My issue is that I’m not quite sure what application it would work in. I think if it were shortened a bit, it may be applicable for more things.
I think lines like this one are very much player dependent (as most everything is). If you’re someone that would never play “shred”, then this would never be useful. On the other end of the spectrum, I could hear this being used by plenty of “shred” guitarists, and even just working the patterns up to speed is a great exercise to maintain your playing ability. Like you mentioned, you could cut portions of it to fit into areas that need a fast transition.
Well I guess my point is that it’s not in itself a very musical phrase, it’s very “stiff” and “exercisy” on its own, like something you might use to intimidate somebody in a Guitar Center in the middle of nowhere. I can’t really see it being used in its entirety as a whole phrase, but shortened in smaller doses, maybe more compelling as a bridge between phrases or as an ending to one. I might play with that too this weekend.
Not to derail the thread too much, but that’s always a matter of opinion, both from the player and audience. I personally think @SlyVai 's line sounds cool and musical from a performance perspective, and it’s not an overly “cliche’d” fast phrase, from my listener’s perspective.
I guess I took the Vai ascending run ideas and made it an exercise just to see if I can play it … and turns out I can’t haha. But very similar runs can be found in Vai compositions which are of course sometimes quite ‘out there’ like The Attitude Song. Also I have a vague memory of using a similar run in one of my solos way back but it wasn’t as long or ‘exercisy’.
Anyway I’m trying to record the simplified version for you but to be honest I just can’t do it. Having one of those days where I just can’t pick, really frustrating. So I might just put the tab on here so you can try it. It’s the same ascending as the original but with one of the 3s missing in each chunk. The desending version is pretty cool though I just wish I could play the damn thing.
I’m down to try it out!
Wow man, thats really impressive. I got a lotta work to do lol
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Thanks man, I’ve definitely got some things to improve but overall happy on where it’s at right now! Hope you keep at it and find some small victories / big breakthroughs with time.
The pinky and ring trill is an issue for me, I am using pulloffs so that alone adds tension. I’m not much of an alternate picker, but it might be something I should practice for runs that use the pinky and ring.
It’s a fingering I’ve little practice with. I was switching to index middle ring for that part, and that also created an akward tension. I will practice the pinky n ring fingering 
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OK, here is the simplified version, ascending, give it a try !
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I’m also trying this with USX and some pull-off on the trills like this:
Seems to work quite well but either way requires a lot of coordination with the fretting hand.
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Might not have time today but I’ll give it a shot soon!
If you work on just the “trill” portions in isolation, they’re a great pattern to build up comfort with lines such as those, especially the one that’s between middle / pinky and ring / pinky.
@SlyVai This is your lick shortened a little (by three notes) and with USX and swiping. I’m a bit out of my comfort zone here as I’m not really a USX player and I really need to practice with it, (I do see quite a bit of benefit from it) but it does sound subtlety different so I figured Its useful to post it.
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That sounds great @Fossegrim and yeh you can hear the difference in the rhythm where the swipes happen it’s cool. Great picking.
I’m wondering what hand do you feel most connected to? Are you left handed? Right?
I’m left handed, but feel more connected to my right, I can do that vibrational back n forth with my right fingers much faster than the left hand. And I think if I spent (serious) time practicing it, I could shred faster left handed than right.
Rick Beato made a video recently related to this: This TRULY Stumped Me… - YouTube I am cross dominant based on his description. What would you class yourself as?
Really nice. If you’re swiping thats really clean, I can barly hear it.
I can! It’s weird. swiping has always thrown my rhythm off because I either hear, or can feel the extra note/pick stroke. When it’s put to a click is when it’s more evident. There’s a difficulty locking in because you may hear 6, but feel 7, so there’s a tendency (or at least in my case) to rush or fall behind the beat because there is always this recalculation of making sure your down on the down. It’s the reason why I mentioned wanting to put this on a click, because having that reference is a must for me, if I really want to lock it in. I should look into getting another hardware one, as the phone app I use makes everything sound really ugly if I’m also using the video at the same time.
Part of my theory, and this is just my opinion, but if you have spent a lot of time with sweep picking including economy picking in terms of locking it in with each note, you may be more sensitive to the feel of swiping.
Maybe it’s like someone mumbling, if you know exactly what they are saying you can understand, but if you hear it for the first time you can’t.
I felt the same way trying to replicate evh with swipes, it adds an extra move you have to overcome. Your picking is great 
I never thought about how pull offs could create tension, maybe that’s why I never dug them lol. I’ll check out that video and figure out this whole hand connection thing.
Edit: watched it, I’m pretty sure I’m a typical right dominant person? I do everything with the right. The only thing that I can think of that might make me “bilateral” is that I spend a good amount of time doing grip and bilateral movement training because of climbing, so my left hand isn’t far from my right in terms of coordination or strength. In fact, some things I’m stronger with my left due to frequent climbing moves.
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