Hi ,
For me it’s all alternate picking.
You can see an (I think) accurate tab here : http://www.sixstringrecess.com/lessons/2014/9/4/its-a-monster-lick
And how he plays it here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oHDpw4aTtc
He’s a monter:slight_smile:
He is so accurate, incredible.
All alt pickiywouod make it an UWPS lick, right?
I bet @tommo could fly through this no problem.
Hi Mimi,
Yes I saw the video where he is playing it both in fast and slow version. I thought the slow version was not at all the way he play it at original speed.
But seeing what you sent, I was wrong. 
I was trying to do it the way I expected it would be. I must start it all again. 
One question is: Is it TWPS or UWPS ?
I started and practiced guitar using UWPS, but after discovering CTC, I totally left UWPS for DWPS. Maybe it is time to bring us back together with my good old technique ^^’ After all, It’s an opened door to an even bigger range.
Man it is an honour to be mentioned in a Nuno thread, thanks! 
I dunno if I can live up to these expectations, but you made me want to check out this solo, I hadn’t heard it before! Even if I could play it though, no way I could come close to the awesomeness of Nuno’s phrasing!
Based on the tableture provided it’s a 2wps lick. Yet another artist who’s licks i thought I could learn eventually that I now find I can’t learn at the moment due to my dwps 
If you look at the second video that Mimi posted Nuno is DWPSing the entire lick and swiping from the D string to the B string. At 11:42 I think you can hear one of the swipes doesn’t get quite muted.
Here’s me taking a quick stab at it with DWPS and swiping. I’m not playing the exact lick, just a 1-2-4 fingering descending. Please forgive the crappy quality and low sound, it’s my first time trying to record on my phone and it’s too late at night to plug in to my amp.
Are you sure he is sweeping ?
Not sweeping, swiping. You glide the pick over the string without playing it. In this lick after finishing the last note on the D string with a downstroke you continue the downward motion and the pick should glide over muted G and B strings then do an upstroke on the B string. There are a few segments in the Pickslanting Primer pack that go over the technique. Basically it’s a variation of Gilbert 6s with an extra string hop.
Does Nuno pick every single note in that lick? I’m not convinced he’s picking every note on the top strings.
Some mix of alternate and legato I assume but I haven’t looked at it. There are several live clips for anyone who wants to look at the hand motions more closely. Some like the pro shot Boston show appear heavily overdubbed though.
More generally, this is basically three note per string scale playing. It’s probably one of the most exhaustively discussed topics we’ve done. Anyone who wants to play lines like this has plenty of options to choose from, and mimicking whatever NB is doing is probably not super necessary.
Thanks for reply Troy.
I’ve noticed that it could be done in several ways. The goal for me was to understand exactly which mechanics NB could use and try to play his licks the same way. Just for fun ^^
This is fine when the movements are mechanically simple. For example, if you’re trying to copy Al DiMeola’s wrist motion for scale playing, the arm position is clear, the grip is clear, there’s only one joint moving, no finger or forearm component. You will probably succeed in copying that pretty closely that if you want. And you might consider that a good “textbook” exercise for understanding wrist movement.
But when you look at players like Yngwie, EJ, Nuno, etc. where you have multiple joints moving, including fingers, wrist, arm, and the exact blend of these things changes phrase by phrase, things are more complicated. Even if you could piece that apart, I might not even want to do that work unless there was some specific thing I thought I was trying to learn.
Instead, you might try and isolate one unique mechanical thing that a player does and figure that out. Eddie Van Halen’s tremolo technique is a good example. Yngwie’s three-note-per-string ascending scalar sweeping is another. At least this way it is clearer what specific thing you are trying to copy, and what you think you’re going to learn from it.
Yes, of course. I wasn’t very precise when I said I wanted to replicate his mechanics. More specifically, I just would like to know which notes are played in which movement, where Nuno found out (or was comfortable enough to play quite effortlessly) that these notes worked UWPS or DWPS or with Hammer-on or Pull-off.
Everything next would be to achieve it on my own, figure out by try and feel what works feels confortable. 
See what’s happening looking at his right hand could be instructive, but as guitarists has different motion mechanics, (as you say) there is no “one way or nothing” and maybe the way I could replicate a certain lick would fit perfectly, just understanding how the pick is moving across the strings, which one is picked or not, etc.
I hope I am clear enough
After my deeper looks on his playing in the last months, I think NB is a DWPSing Crosspicker. Generally, I see some parallels to Paul Gilberts picking and string changing strategies. There are exceptions (many!) but:
I think the fast lines at the end of the solo are played like described in 3.
Legato notes towards the string change and picking after the string change.
Another observation is:
If playing through a, let’s say, 3nps shape ascending with lots of legato, they start with downstroke on low E and play D-H-H, A String U-H-H and all others U-H-H until high e string. On high e string ( or any string where the line starts to decent) U-D-U-P-P, next lower string D-P-P, next D-P-P and so on until low E or any turnaround string, there D-U-D-H-H back to ascending…
The legato/Picking strategy in 4. can also be used as a two string sequence to add more picking. Due to the legato the initial pick stroke can be D or U.
Play the “ascending sixes” DHH UDU then to the next stringset or back to the lower string. Or circular sixes DHH UDUPP DUD repeat…
Descending sixes UPP DUDHH UDU.
Hope that helps and is not to confusing…
Ok, just had to take a close look on It’s A Monster…
Nuno starts both strings with an downstroke. On the low string the last two notes are hammer ons and on the higher string the last note is a pull off
So it is a mix of what I mentioned above. 
Hi Mimi. I’m a newbie to this forum and a latecomer to this thread. I wanted to learn the descending phrase in Nuno’s solo from 02:51 - 03:06 as it seems like a good picking workout, and sounds great too! I’ve got the “official” Hal Leonard transcription book, but this transcription seems wrong when I compare it to the video clips of Nuno actually playing this lick. I’ve tried to download the accurate tab from your link but it seems that the link no longer works. If you could re-post the correct transcription with a new link or email a copy to me, I’d be very grateful. Many thanks in anticipation. Best wishes. Dave.
Nuno posted this Yesterday, so he’s not playing all the notes:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CK9rX2ZhWQ_/?igshid=vwpl7q7ctya0
