Do you know who actually said this?
Steve Morse
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You must be a fan of twosetviolin 
Approach wise, I think itâs 80% slow build-up, 20% fast exploration to figure out whatâs not working.
Itâs very simple. No pain no gain.
Perfection is reached at the point of collapse folks, learn to recognise and ride the edge. Some folks need to learn how to learn, itâs a black art till you succeed.
Is it something heâs said a lot, or is there a particular interview or instructional vid where it came up? Piecing together the history of the puzzle pieces is sort of interesting in its own way.
This is where Iâm at, too - starting fast is great advice for developing speed, starting slow and working up is a great way to develop coordination.
But, I think the important caveat here is that one of the main underlying points Iâve taken from CtC is that fast alternate picking is in essence a mechanical problem - thereâs an approach or a technique to doing it right, or rather a whole bunch of them, but once you get the basic approach down, it pretty much just works. The point of starting fast isnât to learn to get faster, itâs to force yourself to develop something that isnât making you slower.
So, in theory⌠Once you figure out the mechanics in a way that work for you, pick speed isnât really the issue. At THAT point, starting slow (using a mechanic that you already know can go fast) and working your way up to speed makes a lot of sense.
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Not a lot. He was talking about picking across strings. Something to the effect of âanyone can just pick on one string, bzzzzz, and then move to another string, bzzzz, but if you canât make that move itself quickly, whatâs the point?â
I wanted to say it was in âPower Lines,â but I donât think it is. It might have been in one of his columns he used to write? I definitely remember him saying this.
EDIT: Here it is! Itâs from the old guitar.com.
Start around 2:50. Sorry for the video quality; it was an old RealMedia file that DâAddario put up on their YouTube page. You can make out the quote that I write about above.
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No offence to Claud but after his video on pickslanting im not sure how seriously Iâd take his technique advice .
Thanks for digging this up!
Its Claus. His videos dont really address picking mechanics though itâs more mindset and strategy and proper focus when practicing.
He very much on the mental aspect of playing.
I bought his course, the razor, and hes a phenomenal teacher. No he doesnât address pick hand, etc. But hes burning on these videos.
He attributes it solely to focused practice on short sequences to point of mastery
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Pros often attribute their skill to things which may or may not be responsible for said skill. I think we know from research on practice that repeated practice on a single thing isnât the same as focussed practice and Iâm not sure if thatâs what he has in mind.
Claus teaches narrowing 75 -80 % of your practice time towards a small sampling of sequences. This involves tons of reps at slow speeds emphasizing accents, chunking.
You have to have the sequence, passage, etc. Under your fingers first, before you can start applying speed. I mentioned this in MM video and he agreed.
I believe the starting with speed is great initially for finding a picking mechanism that works
But in order to marry that mechanic to actual playing you need to synch the hands up and that can only happen at slower speeds imo.
Once you have that sequence under your fingersâŚstart flooring it. Then clean it up, slow it down, then floor it, etc.
Troy will often dismiss the LH part in this (understandably so) because it doesnât present nearly the same challenges as the RH, however you need reasonable good LH dexterity and finger independence for both hands to synch properly.
Paul Gilbert said he needed to âget his left hand downâ first before the picking stuff could work.
The very best players have LH mastery.
I think LH facility comes easier for some so they overlook it , however it hampers some of us including myself
Idk Iâve tried that and it didnât really work for me. I think troy is right you should mostly be practicing music with lots of mechanical variety. Not just doing slow sequences over and over again. Like I said that doesnât pan out to be efficient in motor learning research in sports and I doubt it is in music. I just donât like Claus, including some his videos on improv sorry.
Itâs not just slow speeds, its varying speeds, and you are supposed incorporate variey.
The most essential idea is mastery of a handful of basic sequences instead of large volumes of material.
Iâm not trying to sell you on Claus.
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I used Clausâ YouTube channel and paid lessons to build the entire groundwork of my alternate picking skills, and then used Cracking the Code to apply those sequences to more âhistoricalâ examples seen in the seminars. Iâd go as far to say his teachings actually prevented me from eBaying my guitar in 2017 and quitting music altogether.
His alternate picking course features a variety of pedagogical tools like @NCASO says, which includes bursting, slower loop-able practice, and so on. Claus does stress variety but within the framework of what youâre learning. So if youâre learning alternate picking you can learn a few different sequences stressing the same core skill.
He is also one of the only guys on YouTube to actually discuss how often times those who lack guitar technique lack it not by virtue of innate ability, but instead through their own psychological self-sabotage. He has so much value in his ability to communicate the psychology of guitar practice that you could ditch everything he says about actual mechanics and still have a valuable resource.
Iâd encourage you to give him (another) fair shake. Worst case itâs another resource you say you tried, but I think there is value in having multiple guitar teachers to whom you refer.
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That was brilliant. I gave Claus a 2nd try
I never regretted it. Hes fantastic and helped me immensely
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Trills, trills, and more trills! I neglected the left-hand portion of training for so long and couldnât understand why it couldnât just catch up to the right-hand picking. Then I started doing trills of every finger combination for several minutes every day and my synchronization improved almost immediately.
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What stuff from Claus do you recommend? His free stuff is pretty helpful. I tried looking for his Ultimate Alternative Picking Program (something like that) but itâs long gone.
How do trills help with synchronization between the left and right hands?
They donât help with synchronization in a direct way, but doing trills every day until your fingers are ready to fall off strengthens them and greatly increases your left handâs fingersâ speed, to ensure they can keep up with your right hand picking. In my case they were an invaluable tool because my hands couldnât sync up for precisely that reason: my right hand picking was faster than my left hand fingers could move. Also, doing trills among all four fingers helps you do any variation of a lick, like the 6-note Yngwie lick, smoothly and evenly.
Sry I missed this.
Create an account on his site. He sends a good amount of free material. The free alternative picking course was called ingenium. Check and see if he still offers it. I have it.
He has dozens of videos on YT regarding focus, mastery. mindset, practiceâŚ
I recently purchased his Razor course. Its fantastic. He takes a series of sequences and shows you how to build them all over the neck as how to apply the concept