First take is at 175bpm that im pretty comfortable with and have very little tension but as soon as i increase the bpm i start tensing up and am unsure how to get away from this. i have been stuck at this tempo for months and cannot increase speed. Second is at 180.
There’s nothing wrong visually with what you’re doing here, and this flexed wrist approach is common. Take 1 looks like a very nice upstroke escape wrist motion. So this isn’t a “tremolo” technique, it’s just a wrist motion.
But there are lots of other techniques you can try. In addition, as we discussed on email, I recommend checking out the speed tests and taking those tests to get real numbers behind your physical capabilities. Take the tests and tell us what numbers you get for each of them.
after taking the tests the forearm and elbow technique was my strongest as i was peaking around 210 on the tests. After you reassuring me that there was nothing wrong with my technique per say and i got past that mental barrier, i am now doing one to two measures at 200bpm which has been my goal speed for a very long time. I guess now its just a matter of muscle building because after doing those my forearm is pretty tight. Thanks
Sounding good — 210 is quite fast! That’s about as fast as I personally can go.
Most picking challenges don’t depend on building strength or endurance in the traditional sense like at the gym. Picking a few bars at a fast tempo is not physically taxing in that way and doesn’t really require building or working up to it muscle-wise. It’s more of a coordination thing, like juggling or riding a bike. When you get these things down, they require super little effort and only the required muscles fire up, and move quickly, while the rest stay relaxed.
You’re saying you’re still using the wrist technique? In that case, only the hand moves, everything else can be shut off. Rather than trying to drill this for long periods of time, just try to make lots of casual attempts here and there while trying to get the rest of your arm to be as relaxed and tension free as possible. Again, you’re not buidling strength here, you’re teaching your motor system to perform an action automatically with as little involvement from other muscles as possible. You’re seaching for “easy”.