Stamina: How long should you be able to tremolo pic at fast speeds?

Playing Technique
#1

I’m talking about single string Tremelo Picking.

I was leaning toward the belief that you should be able to tremolo pic on one string (200 BPM) Indefinitely. I will get a slight warming feeling in my lower forearm ( I sort of rotate my wrist USX, Ulna 2:00 O clock) in about a minute, sometimes my forearm muscle will get tense, and I’ll have to stop. But what ever approach you use has or anyone gauged this in terms of Stamina-length of time?

I saw the John Taylor video, but that’s only 43 seconds long and he’s going for speed with like 10 or 15 second bursts.

Thanks

Looking for General Feedback
#2

Hmmm I imagine this is very different for everyone as there are so many variables.

Faster speeds (i.e. 190bpm+ and above) I can only do shorter bursts. At 180bpm and below I can go for a minute straight, and much longer as the tempo decreases.

I have not personally seen anyone play in the pocket, with conviction, and a good sound at 200bpm or more for over a minute with no breaks. To me that would be quite elite.

Definitely a respectable achievement if you can though.

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#3

Andy James has a free download (Insane Workouts). It has an Alternate Picking, Pentatonic, Arpeggio, and Tapping ex. The alternate Picking workout is about the easiest out of any of them. It does change strings but it does lean towards more single string playing (especially the beginning 14 measure intro and the 14 measure outro). I do it as a warmup, but my forearm does get strained towards the end, NOT always though. That kinda tells me that my original belief that you should be able to tremelo pick indefinitely is correct.

#4

Challenge accepted! :rofl: I’ll post a video later today and see what I can manage

In my opinion bare minimum should be 30secs, any less to me says that your motion isn’t efficient. In terms of strictly tremolo picking probably 2mins (what I’ve found from my own personal experience) but in reality the chances that you need to tremolo pick for 2mins straight are slim to none :slight_smile:

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#5

I just attempted it myself and I got 15 solid bars of 200bpm 16ths with a lead tone, took a few minute break and got a solid 14 bars with a clean tone. I don’t know how long that is in seconds because I refused to do math again once I graduated, but yeah… That was it for me. For the night… Good luck, gentlemen. I’m sitting this one out, lol

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#6

It really depends on what kind of music you want to play.

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#7

While this doesn’t contain the answer, it makes me think we should be suspicious of anything we can only do for a few bars

#8

Technically this is slightly under a minute, but maybe it gets extra points for being well above 200? lol! Regarding the “good sound” I guess that is subjective, but nothing here is off-putting to me

Yep, agreed. The fact that we don’t see tons of people playing at these speeds for this long indicates those who achieve it are elite.

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#9

NIce. How was your picking arm after that?

#10

Is this reply addressed to me? The forum said it was lol. Sorry I thought the embed would’ve made that more clear but that is NOT me playing at 240 lol! It’s the amazing (AMAZING!!!) Igor Paspalj.

#11

Yeah, I addressed it to you. That’s you playin’ right?

#12

Not me, it’s Igor Paspalj. If I could play that fast I’d become a total narcissist and post videos like that all over the place, then I’d get banned from here for self promotion lol

#13

Thanks for posting it anyway though.

#14

No problem! and sorry for any confusion. I was just trying to show that there’s “someone” out there who can play at an extreme speed for ~1 minute. To me, he doesn’t look tense and I think that’s the key. He’s got a motion going that’s either fast because it’s relaxed (or possibly relaxed because it’s fast) and able to get much more than just a few bars. He’s in control, and is able to still apply accents in places. He’s definitely an inspiration. He’s also got a softer side which is sometimes rare among these speed demons.

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#15

Also, I found this:

Troy mentions a “20 second tremolo test” in that one. I think in general “hard numbers” can be problematic but that is substantially lower than the 1 minute mark we’ve been kicking around.

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#16

In this thread or in the forum? I don’t think I’ve heard it before, but it’s rather arbitrary. If you’re picking at your absolute fastest, then maybe a few seconds? I personally don’t think endurance relates well to technique viability.

#17

In this thread. I don’t know that we’re talking absolute. The topic just says “fast”. I take this to mean “the upper limits of usable playing speeds” but that definition is my own. Based on some of the recent Troy videos I’ve linked, I don’t think in these speeds, we should tolerate “a few seconds”.

That’s a different opinion than Troy’s, which is fine of course :slight_smile: It’s a public forum after all. I’ve been doing some tests with this and sure enough, I can’t keep this up for anywhere near a minute even at 190. It starts fine, but after like 10 - 15 seconds, something happens to my focus and the motions doesn’t want to continue. It’s not fatigue, it’s like…confusion. Then I think I “do something” to try to salvage it, I feel the tension immediately and it’s game over.

#18

Unless there’s some specific musical situation where you’d need to pick for that long, I’d say something like a minute is overkill. 16ths @ 200 for 16 measures straight is a little under 20 seconds - if you can do that and don’t feel strained by the end, I’d say you have enough endurance for just about anything and there’s no reason to test further (again, unless there’s some piece of music where you need to do so). You’d be better off pushing higher speeds for shorter periods, and preferably not as “tremolo” but with some sort of synchronized pattern.

#19

laughs in power/black metal band

#20

Question - I’m asking out of ignorance: are they typically doing “measured” tremolo for these durations? Or just picking as fast as possible and hoping for the best?