Yes I’ve heard about this concept, I definitely need to work on my fretting hand as well, maybe practicing some legato chops. On this video Portnoy is already in the 170 bpm range within a few secs, so I think it’s worth practicing songs on a slightly higher tempo than the original 
I guarantee nobody in an audience is going to notice. You play like a stone cold killer in every clip of yours that I’ve watched. The typical bar-band guitarist has nowhere near your level of alternate picking chops.
Maybe you are right about the audience part. Haha thanks but I only wish I could play like that.
There’s some improvement with one of my arch enemies though:
Great playing!! Sounds very clean and syncopated.
Thank you 
Today’s addition to my practice list is the Under a glass moon solo. There’s a nasty chromatic run in that and I’m not sure what I’m doing here is correct. I’m starting on an upstroke, tempo is 100 bpm. I tried starting with a downstroke as well but I’m still struggling with string changes after upstrokes, there’s a lot of excess noise in this case.
Starting with UPSTROKE
Starting with DOWNSTROKE
I feel there’s a slight improvement with the 3nps stuff since my first post here.
I also uploaded the audio with better quality:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LMN_ga406ByhLljLiktnQzvcvpQ7m_0I/view?usp=sharing
Just wanted to chime in and say that your playing sounds awesome! Amazing what you have accomplished in this short time span.
How is the tension at this point? Has it gotten better? If so, what would you say was the cause of that?
Thank you for chiming in. Tension wise I’d say it’s heaven and earth. The picking hand feels more and more relaxed day by day and although I spend a few hours practicing every day, I’m not counting minutes and struggling without any results.
The sensation is still weird, not long ago I could not even think about playing at these speeds and it just happens now, sometimes I need to record it to believe it’s real. I discovered new “blockers”, especially on my left hand, when I do a lot of position shifts, it just gets tired super quickly and it ruins my playing as my picking hand gets tense as well when my fretting hand dies. So I’m working on things which are demanding for my fretting hand, I think my picking hand is on a good track. Maybe I won’t hit the 240 bpm range ever but if I can play my favourite songs in my room I’ll be a happy man. What I try to do consciously, always, is to get the same “feel” and “flow” when I can play something fast and it feels relaxed. There are specific string changes when my picking hand usually got blocked and tense in a second but I focused on those shift on high speeds trying to relax it and practicing a little slower than my maximum speed and carry over that sensation I had on a slightly lower speed.
Wow, really awesome. Not only are you sounding fast and fluid, but the consistency is really getting there - even these practice clips have minimal failure rate and appear high quality - you seem composed and purposeful. With these skills your practicing will be less and less demanding and more just playing your ass off and having fun.
I’m very jealous indeed…
Also, I love the tone - are you using anything other the guitar and amp?
Thank you for your words. 99% of the clips I’ve recorded are from the Marshall YJM 100 with a JHS Bonsai, nothing else.
I’ve received my Axe FX III last Friday and I’m using that since then. The mic is the built in mic of my webcam so the audio is awful but I can record the output of the Axe now and I posted an audio only clip as well, sounds much better than the webcam microphone.
Absolute badass!
I actually like webcam microphone sound, I like hearing the ‘in the room’ sound… but look forward to hearing your new setup
It is badass indeed, I love how it sounds. The clips I’ve posted today are from the Axe (the ones I recorded with the webcam as well) and with the two Headrush FRFR 112s it sounds amazing too, it rips my head off even on low volumes.
Tried the Andy James lick starting with an upstroke.
Feels 100000 times easier than doing upstroke escapes
Sounds great! Nothing to improve on the picking - but if I had to make a suggestion it’s to pay attention to the vibrato at the end, make sure you give a nice musical conclusion to the phrase - check out how awesome that last notes sounds when Andy plays it.
Haha, haven’t even noticed the vibrato but checking it now
Here’s an updated version 
Haha, love how your picking is so great that the only thing left to work on is the final note. But anyway, I actually think your vibrato was fine even in the first example. Andy is off course doing a bend up to the note which gives the whole thing a little more power and attitude.
But I agree with @tommo that how you end a phrase i critical. I think it’s super important to always think about how every phrase is ended, even when only practising picking licks. This gets ingrained in the playing and then comes natural. I would even say that the vibrato at the end is what sells the lick. There are som many talented pickers out there that misses out on the vibrato which makes their whole plying feel mechanical or lifeless. I think one of the absolutely most important things that have made the biggest shredders so universally loved, is that they all have great vibrato and tone.
Ask me how I know… well actually I’ll tell you anyway
My vibrato has been terrible for many years (I wasn’t even listening to what I was playing, too focused on getting the picking patterns right) - and only in the last 2 or 3 years I started paying attention to it after someone pointed this out to me! I’m not great at it by any stretch of the imagination but at least I started trying
I agree with you both, I’ll pay more attention to this. 3 months ago I couldn’t even pick on medium speeds so I have new things to worry about I think. It makes sense that the more vibrato and phrasing stuff I do, the more it will be ingrained into my playing. Personally I love Yngwie’s vibrato the most, it always teleports me in an other world, no matter how many times he’s repeating the same licks/scales.
This talk of the importance of how you end a phrase reminds me of one of my favorite Marty Friedman clips:
