Jumping past a speed road block

Playing Technique
#1

So my cross picking was stuck at 16ths at 120bpm, and even that was only doable on a good day at the right moment.

I found this info on bluegrass speed which shows target metronome speeds and I found it funny that 138 was still considered medium speed. http://www.mandolin.myzen.co.uk/speed.html

The pattern I’m practicing lately is one and a half cycles.

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I had been road blocked for a while and after reading that document, I decided to turn the metronome up to 150 and just work there for a while doing half patterns and all of a sudden it clicked and i was doing it, it was easier than 120? Then I tried 140, and that seemed easy. Then 130, and I had it then lost it.

This has been going on and OFF for a week now, and I’ve even had moments of 160, and I’ve tried up to 180, though I can only do half patterns at that speed if at all, but then going back down to 150 feels like a relief after that.

But it’s weird, I still break down and lose it between 120-130 even though it seems super easy when I first slow down to that speed. But then I can go back up to 150 and get it again. Really weird, but at least I feel like something is happening.

And the big reality check is that I still can NOT sustain this in rhythm. I can do one and half cycles and land in rhythm, and then do it again… I’ll usually play the whole thing in 8th notes, and then jump right into the same pattern in 16ths. then 8ths, then 16ths.

Anyway, it feels like some progress past that 120 bpm barrier… even though that barrier is still there??

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#2

Not sure what would cause that, but one thing that helps me with inconsistencies is to record myself doing the same pattern at various speeds. I found out, for example, that at high speeds, certain transfers were always awkwardly slow, or causing missed strokes.

I wouldn’t worry too much about what others consider moderate speed or not. It’s very subjective. Yes, X-picking can be played at faster speeds… but many don’t go that fast.

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#3

Thanks Hamsterman,

Yeah, I guess it’s kind of ridiculous I haven’t recorded myself yet, given that is a basic premise of CTC. In my defense, the tripod is buried a half hour deep in our apartment closet.

I’ll try comparing the different speeds and see if I can find anything.

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#4

Past a certain speed I feel you enter what I would call the ‘glide mode’, where your pick goes back and forth gliding on top of the strings, not unlike when you do sweeping (though obviously the motion is different, but the ‘feel’ is similar). But it’s hard to do it consistently, Sometimes you feel you hit strings whereas in reality you don’t (I saw that recording myself).

At lower speed there’s a natural inclination (at least for me) to give more articulation to the picking, which might involve some stringhopping, or more complex motion (e.g.using the fingers). It seems to me that the Andy Wood clip on banjo rolls shows a bit of that.

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#5

I’ll follow Troy’s lead… video and science will tell the truth. I must be doing something different!

Today we just moved the kitchen into our living room of our one bedroom apartment for a few weeks while the kitchen gets a new floor… video will have to wait a bit while we are camping and surviving on NYC pizza and coffee.

#6

Yes, ditto to everything you saying. The ‘glide mode’ is basically switching to a method that allows greater speed, but less articulation. I really had to analyze my videos, compared with other x-pickers to see what was going on. And basically what I’ve been doing to counter this… is to ensure that I am using enough finger motion, to clear the strings by at least a couple millimeters. That has made a really dramatic difference in the last few days of practice.