example of that is pentatonic’s in 5’s. I always thought i was doing it right, but it turns out that I’m really playing in 4’s. For what ever reason, my brain and fingers just DO NOT want to hit that last 5th note. It’s crazy like its a brick wall up between my mind and fingers. Because of that I would just continuously stumble and hit road blocks, and not know why. I’ve developed a LOT of really bad ticks thru the years that have served me zero purpose, and most of it is because I go off on these tangents of trying to do my own thing. Me not sticking with the script has royally screwed me. In short, I’m completely having to relearn to walk after a major car crash which is what my playing is. Even if I did play things fast, and clean it never sounded right because I didn’t have the triplet feel that 3’s or 5’s provide you. It’s so easy to just want to go off and play fast which is what i’ve Been doing for 30 years, but if there’s not any game plan behind what you’re doing you’re never going to get anywhere. Trust me. On a positive note, at least now I know what i was doing wrong, and can try and correct it. At least on 1 aspect of my incredibly flawed playing technique. Haha
That is a spot on analogy. I feel the pain. There is a descending YJM lick I am getting much better at, but simply repeating a single string six note pattern is just not clicking in my brain, almost threw my guitar out the balcony. Luckily we’re in the best place to get where we need to go. Hope you achieve your goals
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Do you have any videos showing your development trying to apply what you’ve learned here? Perhaps some people can help you out. Ironically, the idea of playing fast is not for sake of just playing fast at first. It’s all about controlling the sound at fast paces. That’s why Troy focuses so much on starting with some speed: the idea is to sound musical. It’s not a matter of practicing just like a sport.
For what ever reason, alternate picking with 4, 6’s like Yngwie is a million times easier for me than the EJ pentatonic stuff. I can do the 6 note per string stuff relatively easy with no stumbling blocks. It’s a mystery what is stumping me with the pentatonic scale because it’s less fingers and a easier scale to play. Maybe it’s the sweeping?, IDK 
I don’t think it should be too much of a mystery that a string change/position change every 2 notes could present more of a challenge than a string change/position change every 4 or 6 notes.
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I have a few video’s i put up, but not sure you’re really going to see anything you can help me with. I can play certain things a lot easier like traditional 4, 6 note per string licks like Yngwie, it’s the EJ pentatonic stuff that is killing me. I just can’t rap my mind, and fingers around it for some reason. In the last week, since I’m playing those licks slower, I’m finally starting to hear what’s going on. I’m still having mental blocks though in not wanting to hit that 5th note, but hoping repetition fixes it. Playing fast is really not difficult for me. Playing fast where it musically makes sense, is a whole other ball game. 
Ok, that makes me feel better then. Haha
Definitely the simplicity of the scales. Going from YJM to EJ feels odd, both have a different feel to them, I have been trying to internalize Troy’s ‘Starting with speed’ and ‘Trial and error are essential’ videos, butchering the licks at high speed helped a lot, I mean even MAB talks about hours and hours of repeating the same little bit, until he mastered two way pick slanting. Long road ahead, strap in.
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