Overwhelmed and unsure how to proceed

Hello all,

My name is Josh and I’ve been playing guitar for about 18 years now. I’m mostly self taught by reading tabs for the things I want to learn but I also watched every Paul Gilbert video I could find in the first 5 years or so that I started playing. Like a lot of people, I played for hours and hours hoping to build speed naturally but was never able to get anywhere near the speeds of Paul Gilbert or Yngwie Malmsteen with my right hand which is really what I’d like to be able to do.

A while back when Troy Grady first popped up on YouTube for me (2015 ish), I was thrilled and watched every video I could and understood everything he said but failed to apply it. I think a big part of that is that I’m and old dog but I’ve also always felt that my right hand just doesn’t freaking work.

I’ve hardly played the electric guitar in the last 5 years and would like to get back into it but all the things that I’m interested in learning are just too fast for my right hand so naturally I started looking at Troy Grady again and have quickly realized that there are SO many correct ways to play.

Because there are so many correct ways to play, if I buy in, are there clear paths laid out for different correct styles? For example, I’m hoping to stick with straight alternate picking (less to relearn that way) and would like to follow the path that applies only to straight alternate picking from holding the pick to escape techniques to speed building exercises. Or is it really up to me to make sure I choose the correct content in the correct order?

Another big question is, do many people struggle to reach their speed goals even after buying in, watching the videos, and practicing for months and months? Or is it pretty much all success stories even for people that have been stuck in their ways for a long time?

Sorry for the long intro but any advice/input would be greatly appreciated.

Josh

2 Likes

Welcome Josh! It’s totally normal to feel overwhelmed when it comes to picking technique, it’s a huge subject!

The easiest way to get started, if you feel like it, is to post a short video of your current picking in our Technique Critique section (filming instructions attached below). We could start with just a single-string tremolo (just pick a single note as fast as you can) and then take it from there!

Hi Tommo,

Thank you for the quick response. I’m putting together a video now and will post it to the Technique Critique area in a bit.

Josh