I think @ScottyB is doing this too, something I haven’t tried yet! In a way I’ve regressed on experimentation, I’ve stuck to mostly DUU.
It’s me again! Tried 270 BPM 16ths.
I distilled the paradiddles to doubled downstrokes and doubled upstrokes with a a single 8th note rest between reps, so a syncopated feel against 4/4. You can hear me do it in the middle of the vid.
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I can barely tremolo 200bpm, you going for crazy town!! Lol
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@PickingApprentice I blame watching some more Shawn Lane videos recently, lol. I’m trying to get my speed to match with my technique, since trailing edge kills the benefits of my finger motion!
Damn! Had you reached this speed before or is the paradiddle exercise increasing your speed now?
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@jptk I’ve never reached that speed before, at least not against a metronome or on camera that I know of. This has definitely increased my speed!
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Another update, this time on how this has affected my crosspicking (Tumeni Notes).
BPM is 210 which I think is what the song is at. In the past (before the paradiddles), I felt like 180 was the point in which things just felt really hard to get even remotely clean, so this is a big improvement for me.
I only know the first riff variation, and vaguely the 4 string part that’s clean. You don’t see it on camera, but my issue is now the second arpeggio shape fingering; I was doing 134 but I started experimenting with 123 instead. I think it helps my fingers feel less jumbled there. The 4 string part is horrible because of the bar across 3 strings with the ring finger. I’m just bad at those and need to either practice it or figure out some fingering variations.
For this you can hear me do DDD and UUU triplets to warm up / get a feel for the speed. Again, I think these subsequent pickstrokes help develop / warm up DBX.
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Very impressive! I can’t do 1nps alt picking at all. I’ve only just started trying the last few months and can’t say I’m getting very far. It’s a big swiping mess
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@jptk I think one of the added benefits of this exercise is that it forces you to not pick too deep, otherwise you can’t clear the string. I feel it helps me really get the pick depth right.
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That makes sense. These paradiddles are proving to be major speed boosts
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OK I should really start doing your paradiddles 
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@tommo Very low time commitment needed! And as @PickingApprentice mentioned, you can just throw them in between reps / riffs as a “palate cleanser” lol.
Well, while the jury is still out regarding its long term benefits, but last night I managed 200bpm 16ths that felt really smooth (albeit a little rough in places) - something I haven’t really managed before (at least 20bpm what I could max do before. I have settled on DUDDUDUU as one that helps me
@Pepepicks66 , you employ lots of DBX in your playing right? I think I do too, but felt tension at times - A cheeky paradiddle sorts it out.
It would be interesting to see if it benefits pure USX/DSX pickers
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@PickingApprentice that’s awesome!
I wonder if you play certain phrases that have more carryover with that particular permutation? I found those 3 (DUDDUDUU / DDUDUUDU / DUUDUDDU) to be pretty similar for my own purposes.
I think most everything I do is DBX. It’s great to hear that this is having positive effects for that!
I haven’t really thought about this, but it’s a good point. I would assume that if your trem speed is where you want it, then these paradiddles would do nothing for pure USX / DSX. The only benefit I would see is that your pick depth can’t be too deep to do these, which might speed up raw trem speed.
My alt picking is forearm and wrist, so I don’t think it applies. Unless I tried it with forearm and wrist… It did highlight some flaws in my downpicking though so I’m working on that now
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Did the Gilbert riff with outside and inside picking:
Inside picking I noticed a muting issue with the G string I think, so I’ll work on that as well!
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Another session for Tumeni Notes:
I tried to focus on a few things:
- Being able to maintain the riff at speed for at least a few reps.
- Commit to fingerings and drill them into memory.
- Get more accurate on the position shifts and the feel change for the pedal note portions.
Overall I’m happy with where it’s at, mistakes and all, so next time I’ll start focusing more on note “quality”. I won’t be able to play guitar much until mid January, so y’all might not get any updates from me until then!
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Sounds like you are well on your way with this one. Great work
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Sounds great man. I’ve always wanted to try this one out
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I hope so, thank you! I’ve always avoided lots of position shifts so that was an expected hurdle, but the feel change against the metronome definitely was a curveball!
Thanks man, you should give it a go! Also I need to learn how to insert GIFs lol.
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