@Pepepicks66 @tommo I also gave a try to the Universal mind intro the first time while standing up, with a midi backing track. Not perfect, but I’d be happy to perform this way in a live situation.
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I’ve noticed something with my picking hand in the last couple days when trying to get throught the 200 bpm barrier. My picking hand is “floating” more than before, almost giving me a “bouncing” feel. My palm is not resting on the bridge at all, also, my forearm is not touching the body, there’s a visible gap between the guitar body and my hand. I’m using my entire body to pick 
I don’t feel tension anywhere though. My pinky still touches the guitar body but I’m not anchoring heavily. Also, my pick slant is much more like a downward pick slant, despite my escape motion is a DSX.
Edit: my palm is slightly touching the bridge when playing on lower strings.
Has any of you experienced similar things? Tempo is 200 bpm.
Lick is this looping pattern:
E -----------14-15-17-15-14----------------14-15-17-|
B -13-15-17-----------------17-15-13-15-17----------|
This “floating” feeling of my arm became more and more frequent after practicing this chromatic run:
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I still keep trying to find a faster picking motion than my current one. Based on what I’ve experienced in the last couple of weeks, I keep experimenting with a different picking motion. There’s still elbow but my wrist and forearm is in a different position I think than it was before. I’ve tried to do something similar I’ve seen in @Troy’s post Questions on how to practice using chunking . I’m sure it’s not the same motion, and I’m not familiar with this fretting pattern so I couldn’t execute the run without stopping constantly. I’ve noticed that with my new microphone connected to the interface, it is recording both the dry signal and the mic signal. I’ll sort that out, but for now, you can hear the mic on the left channel and the dry guitar signal on the right.
Not sure if this is a valid motion or if there’s a default escape here.
I’m sure there’s a valid motion in there somewhere! Anything you can do that fast can probably be made use of for something.
It does look like you’re trying to get an USX motion (based on the arm position and initial string attack etc) but my eyes are telling me you’re reverting to a DSX motion mid-tremolo. That’s your primary baked in tremolo escape, the one that you’ve had so much success with lately?
That’s not a critique mind, just something I’m seeing. My guess is you’re on your way to figuring out a new escape, but you’ll need to keep futzing with it to get the feel down.
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Yeah, I’m sure my current technique is interfering, but honestly I find my hand much more loose when playing fast stuff this new way. There’s not as much control as with my default motion but maybe one day it’ll click. I started discovering this mainly by trying to playing cascading 6s at 150bpm (it’s 225bpm 16th notes). Not perfect but that’s how I started to feel this “new” motion (is it a new motion at all?)
First take on this. Personally, I find this more difficult to play than Technical difficulties. For me, ending the sextuplet runs on the D string feels more natural than starting the DBX pattern on the A string after the burst, so timing is terribly off at some places, it needs more work for sure. Thank you for the great exercise @tommo and for the tabs 
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For every new lick you take to a high level, one box must appear in the background. This is the secret of gabriel’s technique.
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I’d say it’s not true, but that would be a lie
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Evening practicing, with some rough bits.
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Sounds like the sixes are a little slower than the metronome, are you running the metronome through your computer software separately?
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What I’ve noticed that I start the first 2 groups slightly earlier than the beat. Shame on me.
The metronome is on the computer.
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Haha once again don’t beat yourself up about it! Where’s all the guilt coming from?
Every time I try to record something to a click / drum beat, I have to do a few attempts before I get some decently-timed takes. And even then, it’s not humanly possible to be exactly “on the grid”.
I think it’s fairly normal and the important thing is to be able to evaluate it and try to correct it. For example, I noticed that it’s very easy to anticipate the beat when there is a fast and short passage (I’m thinking e.g. Paul Gilbert’s technical difficulties). If I’m not careful, it easily looks like this (I started early and finished late here):
If you listen to Paul’s live performances of TD, you’ll notice that sometimes he falls into this trap too, but the overall result is still great:
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I just try to be on time and well synced, it doesn’t always happen as it seems Probably a side-effect of my neurosis due to having a perfectionist mom.
First attempt of this lick, a little rushed but getting there, one day. I hope Time to learn songs and build a repertoire before achieving the Train of thought speeds (hopefully it will happen in a few years). I’ll have my audition for a local hard rock cover band next week, I’ll play Black dog from Led Zeppelin and No more tears from Ozzy with them. Wish me good luck, I really want to get out of my room and play for real.
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good luck man! you have more than enough shred for something like this, I’m sure.
If I can give a suggestion, I’d spend the remaining time practicing your rhythm/timing to a drum track or similar. Record yourself, listen back and evaluate / correct. But of course, knowing you I should also say: don’t be a perfectionist.
Often it’s how we play the “simple” rhythm parts that really makes the difference when playing with a band.
You can do it!!!
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Thank you and thank you for your suggestion. I’ll definitely won’t spend more than one day learning the solos, even if not 100% accurate, I want to focus more on playing the riffs and my timing, as I’ve never really played anything below the 12th fret, and my shred time will be about … 20 seconds max/song. The rest should be smooth and not ostentatious by any means
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I honestly think you could just autopilot the playing at this point, I’d focus a little more (actually a ton more) on stage presence and vibe. @tommo mentioned the rhythm stuff (which makes sense since you’ll likely be playing that the most), but the cover bands I’ve been a part of or seen try to get a good vibe going so people can have fun. I can almost guarantee it’s gonna be more important to them to get someone that looks like they’re having a good time and is a good hang than someone that plays the parts dead accurate.
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Is 41 and aggressively average at guitar too old to start looking for a jam band? Asking for a friend…
What everyone else has said. You’ve got more than enough skill to pickup pretty much anything. Like @Pepepicks66 said, if you can get a good vibe going and be a good bandmate, I’m sure you’ll do well.
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@Pepepicks66 Yes, that’s what I’m doing, I don’t really care about my technique at this point, as it’s not developing any further beyond the 190-200 mark, I think there’ll be an other milestone when it will all click and I can make further progress. The singer lady is really picky about covering classics, she wants every note to be spot on, so I try to be as accurate with the Zeppelin song as I can.
@JB_Winnipeg It’s never too late I think, as we have all missed the boat, so let’s have fun and stop worrying about getting old and being average
@anon25405869 I agree on this, the more confident I feel doing something, the less stress is involved in the performance. I remember the old school days when I was performing poems or literature pieces on competitions and how different it was when I didn’t have to worry about remembering 10 pages of text.
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Just a quick update: the band asked me to join them.
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