Not sure if this was covered before or not but i thought it would be cool if people would share some of the exercises they came up with to practice TWPS.
The first time I got TWPS to work was when I tried using rest strokes whenever possible. The lick I played was this:
e -----------------------------
B -----------------------------
G ---------5-7-8-7-5-------
D -5-7-8---------------8-7-
A -----------------------------
E -----------------------------
I also did a lot of descending sixes, inside Gilberts and three note per string scales.
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Nice exercise. I do it often but to practice swiping, not 2WPS.
Well here is my contribution!
I use this exercise a lot to practice 2WPS. It is inspired from Michael Angelo’s Star Licks blues scale exercise. I like it because it focuses on my weakest fingers. I designed it to be metronome friendly, 16 notes:
e -8-5--------------------------------5-8-5-
B -----8-5----------------5-8-5—8--------
G -----------8-7-5-7—8-------------------
D ---------------------------------------------
A ---------------------------------------------
E ---------------------------------------------
I play it using 2WPS starting from the 1st to the 12th fret.
Let me know what you guys think!
Cheers \m/
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Something I’ve just noticed, and it is likely one of those weird things how some people are more comfortable ascending or descending, but Troy’s example of twps in the pickslanting primer does the chunk where the high e is down/up/down and rotate, which brings you to the B string where you reverse up/down/up and rotate.
I have been hammering that for a month down the descending scale, and for some reason it was just tough.
The other day I decided to reverse the chunk and start with up/down/up on the high e and blammo! I’m able to generate a lot more speed fluidly with it.
I realize this is 6 of one and half-dozen of another because as you proceed down the scale it’s still just two way pickslanting, but for some reason this way is easier for me.
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Anyone have any good combined 2way riffs with cross picking?
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I tried playing the antigravity lick with crosspicking and it worked fine
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One of my favorites is Dream Theater’s glass prison arpeggios (I only practice the first three bars). I think that if you manage to clean that up, it opens a whole world of cross picking licks to you! I believe so, because I noticed that the more I practice it, the better my right hand technique gets at other stuff (can’t explain exactly why).
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Stave 1:
E|–12–14–15–14–12----------------------------------------------------------------------
B|---------------------------15–13–12–13–15–13–12------
G|-------------------------------------------------------------14–12–11–12–14–12–11
It continues on down:
D|—14–12–10–12–14–12–10–
A|--------------------------------------14–12–10–12–14–12–10
E|------------------------------------------------------------------14–12–10–12–14–12
I couldn’t fit the stave, but the low E obviously isn’t supposed to overlap. It’s linear.
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I am not sure this qualifies, but this is one of my favorite patterns, maybe because it just sounds so cool.
E|--------------5–7--8–7--5--------------
B|-----------6-----------------6-----------
G|--------7-----------------------7--------
D|–5--8-----------------------------8–5--
A|-----------------------------------------
E|-----------------------------------------
or this:
E|--------------5–7--8----------------5–7--8–
B|-----------6----------------------6-----------
G|--------7----------------------7--------------
D|–5--8-------------------5–8-----------------
A|----------------------------------------------
E|----------------------------------------------
The bottom version is odd-timing (7) so it flips pick-directions, and it allows me to practice double-string skips.
I don’t know if you would really be combining x-picking & 2wps, but I suppose you could.
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I’ve found that running up and down the major scale on the wound strings is a good warmup for TWPS. maybe because the unwound strings are slippery?
Mind you, I only really do TWPS when descending, and primarily use economy picking ascending, though if I force it I can get it happening both ways. I’m still faster ascending economy than descending TWPS, but the gap has closed appreciably the last 9 months of working on it.