Reaching Fatigue really fast

Playing Technique
#1

Hello, So i have been asking several people and all say my tremolo picking technique is really good. But the problem is that after a short time i reach fatigue. I play from the wrist but i feel stress in the forearm and arm, it becomes uncomfortable and eventually i need to somehow relax my arm while continuing playing and it causes me to change the position of the pick in my hands to be more inwardly angled and thus i fail with riffs and songs and cant play consistently.

Also, another question, whenever i try to practice with mentronom tremolo picking, lets say 60 bpm, should i do d/u/d/u as a 4 notes for every beat? or every beat = one strum either down or up?

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#2

What do you mean by short time? 10 seconds, 30 seconds?

I doubt many people can sustain their fastest tremolo for very long periods, maybe moderate tremolo work could help you work on endurance and getting rid of excess tensionā€¦

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#3

If itā€™s ā€˜justā€™ fatigue then work on endurance, find the slowest tempo you can still use the same technique and try and do it non stop for 5 minutes.

If itā€™s cramps, shooting/stabbing pain, tingling, numbness, any other sort of ā€˜nervyā€™ sort of sensation, find an alternative technique.

Also try and take an ā€˜inventoryā€™ of excess tension in unrelated areas of your body, are you tightening up in the shoulders, legs, the fretting hand, clamping your jaw, whatever. Focus on letting that tension go while maintaining the motion.

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#4

Of course I agree with others here, that first you have to make sure you arenā€™t doing something wrong, like holding on to extra tension, or using bad form.

But in general, I think very few people can keep a fast-tempo tremolo going for a long time. Playing 200 bpm 16ths will just tend to wear you down. Playing things like flight-of-the bumblebee are notorious for causing fatigue. Also, non-stop X-picking for long periods of time can be pretty fatigue-causing as well.

One thing I see a lot is using mechanics that are better suited for endurance for long stretches of remoldingā€¦ like using a relaxed elbow motion as the main ā€˜driverā€™ of the alternating. Then the other mechanics are just kinda along for the ride.

oh, and about your timing question. there are lots of good videos explaining time signatures. I know Signal Music Studios has a few great videos on this. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRDDHLvQb8HjE2r7_ZuNtWA

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#5

learning to relax while playing fast is a KEY skill

dont get too overly excited about it all. Dont try to always sprint. Do sprinters have great endurance?

Numerous top players like Joe Stump and Kiko Loureiro suggest spending quality time at speeds somewhere around 60%ish of your top speed. Joe Stump directly calls this ā€œaerobicā€ trainingā€¦in other words not so fast that you are wearing out quickly etc but not so slow that you are falling asleep

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#6

Currently i am on 90bpm struggling with 16th notes. and i lose grip of the pick after some time as the pick changes it direction to face the other direction rather than towards the tuning pegs and thus i need to stop and readjust the pick. What advise can you give me?

#7

sweat a lot?

maybe you are picking too deep into the strings

#8

Tends to be sweaty but not that often. I use dunlop picks and i try not to pick deep into strings. Most time i am tremolo picking.

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#9

Donā€™t know if youā€™re still struggling and I certainly donā€™t have the answer as I still have this problem (just joined the forum last week) butā€¦ Iā€™ve always used Cat Tongue picks for this reason. The only place I know to reliably get them is Amazon and theyā€™re not cheap but they really do feel like a catā€™s tongue which has helped me keep a better grip on the pick.

#10

use the app metronome beats pro unfortunately its the paid version. utilize the higher bpm start at your comfortable max nps speed.

600 is 10 nps
660 is 11 nps
720 is 12 nps

the highest it reaches is 900 bpm

there is a feature to increase speed over time use a few seconds like 5 to 10 seconds and increase it by 1 bpm. it will help you figure out where the weakness or tension is creeping in.

#11

Fighting excess muscle use takes a kind of high awareness of your own physical and mental state. Neurologists have compared musical practice to meditation for these and other reasons.