Zakk Wylde Alternate Picking & Practice Recommendations

Playing Technique
#1

Hello Everyone,

As I am new to the forum, please forgive me as I am sure my question has been answered in the same vain but not specifically to Zakk Wylde. As I mentioned in my member introduction I am a big ZW fan and am looking to gain that alternate picking speed he is famous for (we’ll save the squeals for another time lol). One specific example is ZW’s Sold My Soul solo:

At 3 minutes in, Zakk plays a fast AP pentatonic run of 5-7 twice on the low E and then repeats this on the A and D strings and finally moves up to 7-9 on the D string. It is approximately at 180bpm and I am stuck around 130bpm unfortunately…

My questions are:

  1. Is this a specific issue of downward pickslanting and working to correct my picking issue for a lick such as this?
  2. I am going to purchase the Pickslanting Primer today/tomorrow. Any other specific lessons from Troy that the members recommend please? B/c of work schedule it is best I order a specific lesson plan right now and can work on it on my odd times.
  3. Practice routine! I have read a ton of material on practice ideas on learning specific licks to speed and the 2 camps are either gradual increase of metronome speed OR speed bursting techniques and then cleaning it up later for muscle memory purposes. Would love to gain anyone’s insight here on their strategy to learning a lick and their practice routines please. I know everyone is different but if something objectively works, it will work for all of us.

Thanks to all- Alex

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#2

Hello man!

Another huge ZW fan here! Hmm basically Zakk is one hell of a good Downward Pickslanter. What the DWPS doesn’t solve he just give that “smal sweep” and keep picking like a crazy horse.
If you aren’t already using DWPS, give it a try! In the beginning it feels odd (at least for me) but after a while it gets natural and everything starts to solve itself. I felt that using it to play the ZW stuff made everything smoother and the speed came more naturally.
About the Pickslanting Primer I would sugest to purchased it, and watch it all the way from the start. It helps to get the concepts and the ideas!
And about the routines, I start without a metronome trying to be clean and natural. After I got the lick I start increasing the Speed till I reach my limit in that lick. Then I proceed to the metronome!
So summing up: without metronome I try to create a Muscle memory starting in a confortable speed that is natural, clean and just to get used to it. After reaching the limit, if I need to go faster I start with the metronome. This is my approach I think that the hardest part is to find the speed to start, that is clean and natural.

Hope it helps you!

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#3

Hi! This question of speed is putting the horse before the cart. Do you know for sure that you have a speed problem? If you don’t know that yet, I wouldn’t worry too much about it.

In general, what we’ve seen work here on the forum in the “Technique Critique” section is to first make sure you have a picking movement that functions properly. That there is no stringhopping, that you can do it easily, and so on.

It doesn’t have to super fast, it just needs to be smooth and natural. It also doesn’t matter what that motion is. Zakk uses elbow and fingers, for example, but you don’t have to. You can use wrist or forearm or whatever you want. Some players have found it useful to try to go fast using tremolo first to make sure the picking motion is working. Others have used repeating patterns on a single string. That seems to be the general sequence.

But again, this only matters if you do not yet have a picking motion that is smooth and natural. Once you do, if your interest is two-note-per string stuff, I wouldn’t worry about speed at first. Those lines are primarily string-switching challenges, and those are best solved at “medium” speeds while trying to make sure the pick doesn’t hit the wrong strings as it moves across them. That is the name of the game.

When you watch Eric Johnson play, you get the impression that he probably never played a tremolo or did any kind of sprint/burst training in his life. Pentatonic type lines in the Zakk/EJ style really don’t lend themselves to that because they switch strings so often, and include bits of sweeping which breaks up the pure “speed” aspect anyway. Again, these are coordination challenges.

Take a look through Technique Critique and see what has worked for other players. And try to get a handle on what pentatonic playing is about first. If you’re still not sure where to start after that, then we can provide more targeted feedback at that point.

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#4

Thanks GCAN I will definitely be purchasing the Primer and go from there… Will update progress as I go on. Nice to see another ZW fan. He is playing in Vegas in February, can’t wait. SDMF

#5

Thank you Troy! Side note I love the functionality of the website and the posting/replies. Other sites it’s archaic sometimes… I agree with you 100%. When I first started trying to speed up the lick to the album, my initial issue was smacking the A string and my pick would get stuck between E and A. Not so much A and D but nonetheless, a serious issue. Like I replied to GCAN I will be working on the Primer soon and will go from there. No use in speed until the technique is right! Recommendations on reading up re: pentatonic please? Cheers

#6

The tutorial material for the Eric Johnson stuff does an ok, not great, but let’s say ok job of explaining what you need to know about pentatonic playing. As you work through that, let us know if anything is unclear - we’re always collecting feedback.

#7

Cool, where can I find this tutorial material for EJ? Is this part of the paid membership?

#8

I was referring to the Pickslanting Primer material. You can also check out some of the Cascade seminar chapters, a few of which should be playable without a subscription - just look for the chapters with the glow outline on the thumbnail images.

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#9

Hi Troy- I purchased the Primer yesterday and watched the DWPS/YM material until the wee hours. Very awesome stuff! As my immediate goal is DWPS because I am trying to work on my ZW stuff, do you recommend a routine out of the pop tart and 6 note type licks that were in the DWPS material? There were a few individuals I saw who used one of the licks as an exercise but maybe there’s a way to turn the whole DWPS into a practice routine/structure? :slight_smile:

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#10

I don’t really recommend any particular routine until you know what is up with your technique currently. As outlined above, you need to determine if you have a picking movement, if it is fluid, if you have hand synchronization on a single string, if you have it at your current maximum speed, and so on. It’s basically a checklist, in that order. This is one way to look at it, anyway, which we have sort of been evolving here on the forum, and seems to make sense for some people. Generally, a video is worth a thousand words so consider posting a clip of an attempt at these things in “Technique Critique” and we’ll get a clearer sense of where you’re at.

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#11

Hi Troy, this is a. J. Have you ever tried cross picking on one string? I tried this technique on my mandolin, and i managed to play a few pentatonic scales using the cross picking technique on all the strings. Would that be known as banjo rolls? And is sweep picking the same technique as economy picking used by b. B. King? Or eric clapton?