It’s getting there… Slowly but surely. I still feel my hand wanting to correct things sometimes, but not as much as I did. I think in the 2nd clip, there are some spots where my thumb/finger thing takes over a bit, which I want to do away with. Or at least not have it be relied upon like I think I might do. It seems to get sloppier the lower I go, so I need to work on that a bit as well.
I can’t tell how similar they look and both clips completely fall apart at the end. But I’m okay with that for now because I don’t think I have any need to play 190 for longer than the 10-15 seconds I want it for.
I still can’t do 2nps with this very well at all, but I’m starting to test it with my DSX to test and feel the comparisons. I haven’t worked on it as much as the trem and the traveling 6’s, but I have had a few moments where it feels like butter. But only descending. My ascending is straight dookie!
I get that a metronome may have been running, but you weren’t picking 16ths at 250 there. Try including the metronome in another clip, then slow the recording down and check if you’re staying in time at 4 notes/beat.
I think what can easily happen at these really fast speeds is that we start out almost catching (or even, being generous, catching it for a few beats). Then, slip into triplets instead of 16ths. That would land us in a similar notes-per-second range to what @JBakerman is clocking you at.
Glad to see overall that you’re making great progress with learning the new motion. Are there any insights you can share with us about how this “feels” different than the DSX motion you were doing before? Do you have issues with it reverting to what you knew before? that was my biggest struggles after figuring the motion out. Introduce fretting, nervous system deploys what it’s used to → DSX lol
It’s all good. It was at the tail end of a long session and fast notes become a blur after awhile. I’ve got clips at that speed on here so it’s not like I was showing off, lol
I think the fact that I had to go by looks instead of feel was the thing that was tripping me up early on. I had to “study” what my default position is, then what my DSX is and then try to have my USX be a similar trajectory. The default part is something else I wasn’t taking into consideration before. I had to remember that DSX is just my FASTEST motion, not my usual. When I’d go from DSX straight to USX, I was HUGELY overcorrecting for the USX. I needed to start with FLAT, then DSX and THEN USX to see how little of an adjustment it actually was. It took Tommaso’s DSX primer to “CtC” of what that motion should look like before I could go back to Troy’s and see what that one does.
I had a concern, and I posted in my TC about this then retracted it this morning (lol), that was the differences between “sore” and “pain”. I had a bit of a PTSD situation and was thinking I needed to start over with some kind of wrist-only picking style. I was building muscle, not re-aggravating my injury. That doesn’t mean that I should push it, just that it’s not what I thought it was. I’ve worked out before. I know what it is. But I panicked. A great thing that came along with it though was that my fretting hand feels fine even after all of that. And the same with today. I practiced a lot last night and work up this afternoon with nothing lingering!!
I’d planned on starting to work on 2nps stuff, but I’m going to keep working on this until I can run around freely. The traveling YJM-6’s is at about a 65/35 success rate, which is better than it was the day before. Not so much the picking and tempo but the string hopping that my hand seems to want to do. As much as I’ve had trouble maintaining speed while ascending, my descending wants to make that hop more than the ascending. Steady tremolo is fine, 6nps and more is also fine, but even doing just 4nps is a challenge. 2nps are far in the distance, lol
An interesting thing I’m starting to wonder is if the placement of my volume knob is why I used DSX for my fastest to begin with. When I’m on the high-E, it’s always in my way. I came up on an Ibanez JS-1 and now have a JS-1000 (with a JS-2450 on the way!!) so there’s a case that can be made that its why… Al Di and JM both used PRS guitars for some of their electric work and that knob seems more imposing that mine, haha.
Hmmm yes I am a (mostly proud) PRS user. That volume knob…
One word of caution, just because I’ve heard Troy mention this TONS of times to people:
He says all the time that nothing we do on the instrument should feel remotely like a “burn” or other gym type of sensation. Maybe while we’re “figuring” things out, or that extreme stuff he’s working on lately where he says he can feel things in his chest and back. He knows he shouldn’t be and it’s just the body sort of freaking out trying to recruit other areas to help, and I believe he’s reported “less of that” as he takes brief breaks and returns to it. Keep that in mind. ESPECIALLY in the context of the EJ stuff you’re pursuing. Obviously he’s a monster but he doesn’t hit any tempos that should feel “tiring”. That’s a good indication something else is going on and either the motion is wrong, or we’re just carrying gobs of background tension that we need to release.
Anyway, good luck and keep up the great work. Oh and BTW since it was me who strongly suggested you submit a platform critique…you’re welcome
I hope the stuff I suggested before handing you off to the pros wasn’t too far off the mark!
Absolutely. Pushing through all that shit is what got me into that whole mess to begin with. I “freaked out” when I felt anything so I worked on ways to not. It wasn’t a burn, though. More like knowing what muscles I’m using and when… If that makes sense.
Of course!! Thanks! I didn’t look into any of the details of this site prior to joining. Just the Cascade section. Twice lol
This is one the reasons I had so much trouble early on and why I thought I was having trouble before my “breakthrough” that the Metronomic Rock helped so much with.
I was at around 170 and playing flat or DSX was like doing nothing and USX, even tremolo took effort to feel effortless. I could do it but I really had to focus. Not so much hand but mentally. Even now at 190, flat and DSX are fine and tremolo with USX feels pretty much the same (not as much relaxed stamina), but traveling is still something I have to pay close attention to.
It does bring to mind the randomness of a lot of it, at least until you come to a site like this. We’ve all had times where we can play stuff we didn’t think we could, then spend tons of time trying to do it again. Hell, I made it 3/4 of the way through playing along with Desert Rose (not including that first… whatever the hell that lick is, and not all picked) and couldn’t believe while I was doing it, then lost it immediately… Would love to know why… It’s not like I had crowd in front of me to cheer me on. It’s similar to when I’m really tired, I can hit pinch harmonics in places I couldn’t before….
