Pfft. I only made it to the first climb with that first big bend up at the 22nd fret I think. I suck. I can play the whole song no problem but fast picking solos isn’t my thing. That’s why I’m here. Haha
1 Like
man, I get it. That’s why I’m here, too.
The best thing I’ve learned from this site is that I don’t suck. I bet you don’t either and I hope you’ll do yourself the immense favor of believing in yourself.
I spent a long, long time not believing in myself and even putting myself down with negative self talk that led to negative self thought that led to self-defeatist behavior.
What a waste of time! I have had all the skills to play this solo like this for about 15 years, I just didn’t believe so I didn’t do.
If you’ll allow me to bold and give a tip - start believing and doing. You’ve already taken the first step to ending your belief that you suck by being here. No one here thinks you suck. We’re all here helping each other. Celebrating small victories. Focusing on little successes.
Forget the mis-steps, failures, false starts… What’re your little successes?
3 Likes
Actually, listening again I didn’t find too many spots where this happens, but there’s definitely a couple of places like the famous 2-string arpeggios and some of the bigger arpeggios that come earlier.
I imagine the exact places will vary a bit take by take right? If so it’s probably just a matter of cleaning up the overall thing little by little. You already have the speed / timing down so that’s a great starting point!
We always talk about " starting fast", but since you are already fast you can try to alternate between the true tempo and something like 80-90% speed, see if it helps to clean it up?
If instead you find that the sync issues are always in the same places… I’d say good news! You can analyse those passages one by one and see if you spot what is causing the problem in each case.
EDIT: I also second this
Something we often suggest is to figure out something you can already do and exploit its potential to play some cool lines! Getting good at something (whatever it is) is a great first step to gain confidence.
1 Like
ok, good. I wondered about that. Blazing through those arpeggios at 198 wasn’t getting me anywhere. I’ve slowed down to try to really get them down.
Mostly, it’s left hand stuff. That bend at 0:26 is tough to nail and you hear a skip there. I’m thinking about bending with my pinky so I can have the ring finger ready to do that next arpeggio.
and the quick lick at 0:39 is sloppy. Playing it the same way every time will help but I need to decide what that way is first!
and yes - small victories build into large ones. I’ve really appreciated how encouraging everyone on this site has been. I think it’s easy for us to come in there ready to be humbled. Humility ain’t so bad but when we come in already discouraged, it’s hard to make progress or help ourselves. I was that way at first here but quickly realized no one is judging me. No one’s even paying attention at first when they don’t know you! This is the best thing I’ve done for my playing in decades and I appreciate all the research @troy and team have put into this. The concepts of slanting the pick and escaping the strings is so simple but truly code cracking if you’re already an intermediate or advanced player who’s been banging your head against the wall for years.
@tommo Still at it with this. I thought it sounded pretty good at tempo but ----- when I video-recorded and put it in slomo, I noticed that I’m not sounding the second note of each sweep on those famous two-string arpeggios.
Instead of F# D B D I’m playing F# D B x where “x” is just a muted string or no sound.
I also notice that my pick isn’t slanted down nearly as much as it feels like it. I’m a hard up slanter.
I wonder if an even sharper downward slant would help on these arpeggios?
ALSO - here’s the whole solo if you’re curious on my progress. I’ve cleaned up a lot of it:
4 Likes
Cool stuff man. Ive seen marty twice recently within the last few years and even he doesnt play it like he originally did! And I think Uncle Ben mentioned this in his video if Im not mistaken
2 Likes
without that 24th fret, it’s not possible to play the final pass through the form like he does on the album. I imagine Marty’s probably evolved in 30 years. haha!
Like Uncle Ben said, he just holds a long vibrato. Exactly what he did both times I saw him.
1 Like
Great progress! It’s coming along, keep pushing!
2 Likes
Maybe I should adopt that. Such a lovely lick, though. I have a 7-string w/ 24 frets but the slightly larger scale to accommodate the low string makes much of this solo surprisingly more difficult. Especially those two string arps I’m struggling with.
Thanks, Bill! I will. Feels like the last 5% takes as much work as the previous 95%!
This is always the case and this is always where I give up. Have to work my mental game a bit I guess. 
1 Like
Hey man definitely go for it! thats a great lick to have in the tool kit. I just dont get as worked up anymore about perfection to the T because even the best guys switch it up!
1 Like
Good job @jjsnibor, one day you gotta sit down with me and teach me this awesome solo 
I have two suggestions regarding the “ghost note”:
-
Try your “old way” of doing it with the DSX-alternate method, and check if the note sounds properly this way
-
keep doing the sweep but hold down briefly the first 2 notes on the pattern like a chord, instead of putting down the fretting fingers one after the other. The sweep purists will be horrified by this suggestion, but I bet that at 200bpm the notes don’t really have time to ring into each other properly.
And in general yes, if you are going for the USX-sweep approach things may get easier if you allow just a tiny bit more DWPS, so the pick slides more easily across the DD sweeps.
Let us know how these attempts go
Another thing I noticed is that your guitar and the backing track sounded a bit out of tune with each other. Assuming your guitar is in standard tuning, could it be that the record was not exactly tuned @440hz?
1 Like
You are sounding great on this, Marty’s phrasing style has to one of the hardest to nail in all of metal
2 Likes
Yes! So easy to want to move on to another piece!
That’s good policy for avoiding insanity!
Thanks! Yeah, he’s tough to emulate. Although I really benefited from learning how he plays fast stuff, my favorite thing that I’ve picked up from his playing is that yank bending that he does. I love his articulation most!
The isolated Marty-only track on youtube is encouraging: helps to hear he’s not PERFECT on some stuff. Rhythm guitars really help cover inconsistencies.
1 Like
Excellent ideas!
I have tried going back to my original DSX motion but it’s so fast that I fall apart.
And yes, I’m sure my guitar Was Out Of Tune a bit at the point I recorded that video. Good ears!
Also I have to admit that the Ben Eller tutorial on this solo on YouTube was VERY helpful.
spent much time last night and today just playing that motion with USX like Marty and made progress. Last night I was playing those arpeggios better but had to slow it down to about 140 to consistently get all four notes of each arpeggio. Today, I got up to 175!