Took the plunge and what a difference already

Introduce Yourself
#1

Hey All, I’ve been playing for 25+ years and while my rhythm playing and feel has never been an issue my leads have always been meh. Like I’d hide behind vibrato to make up for speed. Always felt like I’d hit a certain tempo like 135 bpm and would get stuck. Well I finished most of the primer and jumped ahead to the first Eric Johnson chapter in DWPS just to get an idea of what else the subscription held in store. Got through the first chapter to practice the 5 note string hopping exercise and after a day I’m topping out playing 16ths at 160 bpm. Holy s**t! HUGE jump!

I only took lessons briefly as a teen but the only talk about pick mechanics were alternate picking and “Don’t anchor with your pinky!” but thats just what felt most natural to me. After all there a ton of guys I looked up to who did.

I’m definitely going back to finish the forearm mechanics portion I missed (I watched everything else though) .

Goals are to master Eruption, Cliffs of Dover and (don’t laugh) but Nuno’s opening solo to Mutha Don’t Want to Go to School Today.

And here I thought some people could only shred because they had some natural gift I wasn’t born with! Looking forward to the journey.

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#2

Hey, welcome and thanks for joining! Glad you’re enjoying the Primer and seeing some immediate results with the EJ stuff!

Let us know what you think after you finish going through everything — our knowledge here is constantly evolving and we’re always thinking of ways to improve the material and how it’s organized / presented.

And of course let us know if there’s anything else we can help with, and feel free to share any technique questions or some video for feedback here on the forum :slight_smile:

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#3

i believe it still is a natural gift and that many just cannot do it.

I for example have watched every second of video on this website, and i am stuck on the very first descending 2 note per string EG pentatonic lick, and still can’t play it any faster than 115-120bpm. I will never be able to no matter what. I’ve gone through multiple teachers, spent probably 200 hours practicing this one “lick” and i still can’t even come close to adding any speed at all. I can tremolo fast on one string but cannot change strings. I also can’t even do it fast with my left hand. And it’s not a matter of learning the notes. I know the pentatonic scale. My left fingers just won’t do it fast. I listen to how fast some poeple do it, and my primary problem is right hand… but even if i could somehow solve the right hand, my left fingers will never be able to play those notes that fast, so i feel i have literally zero percent chance of ever being able to shred, even medium fast.

#4

@jpsychc I feel you. You’ll get it, don’t worry. But:

How fast? Is it smooth, clean, consistent and relaxed?

#5

I’m much more of a visual learner so I took a screenshot of the tab and then placed circles over the first note of each click on the metronome. Played the first 5 notes at like 90 bpm until I got it right. Played the next 5 notes and so forth. Then I just pieced them together - 5, 10, 15, etc until I played the whole lick. One of Troys videos on YouTube said your brain will subconsciously start associating where you’re supposed to be and your fingers will follow accordingly - makes sense to me. After that I just started increasing the tempo and made sure to keep a downward angle (which I’d never done before) until I hit 160 bpm.

That being said, I mean realistically is there a target that’s considered blazing fast but still considered musical?

I always felt the biggest difference between a guy like EVH and the rest of the copycats of the 80s was that Eddie could write a catchy song and create a solo that fit the song. Whereas a lot of the filler bands were just trying to stuff as many notes into a bar as they could as fast as they could - technically amazing but not very catchy. Even guys like Reb Beach and Warren DiMartini said towards the end it was getting ridiculous.

#6

Welcome @SDFitz1976 and glad to hear you are enjoying the lessons and making great progress! I had a similar experience when first discovering Troy’s work. Let us know if there’s anything we can help you with :slight_smile:

Hey @jpsychc, sorry to hear that all these efforts didn’t pay off yet. If you haven’t done so already, would you feel like sharing a video on the technique critique section, showing a couple of the licks / patterns that are giving you trouble? We’re continuously looking at new ways to teach these technical topics, and trying to help someone who is stuck can be beneficial for everyone involved - let us know and of course no pressure :slight_smile:

#7

Yes, i will post today to that section. Thanks.

So it’s not really any particular pattern giving me trouble. It’s just literally any pattern that moves beyond playing on one note, one string.

I went through the wrist motion tutorial and checklist, and i get to the point where i can do it on one string, but when i try to apply that to something that changes strings, it fails.

The only pattern I am trying to learn is EJ’s descending pentatonic 6s. I have just been practicing that for 90 minutes a day basically. I figure once i figure that out i will be able to move onto other stuff but if i can’t do that, well no reason to really try anything else. I would like to do the whole cascade seminar but have to get this hump.

#8

not super fast, but 16th notes at about 150 seems to be my maximum if i want to actually keep it smooth and stay consistent. I can do it at 160 but it’s inconsistent, and even 170 for streaks but I tense up/.

But move it over to a string changing lick like EJ 6’s, and boom I’m back at the same 110BPm limit that i am at in my bluegrass cross picking motion. it’s like the pick slanting seems to not register with me as something that improves my speed at all. I can play EJ descending sixes with string hopping string hopping bluegrass technique, or play it with downward pick slanting, and the speed caps are the same. I just don’t understand why i can’t figure it out. I am going to cry.

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#9

Here’s my post