Hello,
I just joined CTC and watched a number of the videos - clearly, I suffer from stringhopping.
The 2/4 notes per string exercise feels the same (limited) in both directions. In fact, I tend to just follow the direction of the string movement: start on an upstroke if I’m going towards the low E and start with a downstroke if I’m going towards the high E.
My initial test results are also pretty straightforward: I’m comfortable with the Di Meola and elbow tap tests and much less so with the others.
→ Where do you suggest I go from there to try to fix the string hopping and focus on what is likely to be the right technique for my ‘style’?
having a similar issue. posted here a few days ago and got no responses.
there’s a great deal of video content here, but no real concise way to make sense of how to use it. when to use specific techniques. how to practice them. there are lots of nods to things like yngwie’s six note technique, but i don’t really find that useful, because while i’ve now learned more than i ever imagined on how to properly use my ergonomic wrist motion, it’s so fast and effortless i appear to have lost all ability to fret anything correctly.
i also can’t seem to find a concise answer on how all of this relates to traditional alternate picking, how to make use of economy picking, sweeping, anything odd (3nps) other than “well it depends.”
generally speaking, as someone who has been playing guitar off and on for almost 30 years, i’d love to make use of the wealth of knowledge here on the mechanics of picking at speed. but the total lack of any structure makes it far less useful than it could be. so, OP, it isn’t just you.
I would strongly advocate for posting high-quality videos of your current picking technique, where one can clearly see your pick in slow motion. You can also submit said videos to Technique Critique to get feedback from Troy or Tomo. “A picture is worth a thousand words.” (And video is 30 pictures per second!)
Hey, as you have a masters in mechanics membership, you can submit a video for feedback. This is probably the most helpful thing you can do as a member.
Apart from that, going through the pickslanting primer in its order is a good place to start if you haven’t already.
thanks, but these are the sorts of replies i find elsewhere in the forum, and they’re really kinda non-answers. i don’t want to speak for sitiben (or hijack this thread further) but i would only say that i don’t think i’m in a position to request feedback at this point.
i think the general point i’m trying to make here is that this content leads to new skills that are exciting, but doesn’t really provide you the tools to incorporate those new skills with the ones you already have to achieve an exciting outcome. so you’re left to sort that out on your own.
CTC’s purpose, as I see it, is to provide lots of detailed analysis on various picking techniques which members can then either experiment with on their own, or receive some guidance on a path to take from Troy or Tommo. All of this is mechanical. What you are asking for is probably better suited to one-on-one lessons with a teacher.
Had the same. Learned to do stupid fast tremolo but didn’t know how to go from there.
But now it seems I’m making progress again. I started a metronome at 120BPM and tried to do one bar of my fast motion but at this tempo (sixteenth notes i.e. 4 notes per bar). Turned out that this is very hard to do, my hand wants to go fast. If I focus “too hard” the old stringhopping “friend” comes back.
But eventually I managed to do it. Just make sure the motion you’re doing looks and feels similar to the thing you do when you go fast. Easy to fall into a trap and make a less relaxed, tense, slow motion. Hit the string with confidence and speed and strength, while the hand stays relaxed, like you do at the stupid fast tempo – but do that synchronized to the 120 BPM click. One click. Pause for a few clicks. Try again. Repeat until it works. Often you’ll get it for a while but then lose it, don’t get frustrated, instead take a break.
Then bump it up to 160 BPM. Repeat the exercise.
Then bump it up to 200 BPM. Repeat the exercise. Etc. until you reach your max tempo
Now start from the beginning, but while doing the one bar of hitting the string, fret a chromatic 1-2-3-4 pattern. Don’t think about synchronizing the left hand with the right hand, instead, synchronize the right hand to the click like you did before, and also synchronize the left hand to the click. This is a transitive relation, so now it turns out you’re fretting while picking synchronized.
Try to sometimes do two bars as well. Or 3 bars.
Try it without metronome as well, sometimes the metronome can be distracting. Sometimes you just have your own tempo that you’d like to play right now, that’s fine, use it
Watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ft6p6dqWWY
(BUT do this ONLY after you learned to do the fast tremolo. The fast tremolo goes first, the syncing exercise goes second)
After doing this exercise for half an hour, getting the two hands somewhat synced on fast tempo on the 1-2-3-4 chromatic pattern, I try to fret a completely different pattern which I learned at slow tempo. And somehow, I sometimes manage to do it at a fast tempo while picking it. It’s not impossible like it was before. Somehow the 1-2-3-4 chromatic exercise at speed enables other fretting patterns at speed. They are not clean but they are somewhat close to what I wanted. It’s magic.
this is basically where i am now, which is ‘ok, what am i meant to do with this information?’
again, my chief criticism is the lack of structure here. i could say a lot about why i think that is, but in brief you really have to hunt and peck through hours of video to get a complete picture of what all this means. and in order to really be intentional about how you take it forward and incorporate it into your playing, you really need all of that info.
so like you, i’m trying to take from it what i can. and as i mentioned above, the info here really is pretty incredible. but i think having a more well-defined path from “i stringhop and i like it” to “i can play at 200bpm while making pop tarts” would be a massive boon to the content.
