Do you mean something like this?
1 Like
that’s the one! but like I said any nylon strap should work with rivets, or any strap really that isn’t totally trash will not break. I used 2 rows of 3 rivets, so 6 total.
1 Like
I’ve got a Traveler electric and its very small and light so great if having shoulder problems. I like the neck’s feel (its full-size fretboard). A option worth considering.
1 Like
So THIS I have an answer to: I grabbed an Ernie Ball locking strap, and its extremely comfortable and stable:
The basic table tap test, I was able to BARELY maintain 16ths at 200bpm, and I need to go through the wrist motion tests again, but those weren’t much slower. I can hit 16ths at 140-ish no problem on strings lower than the high E, which is why I suspect part of it is a lack of practice thing at the moment.
When you say barely able to maintain, the tests are really just two bars. Could you do two bars (16 taps) at 200 or were you just barely able to make that?
Keep in mind, we’re not insisting that it feel effortless. If you have to don your gym face and go for it, that’s completely fine. You’ll see in the Primer videos that I had to do this to get over 200. The purpose of the tests is just to know the limits, and the limits aren’t really supposed to be easy.
If the limit is 200 or 210, then 140 though, that should feel pretty easy in terms of physical effort. This way we have a sense of where and how things should feel comfortable. If you test at 200-210 and 140 is not pretty easy, then that doesn’t really add up and we can suspect something is up with whatever technique you’re using.
Also, when in doubt, post a clip and we’re happy to take a look.
1 Like
Yeah, maintaining that for two bars wasn’t a problem. Taking some videos, it seems to me like I’m doing a LOT of string hopping here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1z9NU-euCbErizopcEvWy6fqh2PkLzclh/view?usp=sharing
Attached is 20bpm faster on the low E, which seems smoother but not amazing:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zHk5XfL1FW6CK0PSviRswWxc91cVsjQi/view?usp=sharing
…And a tremolo test on the high E:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zKhOPb5ok8dqPF79qc61Fm6OKVnQ8rAO/view?usp=sharing
Awesome! Thanks for filming these. Super helpful. And you are completely correct, the first clip features various degrees of stringhopping. The low E clip looks pretty good, but if you’re saying it feels slow them maybe you’re doing something wrong there we just can’t see from this camera angle.
But the tremolo clip is perfect. And, drum roll please, your tempo on this is… 210bpm sixteenths, which is a very good number. If you’ve ever watched John Petrucci’s instructional video “Rock Discipline”, you may recall the scene where he reaches 216bpm on the metronome but stops after only a couple bars. So 210bpm would be a realistic practical maximum for lots of great players.
As is so often the case when we look into cases where someone cites issues with fast joint motion, it often just boils down to not doing the motions correctly, and this is another textbook example of that. Your goal is to use the motion you’re using for the tremolo clip, and to slow it down only as little as you need to at first to play phrases, so you can still tell by feel that it’s the fast/easy motion. If you go really slow you’ll probably just go back to the stringhopping motion since that’s what you’ve learned.
So your next order of business is using this awesome motion to do simple synchronized single-string phrases, like the Yngwie six-note pattern or the four-note chromatic one finger per fret pattern. This is how you can work on hand synchronization. These lessons are an ok place to start:
Nice work here, keep us posted and let us know how you make out.
1 Like
Thanks so much for taking the time to break it all down thusly! It seems like I’m already doing a little better by starting practice sessions with a little tremolo picking to remind myself of that orientation, and I’ll start working those and other videos into my practice sessions. I’ll also start a separate thread with some goals to keep myself accountable and show how I’m coming along on things
1 Like
Sounds good. The takeaway insight here is that what you’re calling a “tremolo” motion isn’t really a tremolo motion, it’s just a picking motion. And it’s a very nice looking one, at that. If you get a chance to film this from a down the strings type angle, that would be interesting to take a look at. Just get up a little closer and point the headstock toward the camera. If you have a 120fps mode on your phone, even better if you can use it.
One of the reasons I think people put “tremolo” in a different category is that tremolo feels uncontrollable whereas “alternate picking” is the slower one where they can feel every note. The trick is that fast playing is supposed to be fast enough where you can no longer feel individual notes. You learn to control it by setting landmark picstrokes, like the initial downstroke, and only “feeling” that one, while ignoring the others. This is how you play faster than you can think / feel. This is what you’ll develop by trying to do the single-string patterns.
Finally, if your motion is a DSX / downstroke escape motion, then you need to start those patterns on an upstroke for them to be clean when you switch strings. A down the strings clip would help to determine that, but just from the looks of it already, my guess is you’re probably doing a DiMeola-style motion and that would be DSX. So upstroke is probably the way for the Yngwie and chromatic licks. For downstroke landmarking, you’d need patterns like the Paul Gilbert-style sixes pattern, since it switches strings during downstrokes. That’s this one:
Keep us posted!
Well, I’m glad I came to the Forum to poke around for a look.
I’m a noobie to the site as well, and after a couple of months here, I too am feeling overwhelmed by the site navigation and material.
I’ve started bookmarking positions, which helps.
But after inconsistent visits to the site over a month or two, I’m lost. I remember studying the “Keys to the Lamborghini” episode, but I’ll be darned if I can remember how I got there, or where it is in the Primer. It makes no sense. I know it’s in there somewhere, but I have no idea where. Plus, because I’ve lost momentum, I don’t know where to pick it up from.
I like what you’ve written here about the Picking Primer order. It would have been helpful to read that in a ‘how to’ - before now. But, perhaps it is in there, but I just missed it. I’ll review again.
This material is SO good… I sometimes feel like the proverbial, “Dracula in a blood bank”… kind of thing… where I feel like ‘everything’ is so good, I’m afraid to miss it. I have a gluttony of choices.
Clearly, I do need to go backwards and review my steps through the Primer. If I noted my metronome values, I can’t find them now. I believe that I am an UPX with a 2 o’clock motion… at least… picking this way I feel like I achieve the ‘easiest’ tremolo picking. Even though it doesn’t sound great playing the Thunderstruck riff, and I can’t get around a scale or change strings with ease. Plus, UPX seems to go against ‘everything’ I’ve learned and practised in my 50 years of playing. And after discovering DPX, I feel like a ‘googly foot’, now ‘changing’ to UPX. But I get that they ‘both’ exist. (who doesn’t want to play like Eddie though?)
I’m definitely a Troy ‘fan boy’… amazed by all you’ve done on this site. I aspire to play like you one day… I just wish the lock would ‘open’ for me too. It’s ironic that I’m here knocking on the door, but that wrist action is the very one, I need to stop.
(Sorry for the long winded blow)
1 Like