Not able to keep smooth technique at slower speeds

Hello all! I’m John and just signed up. Happy to be here! I’m able
to play a tremolo at fast speeds but when I try to slow it down to
say sixteenth notes at 90 or 100 it feels impossible. To me at the slower
speeds it only feels possible to play it by using stringhopping. I’ve also
noticed the more I slow down my fingers and joints in my picking hand
start moving slowing me up. Also I am left handed but have played right
handed for nearly 30 years. I was messing around with picking using my
left hand and noticed with that hand I can go fast and keep that same technique
at the slower speeds. I’m seriously considering buying a left handed guitar.
Here’s some videos of my problem. Thanks!

(5) Tremolo picking front - YouTube]

[(5) Tremolo picking side - YouTube]

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Hi and welcome!

It definitely looks like the motion itself changes at the slower speed. There’s still elbow, but the instability in your hand allow other things to move (either wrist flex/ext and possibly even forearm rotation) and I think I might even see the grip itself move a little.

Some things you could try:

  1. Don’t tense/bend your index finger so much

image

I am pretty flexible and I can’t recreate that grip without some discomfort. Maybe try a more traditional trigger or ‘relaxed’ trigger grip like Rusty does:

  1. Try not using your other fingers to graze the body of the guitar. I used to do this too, particularly after getting into Batio’s playing. I found when you go all in on an elbow technique sometimes it can cause things to get a little ‘sticky’. And overall, ‘sticky’ is the problem as we see the pick just going nowhere at the slower speeds. You’ll of course need to feel some degree of attachment or ‘anchor’ to the instrument, but you can get that in an elbow motion with a different tactile reference - the thumb’s palm heel. Notice how much Rusty contacts the strings in that area. Which brings me to my next suggestion…

  2. Try to pronate just a little more

More broadly, I agree that at various speeds the motions are hard to do. There are pockets of tempos with various motions that I just can’t do. It’s sort of like asking someone to jog the same way they sprint.

  1. You are a paid member, so take advantage of the Technique Critique feature on Troy’s main (i.e. non-forum) site. Once you’re logged in, go here and it will walk you through the steps

That gets you a guaranteed response from an actual expert, not a wanna-be shredder (though very serious hobbyist) like me :slight_smile:

Anyway, best of luck, you’ve come to the right place! You may also want to post of video of yourself playing lefty just so we can see the differences.

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Welcome to the group!

You have a pretty noticeable “garage spikes” thing happening on your upstrokes, even at your faster speed, so much so that your notes have a slight swing to them - you can see how much more the string is being displaced on upstrokes versus down. Some alterations to how the pick is hitting the string might help that out: you could try adding a bit of “bridge lean”, to use the parlance here, and see if it makes it smoother.

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Thanks! I’ll definitely try out all those things and see if in the next couple of days
I could post a video of my left hand playing for comparison. It does seem harder at more moderate speeds. I’ve been practicing some J.S. Bach at various tempos and it is a bitch!

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Thanks a lot! I have noticed there was something off about the up strokes!
I’ll rewatch the video about garage spikes. Is bridge lean in the primer!

No problem! As far as it being covered in the primer, I do not recall, but there are some good threads about it to check out, such as this one:

I think if you experiment with that a bit, and maybe commit a little more to one mechanic (you have several different motions going on in your vids), things will smooth out. You might as well try starting with pure elbow and using a little more of a pronated setup, as @joebegly suggested.

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