Starting over at 59

Technique Critique
#1

I am looking to overhaul my RH technique from the ground up. I’ve been exclusively a fingerstyle acoustic player for the past 35 years but arthritis has gotten in the way. I have watched the tutorials and have determined that I’m an elbow player with a slight USX, and I do bend my forearm in a 'hockey stick" manner. My specific goals are to be able to comfortably play sixteenth notes in the 144 to 168 range, continue to develop my sweep picking (as a substitute for fingerstyle) and generally clean up my RH act, including doing a MUCH better job muting unwanted string noise. The only RH pick studying I’ve ever done was at Robert Fripp’s Guitar Craft back in the 1980’s.

I’ve included three short videos, all with embedded slo-mo: my tremolo, excerpt from Copland’s Hoedown, and a brief section from Zappa’s “Montana.”

tremolo:

Hoedown:

Montana:

#2

The videos are set to private and I cannot see them.

#3

I see that–working the problem now. Thanks!

2 Likes
#4

Welcome to the forum @clearsteer!

Long story short: the motion in the tremolo video is promising, while the motions in the second and third video look inefficient / stringhoppy. I see you are a MIM subscriber so I assume you know these terms, but let me know if not :slight_smile:

So what I’d recommend is to try and gain more control of the motion in you first video. It looks like elbow motion, so it’s going to be downstroke escape (DSX) with very high probability.

This means you can start practicing this motion with a variety of licks and riffs that only change strings after a downstroke

This is a classic (if a little unmusical) example, starting on a downstroke:

D-------------------5-6-7-5-6-7 (etc.)
A-------5-6-7-5-6-7
E-5-6-7-------

Of course feel free to look out for mere interesting licks, just make sure that the “downstroke string change” rule is respected (at least at this initial stage of technique development, we will worry about additional string changes later :slight_smile: )

Note that the tunes in your second and third video contain all sorts of string changes, and this may be why you have been unable to use your fast elbow motion for them.

Let us know how it goes!

2 Likes
#5

@tommo—thanks for your critique! Since I’m prepared to rebuild from scratch I sorely need the feedback.

1 Like
#6

@tommo–after working with your suggestions all weekend I’ve created a few short videos of my first attempts at DSX. Looking forward to your feedback.

Picking exercise:

McLaughlin lick (from your content. No attempt to play it fast!)

1 Like
#7

Hey @clearsteer!

This looks promising, but the truth is we’ll never know if the motions are efficient without speeding them up.

I think the examples you have chosen involves nontrivial synchronization challenges between the two hands (the McL pattern particularly so). So it may be easier to try and speed up something with simpler fretting, at least at first.

The exercise I outlined above is one possibility, since it only involves fingers 1-2-3 of the fretting hand (and these are usually a bit easier to keep under control than the full 1-2-3-4).

But another option is to go for something tremolo- esque like this (basically power chords with some sliding):

 D U D U...etc.
--------7-7-7-9-9-9---------------7-7-7-9-9-9--------
-5-5-5---------------7-7-7-5-5-5--------------7-7-7-- (loop indefinitely)

Or like this (just uses fingers 1 and 3 without sliding):

 D U D U...etc.
--------5-5-5-7-7-7---------------5-5-5-7-7-7--------
-7-7-7---------------5-5-5-7-7-7--------------5-5-5-- (loop indefinitely)

As you try speeding up these, try to achieve a picking motion that is similar to your tremolo video. You can film yourself and compare the two critically, if you feel like it.
Sacrifice accuracy if necessary, the first step is just to explore what it feels like to “play fast”, or more importantly, to play with efficient picking motions. We’ll clean things up later :slight_smile:

1 Like
#8

Thanks for sharing your expertise–you’re right in that I have no idea what it feels like to play fast!

1 Like
#9

@tommo I’m now getting a consistent tremolo on demand (which is an improvement) but I can’t translate the technique into slower movements without getting my wrist involved. Once the wrist is in the mix it’s only a matter of moments before some elements of string hopping take over. My tremolo seems to be successful only if it’s from the elbow with locked wrist. Suggestions?

#10

Can you start up the tremolo as fast as you can go and then gradually dial it back so that you’re able to use it to play ‘slower’ ?

You can even ignore the fretting to start with and start tremolo on your Low E then once you’ve got that going, slow it down so you can count off ‘3’ strokes starting on a downstroke so that your 3rd one clears the strings and you can start on the A string on an upstroke, then count off 6 starting on that upstroke and continue on up the strings.

Bear in mind, this is not really how you’re going to ‘build’ up to speed because speed is either there/available in the movement to begin with or it isn’t, this is more to wrap your head around what the shift is going to feel like when you’re moving around the strings. It’s completely different than a string-hoppy motion where you need to consciously ‘clear’ the strings. Doing it this way using a decent motion and changing when it is conducive to do so (based on your tremolo motion example from above) should make the changes feel like nothing at all.

Does that make sense?

2 Likes
#11

@JB_Winnipeg Thanks for the insight—I totally get what you’re saying and I appreciate you taking the time to respond!

1 Like