Pop Tarts Lick target speed

Playing Technique
#1

Hi, I’m new here, and going to ask what is probably a really annoying question…

I’ve been playing the pop tarts lick for a little while and could do it up to about 144bpm with my ‘old’ best picking style. for the last couple of months I’ve been working on a new, more tremolo style, a bit of anchoring on the pickguard etc, and now have it up to 160bpm.

I’m not a shredder (obviously), nor is that my goal, but I was wondering if there is any average speed which the average player with decent technique should be able to get such a lick up to.

I know it is dependent on a lot of variables, but is there any target I should be aiming for? I don’t want to spend a lot more time on this if the rewards are going to require exponentially greater amounts of effort (as I have other things to practice).

sorry, I know there’s not going to be a definitive answer to this, but what are your thoughts?

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Pop Tarts Lick — DWPS
#2

200 BPM 16th notes is a completely doable and realistic goal, though you will still have to practice hard. That is the ballpark speed at which Troy plays it in the Volcano seminar clip.

Personally, I have also been able to push beyond 200 BPM and wind up roughly at 220, but beyond 220 for that Yngwie rotational mechanic it seems that things start to break down. I was able to fake 240, 250, 260 BPM, but there was a large amount of desync; it would likely only sound acceptable in a band mix. The general consensus for the Yngwie rotational mechanic is that 210-220 16th notes is the upper limit. As of right now, I don’t think we have any hard proof that 220 BPM +++ for that technique can be the easily targetable speed on any given day with a solid warmup.

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