Excellent! And if anyone wants play @bradejensen’s cool lick at Yngwie Alcatrazz speed - just up the tempo to 190 and there you go!
This is really useful thanks, this lick has also been a big problem for me.
It’s actually the fingering and the picking that’s a problem because I’m so used to playing scales sequentially it’s very unnatural to go from that B (12th fret on the B string) to the D (10th on the E) then to the C (8th on the E). I can do it easily adding an extra C in but that’s completely stupid and pointless if you’re trying to do 4s.
I try and do exercises with descending 3s, 4s, 5s, and 6s but the 4s one that Yngwie does is the best sounding one for sure.
Descending 3s and 5s is of course much easier for me because the pattern is straightforward. 6s is easy as well if you change the 3NPS position down every time which is great for learning scales all over the fretboard.
4s in triplet\sextuplet feel sounds fresh and awesome, but it is hard to break out of the 4s in 16ths sound at first if you’re use to playing it that way alot.
This perfect for practicing the Yngwie USX and downstroke sweeping technique.
Thanks!
True, its a good run to get down… I’ve gone sloppy on it.
After this I practiced it for almost an hour, expect it to be sorted out after a nights sleep.
4 Likes
I think it was helping me to break it down into 3 string chunks to build speed. Free up my brain meats for easier mindlessness. 
Plus the three string method can be a cool exercise for the lower end for rhythm style riffage.
I wrote a real humdinger for you Yngwie aficionados. It is at the end.
Now THIS is interesting! Here is the excellent Cesario Filho playing the opening run (after the arpeggios) from the Yngwie Steeler Hot on your Heels solo. He then shows slow how he plays it. Notice the use of an upstroke after the string change on the high E towards the end of the first rep.
He also uses the sweep/ economy technique to push through to the next string throughout the lick and also uses the pull off strategy during the first run down on the high E.
This looks vey accurate to me - what do people think?
Haha the dude is a monster. I would suggest you get his hotmart licks pack. It is hands down the best Yngwie style material you will ever find. Has accurate slow down played with exact detail at slow speed down to pickup switching and whammy bar play. The guy is a master! If you desire professional level skill I will suggest doing the analysis first before using his fret location. You will very deeply imbed the licks into your being if you figure it out first by ear. But definitely use Cesario as the number one resource for anything Yngwie, or economical. He even gives lessons with a translator.
Look at this it’s the solo before that song, or part of it. It’s page 92 and 93 of the electric guitar tab portion after the classical part out of the 100% Yngwie Young Guitar issue.
1 Like
Thanks - he is a great player for sure!
Just on the descending fours, I am wondering if anyone is able to play them with pure alternate picking at high speeds?
I have found it incredibly difficult to get the 4th note in the sequence consistently when alternate picking at high speed. It is a string change on an upstroke. Interestingly, the pull off used by Yngwie (Troy and Cesario) looks to me to be placed to enable the string change to occur smoothly.
So this then raises in my mind a question around whether there is some kind of physical limitation with alternate picking that necessitates the use of a pull off to get these licks to occur seamlessly at speed?
Be really interested to know what people think as there are people much better versed in picking mechanics than me here!
1 Like
@Interestedoz I think @guitarenthusiast had a thread about 4s? I want to say a few forum members had a go with it alternate picking.
Depending on what you mean by “high speeds”, I think it’s doable.
2 Likes
Thanks @Pepepicks66 for the encouragement and the tip to look at these other threads! I often search threads here but for some reason didn’t look for anything on this!
Looking at them now.
1 Like
You just have to analyze it down to actual distance. At very extreme speeds you need all the help you can get and sometimes even the downstroke after an outside stroke aren’t even the fastest. It’s why Yngwie and gypsy pickers do downstrokes on the ascending, but don’t forget you can also do double ups, this is why I believe 3 nps scale economy directional daily practice is a must. Even Michael Romeo does this sorta up down up up down up. Because even down up pull off might not be the fastest sure it would seem that way but for my mind It messes up the coordination between my two hands that I’m lacking on down up pull off and I can blaze on up down up up down up much faster cause I don’t have to try to keep rhythm with blended picking by just picking it all. Or maybe it’s because that upstroke to the descended string change downstroke is just to far of a distance compared to an up, up sweep. Flamenco players have a economical picado that they do on the descending stuff similar to how pickers do double downs on ascended stuff.
Look up some videos of how Cesario approaches this technique. I would say do not change your slant, let only the strings skew it as your descending through the strings. And if you are younger it doesn’t hurt to actually switch it up an like 20 minutes a day look at learning at other picking approaches that aren’t your genetic norm. Like if your a upward pick slant maybe try downward pick slant on descending stuff, or flamenco picado, classical and flamenco tremolo, anything that’s different than your norm if you don’t economy pick descending give it a whirl. If you do this at least attempt it for a few weeks to see if you see any big speed gains in any of them. You might uncover a genetic trait you didn’t realize you were good at.
1 Like
Thanks for the reply @bradejensen ! Interesting to read your views on the different approaches.
One thing I have noticed with the fours stuff is that (for me anyway) one version is way harder than the other. I think it equates to an inside v outside thing. But anyway - the harder version of it from an alternate picking standpoint is this - starting on a downstroke:
D
—8–7–5------7–5----------5------------------------5–7------------
-------------8-----------8–6---------8–6–5–6–8------------------
I have just added a few extra notes into the example so it loops. But the 4th note in this sequence is the challenge!
But anyway I am working on it and getting better! The fact that I can do it really well on the odd occasion makes me feel I can master it.
Also I have noticed that if I use 2 pull offs it can really flow easily:
D
—8–7-p-5------7-p-5----------5------------------------5–7------------
---------------8-------------8–6---------8–6–5–6–8-------------------
The thing I am working on though is the alternate picking all the way through - that is the challenge 
For anyone interested Yngwie’s original version of the descending fours lick from the Steeler song Hot on Your Heels - here it is queued up. By the way I ran a test on how fast he plays it and got somewhere between 198-199 bpm.
Believe it or not, this is the most relaxed way I have found when I play this sort of pattern. This is the picking path I utilize if I use this sort of idea in a fast lower end string rhythm section. I am still trying to figure it out as well, and try other picking choice. This is pure thumb index finger in an out picking technique that I use here. I am in no way super fast, but I can get it to a moderate speed with this path and it is ultra relaxed.
My reasoning behind being able to do both an up and a down after down up pull off is because the fastest path down the mixed minor pure scale shape is with economy picking giving you a more aggressive sound by picking it all after the initial pull off starting motion. However it is also required that we need to be able to do down up pull off into a down because most of those Yngwie mixed minor box shape solo licks he will start doing double downs back ascending and winding up and down up and down descending through the strings. When we are talking picking traversing destination.
Yngwie is a USX player. You can’t alternate pick all the notes in this phrase with USX motion, so that’s why the legato elements are there. It has nothing to do with limitations of alternate picking in general. It’s just how USX motion works, i.e. only upstroke string changes and downstroke sweeps.
For pure alternate Rusty Cooley does a good job:
And of course Michael Angelo Batio is the king of this:
This example on our Instagram page is 200bpm. I don’t recall what this looked like in slow motion and if I’m hitting all the notes perfectly, but it definitely sounds convicing enough to me, and if it sounds good, it is good!
The techniques that you can use for this are either primary motion with helper motion, like what Batio does, or you can use a technique capable of both escapes like wrist motion, the way Olli Soikkeli does or like I’m doing in the Instagram clip. Wrist forearm also works, like Jimmy Herring, and like I’m doing in this clip:
Whatever you do, find a motion that goes fast first, even if it’s a little sloppy, and use it across a wide variety of phrases, not just the one “white whale” phrase you want to be able to play. I guarantee you if “fours” isn’t working for some reason, there are a million other phrases that also aren’t working. And getting better at lots of them, in somewhat haphazard fashion, is how you build up enough mechanical hints to eventually get all of them.
My problem is if I try to do wrist my thumb joint is just to relaxed and it starts to sort of flex in and out from the resistance of the string, and my body knowing it needs to in order to have control as I cut through the strings to compensate for the distance between 2 strings. Do you use a tighter grip to prevent this from happening? I could probably just slow up, and focus on the gypsy wrist sling for awhile. It is just alot of time consumption to add another thing into whatever it is I am trying to achieve in my music. 
By far the most impressive thing to me was Stochelo Rosenberg, and seeing those multiple downs on the descent on his Rosenberg Academy site. I never thought I would have put anyone higher on my list than Yngwie as far as technique, but Stochelo blew my mind.
I’m not sure this is a real thing. Do you have trouble holding objects in your daily life, or do you have some other kind of hand or finger condition you are aware of? If not, they may be more you “doing” thing.
Either way, then if you can’t do wrist, you can do some other technique. If you want real change, you have to experiment fearlessly and relentlessly to find something that works. I don’t know what else to tell you here.
It happens cause my grip isnt very tight on the pick so the force pushing back against the pick caused by the string as it goes across makes my joint at the knuckle move in and out very slightly.
The only thing I have found to fight against it is to grip harder, even this kinda doesnt work, and swing tempo more if I try the gypsy picking. If I really slow down, very slowly, while I focus exactly on not doing it, I can get it to stop.
There is not really a need to force this to stop and it shouldn’t affect your ability to do a picking motion. We can see with our cameras that this also happens to the players we interview. I also do this deliberately by allowing the pick itself to flop around in my grip. It’s how soft playing is achieved. But it also happens during fast aggressive playing as well.
I definitely wouldn’t try to “death grip” the pick make it stop. It’s almost impossible and again it’s a normal part of pick attack.
1 Like