this stuff is all, at some level, “worked out”.
perhaps even more than the biomechanics, for me this has been the most powerfully influential concept imparted by you. It’s the whole reason I allowed myself to start approaching speed picking after almost 3 decades of avoidance.
Love this discussion.
I read an article once where someone researched exactly how uneven musicians swing was at different tempos and they found that as the tempo increased the swing was lost to point of having basically even eighth notes. I’ll try to find the article and post back.
Also I agree with @MontyCraig that at the faster tempos it’s more about articulation than rhythm.
Sounds familiar, actually.
Would be very interested to see the source.
Your revelation of McLaughlin’s patterning habits has been a massive red-pill for me. For years I’d thought his speed was borderline paranormal. I saw him with the original Shakti and it made an impression! His RH physical movements seemed a model of technical perfection. That caused me additional challenges trying to achieve fluency over 3nps patterns.
(By the same token, swiping (generally) was the other missing piece of the fast picking puzzle - of why people favoured 3nps patterns for picking when it seemed harder.)
Are there any examples of McLaughlin playing fast with TWPS you know of? You’ve mentioned he can do it.
John is a textbook two way pickslanter and we talk about some examples here:
https://troygrady.com/seminars/antigravity/chapter-21-john-mclaughlin/
John’s technique is very similar to Andy Wood - they both fit the wrist oriented primary up 2wps mold well. Numerous closeups of Andy doing the uwps two way movement abound in his interview, like this example:
https://troygrady.com/interviews/andy-wood/clips-guitar/scalar-shred-acoustic/
OK, I’m confused! In the McLaughlin link, everything(?) you’ve said refers to him using even numbers of notes per string, facilitating his UWPS, i.e. 1WPS. There are some clips of his instructional DVD and he even adds an extra note per string to produce an even number when formally laying out the modes, again facilitating 1WPS. I checked some of the improvisational passages, and again all the fast playing seemed to follow this regime. You’ve said it yourself about his patterning. So how is he a “textbook two way pickslanter”?
BTW, he said in an interview about that performance that it was much faster than the rehearsal tempo and it was set by the drummer. He thought, it’s live, just got to go for it.
Edit, OK I’ve seen the 2str Arps now! LOL I really should pay more attention!
The Antigravity Chapter, right? The 2wps stuff starts about 4:50:
https://troygrady.com/seminars/antigravity/chapter-21-john-mclaughlin/?seektime=290
You’re referring to the Carson performance? Didn’t know he has commented on that. If you’ve got a link that would be cool.
The whole interview’s great actually.