Pentatonic blues scale and USX/DSX practice

Technique Critique
#21

Hi @Troy and @Thegent, thank you so much for your comments. I actually brushed upon this subject with @tommo in a different thread, so thank you to you as well Tommo. I have a video here of me trying to tremolo at 140 and 150 BPM, including normal and slow mo speed. Please let me know what you think, as I have no idea if I’m doing it right. I feel like when I tremolo an open string, there is some kind of shrill noise, although I swear I am not picking this tremolo any different than how I normally pick. Could be because I am super beginner at tremolos. These videos are recorded about a week apart, and between that time I have been experimenting with different pick grips as @Thegent suggested, just FYI.

Troy, your note about go fast and then use that motion at a slower speed completely blew my mind. I have never heard anyone give that advise. Most suggestions are always use metronome at slower speed and build up, and recently I have been following your office of “go fast to go fast,” but this is the first time I’ve heard of “go fast, then go slower.” Thank you I will certainly try that.

Thanks Thegent for sharing your experience in obtaining your skills. At least I know I’m somewhat in the same boat and not just sucking alone :slight_smile:

Here are the videos, and I will record 160, 170, 180 as soon as I can. Although I did try 180 last week and it was a complete disaster :slight_smile: Thank you!

July 21 2020, 140 BPM:

July 29, 2020, 150 BPM:

#22

Thanks for filming these. Is this as fast as you can possibly go, or did you just choose this speed on your metronome and try to match the metronome? The point here is to go as fast as you can go. Since you don’t know how fast that is going to be until you try it, there is no way you can use a metronome because you wouldn’t know what number to set it to. So you can turn that off.

Again, this motion looks fine but it doesn’t look you’re really killing it and going for it like you want to smash a video game button as fast as you can smash it. What’s a good game for that? I don’t even know any more. But whatever that game is, that’s the game you’re playing! Just on your guitar. Is this video that attempt, or do you have more in the gas tank?

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#23

The second video looks like a good usable speed that is consistent (@troy - I’d say his speed is hitting that ‘closed loop’ range wouldn’t you?)…it appears to be USX to my eye. The motion right at 7 seconds (just before the slowmo) seems to shift slightly…you move to more forearm rotation than previous - it also makes your pick escape a little more which is good for string changes. It doesn’t mean arm rotation is more correct - it just appears the change you make gave you that result which I think is good for string changes. A the end - 48 seconds you can hear the string ringing for the first time - can you start to fret notes and make single string repeating musical phrases with this? I think your ready to start with hand sync.

If you can watch the primer - take some notes - you’ll notice although there are no wrong pick grips or wrist movements…or arm movement - there are what is referred to in the forum as ‘set-ups’ - that is one pick grip will inform wrist and the arm on a good positioning (or least positioning that others have consistently shown success with)…or the other way too - one arm position will inform the wrist and pick grip…it sounds confusing…however…it is to your benefit to get a grip (lol) on the concepts so you can reverse engineer for yourself why something may be working or not - understanding informs your experimentation further.

With regard to the tighter grip demonstration in the second video - when you experiment - don’t be afraid to get weird…that is try also making more extreme changes than that. Make a ridiculously tight grip (not tension) on the pick…then bring it to the strings. Doesn’t reach the strings that way? Move you arm position. Now everything is different…and weird…embrace that…welcome it…and as @troy is asking you to do - smash it with speed. Try it for a few minutes and take stock of what might sound good vs. not (i.e. it’s fast and smooth, but I often start to miss the string…or…it’s a nice attack the pick starts moving around after a few beats, then I start missing the strings etc…). Try not tightening up on the grip - use the grip you have now but experiment with arm position…you get the idea.

#24

Hi @Troy. Yes you’re right I think I misunderstood your request and tried to follow the metronome. I made another video just trying to go as fast as possible. The first few tries were pretty disastrous, more than half the time I was picking nothing but air. Also, there was so much tension just all around my arm. The below video is the most decent one after several tries and maybe my arm and hand had acclimated a little bit. Thanks again for your comments!

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#25

Thank you @Thegent. If that is a usable, consistent “fast” picking speed how would you suggest to start applying it to simple scales and string changing?

#26

Start with something like…

-----5—6----8----5—6----8-----etc on any string

also,

----8—5---7—8----7—5---etc on any string

also with a position shift thrown in,

15—12----14—15—14----12—(shift position)…14…11…12…14…12…11…etc on any string

#27

BTW - your last video (I couldn’t hear for some reason), but it looks like elbow…and DSX which makes sense. You might have two budding motions…some component of arm rotation and a little elbow on your second last video and more primarily elbow at your current fastest rotation. Both have different escape paths (USX vs DSX respectively). You might find one motion works better for one phrase with string changes while the other does not and visa versa. Being aware of this means you can be intentional about what your going for based on the musical phrase you are trying to make.

#28

hi @Thegent. Is it good or bad that there’s elbow movement? I thought the best movement should come primarily from the wrist, no?

#29

Definitely not bad. Watch the Brendon Small stuff.

#30

Hey @rabbid this looks like a great starting point! Are you keeping the pickstrokes intentionally small? I think you can start experimenting with a wider range of motion (while maintaining roughly this speed), and see how that feels!

Edit: in any case, this motion migh do just fine! Try to apply it to some simple single string phrases, as well as licks that only change strings after a downstroke, and see how it goes!

#31

Hi @tommo. In the last video I am not intentionally trying to do anything, just trying to go as fast as possible :slight_smile:
thank you for your advise!

#32

Hi @Thegent @tommo @Troy and everyone else. Just a little update on this subject. I recently bought a set of Jazz III picks and amazingly they have improved my playing quite dramatically if I may say so myself. I got the Eric Johnson, Petrucci, and Max Grip models and so far I like the Petrucci the best. Nevertheless all three are so much more comfortable than whatever the heck random picks I have been using for years. I dont know if its because these Jazz are thicker or perhaps because they are sharper, but the results are undeniable. I am hitting notes more accurately than before. Not perfect, but much better. Who knew changing picks can have such improvement?? Anyway I just would like to share this in case anyone is having the same experience as me. You can see in the attached photo that the yellow pick, which is so old the print on it gas more or less faded away, is so much bigger and duller than the Petrucci one.

Thank you

image
image3024×4032 2.53 MB

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#33

I experienced the same…switched to jazz III’s for about 5 months. Once my technique became more reliable I experimented with standard shaped picks again…they felt weird and the tone was different…however like riding a bike it came back. Although I have my preferences - I can use just about any pick now. You may find the same.

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