That would make a lot of sense.
Yeah, it’s been bugging me for some time now actually. As the last video I posted was my fastest possible there is no way I could be making faster movement on the third note.
I was wondering why this lag disappears sometimes and cutting the third note short coul be a solid explanation.
Ok, so I had this bright idea to see how it goes when I apply 3nps to that crawling spider I test and practice my tremolo on:
And two things were made clear:
But in about five minutes of practice it started to click and it all begins to make some sense.
Surely I still do some errors, like 4+2 instead of 3+3 but it’s getting better at a very good rate.
The goal is to get 3nps up to the same speeds I do my tremolo, and at the same time get my tremolo to 200 BPM and beyond.
While the former should be just a matter of my brain holding me back, the latter seems nigh impossible - it feels like my hand cannot move any faster. But judging how my one string tremolo speed is roughly the same as tremolo over some melodies with changing strings, it should be possible to break that wall. And let’s be honest, 180-ish is not that fast at all.
I have a noticeably harder time with triplet feel than 16ths or other 4 note groupings, unless it’s sextuplets a la Petrucci or the Gilbert thing. I just don’t play triplets that much.
I would recommend doing small bursts of 5 notes (if doing 16th note feel) with different variations on where you change strings, that way you get a solid start and end on a beat (downpick to downpick). Up it to 7 notes if sextuplets / triplets.
I agree that should always be the goal, but in my experience, it will never catch it due to the loss of speed when changing strings. Still, I have benchmarks I try to aim for that are different percentages of my max trem speed (1nps crosspicking, 2nps, 3+nps, downpick single note, downpick 2 note chords).
You might have to go back to the drawing board with your picking mechanic, IMO you can’t squeeze out more speed once you’re “going fast” unless you change something fundamental (picking motion, secondary motions, picking depth, attack, etc).
I think 180 sounds fast in context, but it all depends on your goals.
OK, so tiny bit of an update:
Triplets across the strings are not that big of a deal.
Ultimate issue is with starting with an upstroke - does not matter if that’s changing strings leading to an upstroke, or starting just a one string tremolo with an upstroke. It feels weird and counter intuitive and resulting speed is very low comparing to starting on a downstroke.
I’ve made some progress with the 3nps licks/scale runs anyways, but in order to move forward I need to resolve the upstroke issue.
I think it’s getting slightly better:
I’m still struggling with playing solos though - it’s as if in my mind I could not process data fast enough resulting in hitting random notes, even when I tried to learn and memorise it slowly first.
I also clocked over 200 with single note tremolo (208 if my calulations were correct, if not then 197-ish).
I was focusing on learing thumping intro to An Infinite Regression more than anything else recently, so it may have impacted my progress with picking speed.