I’m going to try to dissect that lick a little more when I get a little time.
Thankfully it’s in slo-mo otherwise I wouldn’t have a chance in hell of breaking that down. Lol
James Hetfield – The world needs to know the exact mechanics of his downpicking prowess. Just that alone would be worth an entire 3-hour interview.
Corey Beaulieu from Trivium – probably one of the best metal players on the current scene. He and Matt Heafy are not only well-versed in downpicked, thrash rhythms but also super-fast shredding lines.
Mark Tremonti – another downpicking beast and metal shredder. He’s a monster player and one of the best modern guitar players.
Andy James – one of the best players today, period. His sheer speed is something to behold.
John Petrucci – my personal holy grail of interviews. The man can play damn near anything. His picking technique is damn near supernatural, IMHO.
Paul Gilbert – another personal favorite, if not my absolute favorite guitar player of all time. Incredibly skilled player with an unabashed love of pop music and catchy hooks. His picking technique needs to be analyzed down to the molecule.
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Pasquale Grasso
Sylvain Luc
tommy Emmanuel
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Vito Bratta-isn’t he a New Yorker?
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I’d like to see an interview focusing on metal rythmn guitar.
Hetfield has been mentioned, and while he’s very good at what he does, I would rather see Kerry King. Hetfield is good at downpicking but King does it at higher tempos and the riffs that he plays in Slayer and that he played in his brief time with Megadeth are way more challenging that Metallicaès riffs. He would probably be much more open to the interview and available too since his band is retiring soon.
I’d also like to see Bill Kelliher demonstrate his hybrid picking techniques. He’s pretty good at explaining what he does and he is geuinely interested in helping guitar players. Brent Hinds on the other hand, can’t even teach Bill how to play his riff (Bill have to film him to learn his riffs) and has probably never been sober in front of a camera.
Way up-thread there was mention of the evolution of CtC and broadening past just picking technique. If that were a long-term goal I’d definitely want to see some stuff with electric fingerstyle players (Derek Trucks, Mark Knopfler) and if/how their techniques are different from acoustic fingerstyle players.
Hybrid pickers would be great. If only Jerry Garcia were still alive, he’d be my #1 all-time request… that cat could play…
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Hasn’t Vito Bratta disappeared like Vinnie Vincent?
Brent is the hybrid picker. The only one I’ve ever tried to tackle was “Capillarian Crest.” Ben Eller has a pretty good video on that, he also did “Octopus Has No Friends.” Brent started off playing banjo and he basically applies that to the three string sweep shapes with lots of pull offs to open strings. John 5 does something similar.
Frank was ahead of the curve. I think that people were not as receptive to his teaching/system because it conflicted with what many other people were doing and it just seems(ed) too difficult.
He was willing and able to speak intellectually about what he was doing long before anyone else I know. Unfortunately, I tuned out because it was different than what my heroes were doing.
Kerry King was announced as being scheduled to do a seminar at a local music store (quite a few years ago) but I didn’t go see it. Did you ever see Kerry King do a seminar/clinic or has anyone else reading this seen a Kerry King seminar/clinic? If so, what did you learn and how good was the clinic overall?
I can´t belive that John Petrucci is only mentioned ones in a thread on alternate picking.
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Definitely.
A lot of players are very dismissive of Frank’s system. I think the criticism I’ve heard most often is that Frank’s method requires that lines be prepared ahead of time to ensure the string changes work out. I think it’s a moot point; nobody can pick lines at those tempos unless they are prepared and practiced ahead of time, regardless of whatever picking system is being used.
I think one of the big lessons from Frank’s method is that a clearly understood picking system can be extremely powerful. We’re seeing this emerging as a common theme in CTC; elite players play lines that fit their mechanical system. Frank was just more consciously aware of that fact, and expressed that idea even though it contradicted the conventional wisdom.
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Yes you’re right, I looked at some live footage, for some reason I had always assumed that Bill was doubling some of the hybrid picked riffs.
Have you seen the “sound and the story” video? The camera shows a nice close up of Brent’s picking hand. I’m seriously thinking about buying the full length video
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Is long island now classed as a planet because I thought she lived on a different planet 
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Robert Fripp
I did a 2 week retreat at his house back in the 80’s when he started the league of crafty guitarists. He was adamant that electric guitar need a standard technique and believed that he had created (or at least codified it). It was a floating forearm totally deviation based reflex system. Where you only make the down stroke and the return to the rest position is the up stroke. He also advocated a specific size of pick and material pof pick that sprung back to shape after the stroke. I could never get the hang of his technique and gave up on it after a while. Based on what I have seen from CTC I reckon his technique would turn out to be cross picking but I wonder whether he would agree.
He is a VERY analytical player and totally focused.
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Hi,
While a lot of folks have already mentioned some of the names given below, I would still mention them, just to “bump up the count”.
- Birelli Lagrene
- Al di meola
- Slash
- Steve Howe
- Joe Satriani
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What if you were to take a mediocre player, interview and film them, use your great careful analysis to figure out everything they’re doing wrong, and then construct a routine to remedy those problems? Then you could come back for a follow-up interview after X amount of time to see how/if they’ve improved. You could call it “Troy Grady’s Picking Nightmares” or maybe “Magnet Eye for the Sloppy Guy”.
…
I graciously volunteer.
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Its sounds like he was too creative in developing a new technique than he was in analyzing what actually works.
I bet he got a few chuckles from YouTube when he got to see how everything was done.
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He was certainly ahead of his time. Pretty much always has been a true innovator. I can’t say he’s my favourite player to listen too but he never stops pushing boundaries and is incredibly analytical which is why I think he might be up for an interview. (What do you think @Troy ?)
Don Mock is a good shout.
I remember buying his Intervalis Designs book back in the 80’s. My memory is a bit hazy but i seem to recall giving up because I couldn’t pick all the string switches and skips. Istill have it so maybe i’ll dig it out and try some of those licks now.
A fan who knew him reached out years ago and I said sure ask him, and I think the word came back he didn’t want to do it. Having read a ittle more about him now I can’t say I’m too surprised - he seems like a super private guy.
I’ve seen some of those clips on YouTube and I never fully understood what was going on there! Was this a school? Or were these basically tunes he was writing and arranging for a guitar orchestra that he assembled? Why is everyone staring off into space?
And yes the technique appears to be more or less the deviation crosspicking stuff we’ve been looking at. Not everyone is doing it the same way, or even doing it right at all - it’s cool to see how everyone might have interpreted whatever it was they were told. But yes it is clear that some attempt was being made to insist upon a certain technique being used, even if the message came across differently. I don’t know if the intervallic string skippy nature of the music was specifically designed for a crosspicking type approach, or that’s just Fripp’s style, or what. Maybe a little of everything.
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