Troy talks about how everyone should be able to get 150 bpm 16ths going pretty easily on one string, which I am obviously way off of. I was wondering if anyone has any advice for what im doing wrong. I think im mainly using ulnar and radial deviation.
Links to me trem picking:
Can you film this from the opposite view so that one can see down the strings and the picks path (see the link). Also can you go faster - if it falls apart, let it fall apart for the sake of problem solving (aim for approx 16ths at 140bmpâŚish).
Yes, but not necessarily by aiming for a specific motion. Itâs more like â try different motions/hand positions/grips and so on and try to go as fast as possible. When you find a motion that works, use that! (At least to begin with.)
Here ya go:
I canât go faster than whats in those vidoes, itâs not that it falls apart, it simply wonât go any faster.
Have you tried to maybe introduce more elbow motion? I feel like someone could probably strum chords faster using a pure elbow motion than what you have here (no offense).
The last video seems like your smoothestâŚit also seems faster than the other ones. Personally I would start making single string lines. It looks like DSX btw.
If you wanted to keep âexperimentingâ you could try to get your wrist to deviate more towards the ulnar side than you have hereâŚit looks a little radial (from this angle) which may go better with some elbow motion incorporated (if you want to go faster now)
In terms of your speedâŚI feel youâre at a good starting speed in the last video. Others might disagree. For me, I topped out at 150 bpm (16ths) in the beginning, slowly it became faster and faster without thinking too much about it over several months. You may find a similar experience.
Thanks a ton for the feedback, now that i notice it, it does seem like I am using a lot more radial motion than ulnar. Will try everything you said and see how it goes in a few months.
Days! You should mean / aim for a couple days at most. If itâs not working, after a few minutes (ie: you continue struggling for easy feeling speed, accuracy is NOT necessary) try changing it up again until you notice a REAL increase in your capacity to make fast repeatable movements for a tremolo, even if only for a second or two.
My suggestion about taking months (based on my experience) was about right hand speed increases (with a working motion), not accuracy. For example a working motion can go (for me anyway) from 140ish bpm to 180bpm over a few monthsâŚas for accuracy - yea thatâs a longer road.
The last video sounds faster than one could string hop to my ears and the first 3-4 seconds is 90% really smoothâŚit just starts to fall apart at the end. I think heâs about to breakthrough.
I get that, I thinkâŚ? I was more suggesting/echoing the theory that if itâs not working after a few days, donât bang your head on it for months before you swap strategies. If @Gabi_M is having difficulty making a quick motion, fighting it for months before making another assessment isnât an efficient use of his time, no?
Regardless, Iâm no brain genius and youâre right, his final clip DOES look much better/closer to what heâs looking for so Iâll cede that point to you!
Yep, weâre on the same page.
If this is true, then the Pickslanting Primer has a big problem (in my opinion). The âStarting with Speedâ video is Chapter 7 of the WRIST MOTION section of the primer:
Now if this speed test was for ANY motion, why would they put it in the wrist motion section? That would be misleading.
Case in point, Iâm at the same point @Gabi_M is. Iâve studied the Wrist Motion (supposedly the âeasiestâ âmost commonâ motion out there. Iâve re-watched/re-read the wrist motion chapters multiple timesâŚlooking for any missing detail.
But I canât get to 150bpm. So something is broken. Iâm doing something wrong.
And all Iâve done (which I suspect @Gabi_M has done) is just go through the Pickslanting Primer material in orderâŚ
What do you mean by accuracy here?
My understanding is that, when initially learning/exploring if the motion youâre using supports a high capacity for say, quick or sustained tremolo (for instance) you neednât worry about any ability to use it musically or for anything other than as proof of concept so to speak.
If youâre trying to learn how to crosspick some bluegrass lines if you can make the BPM you want but youâre swiping multiple strings or inaccurate that (should?) come in time, itâs the speedy party that youâll have infinite trouble boosting if you start with the âslowly slowlyâ approach vs the âI think I can do this motion, now letâs BURN and see if I can actually make it at tempoâ approach.
Thatâs my understanding anyway.
Thanks for the clarification! Thatâs my understanding as well, but I was confused as to does âaccuracyâ mean playing notes correctly (which doesnât make sense if youâre just trying a tremolo speed assessment) or accuracy of motionâŚrepeating the motion accurately.
I mean itâs probably always a balance but in the beginning when youâre exploring motion options the recommendation seems to be just ensure whatever motion youâre attempting allows you to make the repetitions as fast as youâre aiming to, who cares if you hit multiple strings or accidentally clip your pickup selector switch or fall over backwards onto your guitar stand and kick the light downâŚ
Ok maybe not those last things.
@Gabi_M I was in a similar position to you a month or so ago. I couldnât tremolo pick a single note on a single string at 150 BPM - not even close. I can now though and Iâm at the stage where Iâm starting to try synching up my left hand to do basic repeating licks.
This is my feedback request thread - you might find the same tips help you out as well.
I donât see why it would apply to wrist motion only, so itâs probably in the wrong place. Iâm currently not a subscriber so I canât access the contents of that page. Perhaps @Troy or @Brendan or @tommo can enlighten us!
Apologies for the confusion. We didnât film this as a separate chapter, it was just part of the tutorial on how to do DSX motion that got so long that we cut it into two videos. Notiice this isnât just wrist motion Iâm demonstrating here, itâs only one very specific type of wrist motion that looks like Andy Wood. I just wing these things, mostly with no outline, so sometimes you only know what youâre gonna get when you look at the footage later and realize you rambled into a whole different topic. So you split things up into shorter videos so itâs not a massive slog to watch through them.
The Primer will for sure have a more general couple videos somewhere eventually showing you how to get started with a new picking motion. The advice will generally be similar to this. Weâll probably put it in the âPicking Motionâ section that comes right before the motion tutorials, along with other helpful stuff like a video on doing the table tap test, how to figure out what motion youâre currently using, and so on.
So yeah weâre not as organized we want to be eventually, so apologies again. But weâll get there.
I recognize that youâre constantly improving the content - and I appreciate that! So no apology necessary. Re-reading my post, it was a bit of an over-reaction. But I do think some people could be confused that the âspeed testâ was only associated with wrist motion due to itâs placement.
What Iâm finding fascinating (and frustrating) is that the speed test is essentially the entrance examination into the world of efficient/better picking motion. Itâs not the final examination.
And I think a lot of players are like meâŚthey arrive at CtC thinking that speed is the goal. Well it may be the goal, but itâs also the litmus test.
You have to be able to shred a little before you can shred a lot?
Thatâs unexpected.