Roy’s picking is so fast. I thought for sure he was speeding up videos at first but it appears he’s legit. Sounds pretty darn clean too, like one pickstroke per note rather than flubbing it.
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BUT, he was able to do it! incredible!
Amen to that. And Amen some more.
Actually it seems that Yngwie always misses a note in the descending part of the 5-string Am arpeggio, consistently with what Troy is saying. You can see this very clearly on the REH instructional video. Interestingly, that is also one of the first licks Yngwie shows!
PS: sorry for the off topic - Yeah this Roy fellow can pick insanely fast 
In my brain he is stored under “never attempt any of this”
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I was thinking about buying his pick, but then i saw the price…
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This might be of interest to everyone here. Roy filmed a video with a classic ‘Code’ angle.
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amazing picking for sure!!!
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I clocked some of that last clip in Transcribe!, Roy was hitting about 21-22 notes per second when tremolo picking. Very fast, but not unheard of.
I think his picks must be made of a very hard material. When making initial contact with a string, a very hard pick will will effectively sound a note determined by the picking position (similar to a slide touching the string or Bumblefoot’s thimble-tapping technique), before it pushes through the string and sounds the intended note.
As most people pick somewhere between the fretboard and bridge pickup, the resulting non-musical pitch is very audible when playing on the bridge pickup.
I can’t perceive it with a nylon pick unless I’m picking a string that’s damped with the left hand. I perceive it more clearly with something like ultex, but it’s still in the realm of what I would consider “attack” when note are being fretted. With lexan (the material stubby picks are made from), the non-musical contact pitch is very noticeable to me on every picked note, and I don’t like it.
I think some people call this “chirp.”
Roy seem to get around the shrill sound of the chirp to some degree by picking at the bridge itself, but this results in a very thin tone, and it means he can’t effectively damp strings with his picking hand. I suspect that this is why he needs the ribbons on the neck for string damping, and why he favors the synth pickup.
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I thought about that guy and his approach. Seems like it’s like wrote in my offtopic post. By using more curved surface (like his pick) one could make good, predictable, well controllable picking… however sound becomes more flat, not so bright. Although, I started to think that it’s unavoidable tradeoff if you want to get high speed picking.
It’s been an interesting thread to read so far. Will pass your thoughts to Roy. You can always direct your questions directly to him at:
[email protected]
He’s always happy to answer mail when he has time.
That way you get to know exactly what you want from the horses mouth and there’s no need for guess work. Oh and I agree - if you liked the taster drill then subscribe to his YouTube channel now as there are weekly if not daily updates on technique, applying that to compositions and a few new interviews with Rowan J Parker, like the one above. Kind Regards to all. Jilly.
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Good to see you on here Jilly!
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Hi Tom
You’d need to ask Troy, but I believe the fastest ever recorded is 22 notes a second on a single string (John Taylor? can’t remember the guys name you need to check ). Hence though 22 is not unheard of it is also quite something! Key here is that when you see Roy achieving the same 22 notes per second (and not “trying” as such to beat any record - God forbid! lol) he is playing accurately across all 6 strings at that speed - not just one. The key is to achieve this kind of speed playing accurately complicated patterns across 6 strings. No point in speed if you can’t apply it well musically I am sure you will agree.
The Phat Bhoy picks are nylon plastic based, that’s as much as I can tell you, we went through numerous prototypes and settled on a very durable material, in this you are correct. The shrill sound was intentional so every single picked note could be heard played accurately. If Roy selected the neck pick up (as opposed to the bridge pick up) the notes picked would not be as pronounced but they would still be clearly audible.
Roy does use string dampners (those rags) as he can not damp with the right hand because he plays so close to the saddle on the electric guitar you have made comment on. This is intentional on his part, to reduce less string flop. When the string is more taut against a pick that is rigid, the outcome will be less movement required from the wrist which results in greater efficiency and speed. Roy plays only from the wrist not from the elbow or arm.
It’s great to see so much interest in his playing. Perhaps Troy may wish to analyse him one of these days. The Scottish Universities are keen to engage as they have never seen anything like his playing and not only want to understand how the speed is achieved with such accuracy but wish to understand how he is made up anatomically. Hopefully he’s not a robot as I am married to him!
My best
Jilly Gee.
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Please do subscribe Uglijimus and you can also mail Roy on [email protected] with any questions thereafter. Several new videos released in last couple of days and a 30 minute interview with him is out this weekend on YouTube.
Thanks for your support.
Jilly Gee (Roys wife :>)
Marketing and Promotion
Widowmaker Studios
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and it doesn’t look like there is any pick slanting going on here either!
if you can guarantee I’ll play HALF as fast as Roy after buying his pick, count me in! 
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This is (most likely) trailing edge upward pickslanting, and the lick structure, terminating each string on downstrokes, is appropriate for that.
@Jilly thanks for stopping by, and great work on the closeup shots. Did you guys film any 120fps / 240fps versions of these? I’m not sure how much of our stuff you / Roy have watched, but the short story is that it appears Roy is using a technique we call “upward pickslanting”, which is also what John McLaughlin and Al Di Meola do that enables them to hit these kinds of lines cleanly. It involves angling the path that the pick traces in the air, so that certain pickstrokes go right over the top of the string during string changes. It’s very cool, and many great players do this without entirely being aware they do so. Roy may be one of them. Or he may be aware that he plays this way - which is also cool!
If you do a slow motion version of this, you’ll be able to see it, and that would be pretty excellent. Given the speeds at play here, I would use 240fps mode if you have a phone that can do that. Most iPhones and Android phones made in the past few years have this capability. It will also enhance the appearance of the video even when it is played at normal speed, because fast-moving objects will be sharper.
Let me know!
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Hi @Jilly.
I don’t mean to discredit Roy or diminish his playing in any way. I hope my comments were not misconstrued.
To my knowledge, Troy has recorded John Taylor picking at 24 note per second, though I believe that this is indeed limited to single string tremolo picking.
I’m aware of other tremolo picking speeds which are similar, though not verified by an authority as reputable as Troy and the Cracking The Code team.
Roy’s picking was at about 21-22 notes per second when tremolo picking on a single string, which is still ferociously fast. I clocked some of the patterns which move across strings from the above clip too, they were just a touch slower than the tremolo picking at about 20-21 notes per second. Very impressive, and I’ve no reason to believe that that’s Roy’s absolute limit.
As for patterns which move across those strings at similar speeds, I haven’t seen much. There are a few picking patterns Shawn Lane had which involved the occasional economical string change or legato note which he played at similar speeds, but his strict alternate picking patterns were usually in the 18-19 note per second range. Rusty Cooley and a few others can sweep pick at similar speeds.
I’ve watched many YouTube videos Roy appears in over the last week, there’s a lot to like about his playing. I really like the clip where he plays some Middle Eastern music with a chamber orchestra in Uzbekistan. The thin, shrill tone works well in that context. I reminds me in some ways of some of the sounds Uli Jon Roth uses.
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Hello Tom
Thanks for your comments, certainly no offence was taken. I was just interested in some of your observations & wanted to confirm or correct any points made. Thanks for taking the time to raise them it all adds to the enjoyment of debate and knowledge sharing. Good to meet you all on C the C.
To be accurate, that is John Taylor as you will know and according to Troy (around the end there) he’s picking around 22 notes per second on one string. It is currently the fastest human movement ever measured in a laboratory setting, as I understand it. However as I have said before - unless one travels with that musically across all strings it’s very interesting how the human anatomy achieves extremes (for geeks like me!) but not terribly pleasing to the ear. How Shawn or Roys slightly slower speed (?) applied to actual music making is achieved is really noteworthy. It’s a great sadness we lost Shawn BUT we still have Roy 
and indeed that technique of his is, as I understand it from other guitarists (I am a cellist!), totally unique & they feel it’s worthy of analysis to fully understand how it’s achieved. His accuracy at high speed has long beguiled those who have been in Roys company when he plays music for them. Through Roys first release of his Up Close Guitar Technique Video consciousness has been raised considerably & has spread throughout the internet to pique the interest of many others. It’s remarkable to witness how word spreads!
Anyway Tom, as I said and I meant it, good to meet you and everyone else on here. We’re all about supporting our fellow musicians and if anyone can raise the bar a little and we can see future generations evolve from that then it’s all been worthwhile.
My best
Jilly.
Hello Troy
Good to hear from you and read your observations.
I will ask Roy to subscribe here tomorrow so he can reply to you himself. Best I am not the go-between when it comes to the really technical stuff!
My thoughts, for what they are worth as an insider so to speak, is that Roy will know accurately the techniques he’s employing. Reason being, he has developed his own method and the Phat Bhoy pick over 30 years and literally has a library room dedicated to the thousands of exercises he has designed to drill himself and push his own limits. I am not sure it will be possible for him to fully impart, or even that it’s wise to impart, how he does things here in writing alone, as it falls short of the full analysis required, as I am sure you would agree! However he will no doubt be as thorough as he can & give some initial indication as to how he understands his own playing. Indeed, I will be interested to read it myself.
Always learning!
My best
Jilly.
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I don’t think this video with Rowan shows the 32notes per second legato (?) but that’s another Roy & Rowan video (Insane Legato) which is worth watching.
However, Roy truly isn’t that bothered about what he calls speed for speeds sake, he just wants to colour music that way if he thinks it needs it.
That said speed and how it’s applied really seems to excite and interest many and I do understand why. It’s a phenomenon in and of itself,
Drill Set 5-8 from the Up Close Guitar Technique Series is released this coming weekend followed by a piece played live and unedited on Mon or Tue the next week. I say this as I think Roys playing has evolved since those older videos on YouTube and though they shouldn’t be discounted as they are all part of his journey…it’s the new stuff that’s more pertinent. Thanks for posting these videos Count Chaos and raising awareness.
My best
Jilly. 
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