So should I not do short bursts? I’m still at the initial stages and still can’t get a relaxed tremolo 210bpm+ with 16 notes. I’m confused.
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(Hey @gabrielthorn – I’m not Tommo, but here is what I think he means 
… @tommo is this in line with your thinking?) The “problem” with bursts is that they, or specifically the transitions from nothing to bursts, are more complicated than continuous notes. If you start from nothing (a still hand), then you are moving from zero brain/muscle/nervous system activity to a state of complex activity that has to be finely regulated. That’s pretty tough. If you do continuous notes, then your nervous system/muscles have a chance to explore and get into a groove.
The best method I’ve found for myself so far is to alternate between slow and fast. I’ll set a metronome click (or not, or just 1 & 3, or 2 & 4, etc), and I’ll play quarter notes, then 8ths, then 16ths, then back to 8ths, then 16ths, etc. I’ll keep playing all the time, no breaks, just testing things out, trying for longer runs of 16ths, etc. This is the “slow-fast-slow-fast” method of practicing documented here.
Cheers! jz
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I think, pertaining to learning a new motion, bursts could give you a false sense of a motion that works, when in a more realistic situation, that motion won’t work. You might be able to play several notes in succession that are fast, but still not be using an efficient motion. You’d know this right away if you could sustain this over a longer duration of notes, because you’d get all the symptoms of a motion that doesn’t work - tension, lack of control, ‘sticky’ feeling with the pick etc.
I think it’s useful in situations where you already know what the motion is. It can help build stamina and help zero in on hand sync issues. I think there’s a place for almost everything, but maybe I’m just a glass is half full kinda guy 
I would say, regardless of what anyone else tells you, if you find something that you are sure is improving your playing, keep doing it. If you aren’t sure if it’s improving your playing, it might be a waste of time lol!
Anecdotal and totally contrary to what I said above - I taught myself a DBX motion by doing ‘bursts’. Cross picking an arpeggio, decently fast with an as-yet-unknown motion, made no sense to me. I couldn’t even get a full rep in because no matter what I did, the pick would just catch on the strings. So I immediately stopped wasting time with what wasn’t working and tried to find something that would. I just tried playing 2 notes of an arpeggio as fast as I could, then 3 notes as fast as I could, and kept forward chaining until I had a full ascending arpeggio across 4 strings. Then I did the same thing descending. It’s almost like I let my hands figure the motion out themselves. That’s likely apples/oranges with the type of bursts being discussed in this thread. So, sorry for the detour
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Personally I’m not “against” burts, but in my opinion they are more an exercise in rhythmic control (e.g. mixing 8ths and 16ths, 16th and sextuplets etc.) than speed development.
I also think it’s very easy to “cheat” them and fooling yourself that you are playing at the correct speed (e.g. you could be starting a little early and finishing a little late) — unless you are willing to painstakingly analyse the timing of your takes in a daw
If the aim is to check whether you can sustain a certain speed, I’d go for longer stretches like 4 bars or so: long enough that you’ll notice if you fall behind, short enough that it shouldn’t make you tired so that you can do a few attempts and look for that “fast and easy” feeling
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To put it simply Thanks! I know there are others much more advance than me, much better than I am, have great advice and depth of their understanding in developing the mechanics of picking cleanly, accurately and fast following either their own methodology or Troys , talk about being relaxed aware, finding the best picking technique that fits our own personal physicality but some of us ( I don’t think I speak only for myself here) didn’t know what is that relaxed feeling feels like. Anyone out there that is dedicated to learning, progressing and enjoying music that understand what I am saying, try doing as instructed in the video and you will find what that relaxed feeling actually feels like. I know for me after one time through your exercises, I discovered what that relaxed feeling feels like. Invaluable at least for me and thanks again for shininig a light on that.
Hey there, that’s super! Sometimes it’s really tough just to let go of any built-in tension, I know it was a massive blocker for me. As I’ve continued working on my picking, I’ve found that these exercises are a great starting point … and then real picking is just a minimal activation of muscles to make things happen. Troy G. added some great comments to the video as well. Cheers and best wishes! jz
thank you so much for this post JZ. great stuff
For me the single biggest cause of tension was simply making mistakes. I was trying to play USX material using a hybrid DSX and DBX, some things worked really well but some things were impossible to improve. I’d hit the garage-spikes and it was infuriating.
These days I don’t spend months on any one thing, I just isolate a problem to be solved and try to ratchet my way forward. One thing I like to do is alternate slow and fast, but not half/double speed. I’ll take a sextuplet run and phrase it in fours, so the slow take is two thirds the speed and I remain in running-mode rather than switch to walking-mode for the slow-take.
This has an added bonus in that it creates quite a different-sounding phrase using the same technique and notes, with different phrasing.