Tremelo picking and sudden starts

[Dan Shipway]

Ive been trying to work on my alternate picking technique but I cant get a consistent controlled result at high speeds. The big problem is I cant figure out what feels natural. Ive been playing for 11 years and it still feels alien. I cant find a hand position that allows for for relaxed yet small movements, the low E is the worst because I cant find a fixed pivot point so im making the alternate picking motion but the notes aren't sounding consistent.

I was also struggling with exercises at higher BPMs because I cant seem to go from 0- 70 bpm in the flick of a switch, it makes trying to practice scales also impossible, does anyone have tips for these issues?

 

[TheRedMageGuitarist]

There's a lot to dissect here.
I could write out an essay on what you could do to improve. But I'm gonna be honest, unless I can see a video of you playing, I really can't help much. It truthfully sounds like you're struggling with technique, and technique is not something that can be handled through texts and words.
I CAN say though, that once Bill told me that he was struggling BADLY with descending scale runs, and so he did nothing but work on that for almost all of Covid. It paid off big time. If alternate picking is something you're struggling with, it may be best to focus on the etudes of alternate picking for at least an hour a day. But ignore the super shreddy parts.
I'm not sure what you mean when you say "I can't seem to go from 0-70 bpm in the flick of a switch." 16th notes at 70bpm should be really easy for someone who's been playing for 11 years. So that truly tells me there's something with your technique that should be fixed. Is there a way you can upload a video for us? Like of you doing the alternate etudes so we can see?

 

[TheRedMageGuitarist]

You know, I see you have had issues with picking consistency at higher speeds and that guitar has been "nothing but frustration 24/7."
Bill will give students here (through my word only) a free 15 minute lesson. And he really REALLY fucking has helped numerous people on here. Like... a LOT.
If you really need help, I think at this point personal/private lessons is what you need. So either hit @Chris Johnston up for privates or let me know and I'll talk to Bill for you

 

[Mauro FILHO]

Ive been trying to work on my alternate picking technique but I cant get a consistent controlled result at high speeds. The big problem is I cant figure out what feels natural. Ive been playing for 11 years and it still feels alien. I cant find a hand position that allows for for relaxed yet small movements, the low E is the worst because I cant find a fixed pivot point so im making the alternate picking motion but the notes aren't sounding consistent.

I was also struggling with exercises at higher BPMs because I cant seem to go from 0- 70 bpm in the flick of a switch, it makes trying to practice scales also impossible, does anyone have tips for these issues?

Patience and metronomo

 

[William B.]

Maybe try to practice the upstroke only separate than combine and sometimes start the alternate picking with an upstroke as well

 

[Dan Shipway]

Heres a video I took at 75 bpm doing semi chromatic work, if the video isn't great I can try and shoott it from a different angle. Apologies for the low sound

 

[William B.]

Sorry I don't know at the moment, having trouble processing what's going on

 

[TheRedMageGuitarist]

okay so that looked really comfortable and easy for you to do. Can you speed it up to like 90? Even if you fuck it up badly, that's what I want to see. Because your technique for playing slow isn't always the same as playing fast. But as far as your technique goes here, I don't see anything truly wrong. But how do you FEEL when you play this? Do you feel tension anywhere? The ONLY thing I may notice, is that it looks like your wrist is really heavily anchored against he bridge, and you're mostly moving your hand only up and down. I don't see any forearm movement. But that can be a player-to-player kind of thing. But to me, your wrist looks glued to the bridge and it may make it difficult to do faster speeds of cross-string picking. At least, it is for me
But could you try 90 BPMs and upload it? We'll get this buddy

 

[Dan Shipway]

Absolutely, I will have to post it tomorrow since I am currently on a caffeine filled rush to get essays in for uni. I did quickly attempt it at 90 and there are some issues, mainly with hand sync and excess force being used in my fretting hand but I do definitely see what you mean about the wrist being anchored.

I think it mainly comes from having trouble pushing my arm as it does at times feel stuck to the body and takes lots force to move so I tried to develop a technique (albeit one that might be detrimental) to work around it as apposed to tackling the issue to eliminate it being an obstacle .

 

[marcus winn]

Ive been trying to work on my alternate picking technique but I cant get a consistent controlled result at high speeds. The big problem is I cant figure out what feels natural. Ive been playing for 11 years and it still feels alien. I cant find a hand position that allows for for relaxed yet small movements, the low E is the worst because I cant find a fixed pivot point so im making the alternate picking motion but the notes aren't sounding consistent.

I was also struggling with exercises at higher BPMs because I cant seem to go from 0- 70 bpm in the flick of a switch, it makes trying to practice scales also impossible, does anyone have tips for these issues?

I had alot of trouble when I first got into alternate picking to. I started when I was still a beginner but after a year of just downpicking it was hell so I couldn't imagine 11 years. But what got me was sitting down and just using the motion of the downpick and going back up very slowly using the pseudo chromatic scale we all know and love all the way up and back down the neck til it clicked. This really helped with learning how to do it because you get more muscle memory and adjustments after like 24 frets across 6 strings up and down it really helped smooth things out and make it faster. Granted this process took me forever to get down and to be productive but it was only a few months. I saw a video from that series on YouTube about the guy breaking down these different techniques from these different shredders and something that helped is to slant the pick downward some and it should help but keep your hand planted on the bridge and slowly slide it up or down as you move strings. Hopefully this ramble helped some!

 

[Forgetabull]

Absolutely, I will have to post it tomorrow since I am currently on a caffeine filled rush to get essays in for uni. I did quickly attempt it at 90 and there are some issues, mainly with hand sync and excess force being used in my fretting hand but I do definitely see what you mean about the wrist being anchored.

I think it mainly comes from having trouble pushing my arm as it does at times feel stuck to the body and takes lots force to move so I tried to develop a technique (albeit one that might be detrimental) to work around it as apposed to tackling the issue to eliminate it being an obstacle .

Couple of things:

• How warmed up were you when you started at the 90 ? I need to have been going for at least 20mins or so before I'm remotely full speed.
• What type/size pick are you using ? I am much faster with my Dragon's Heart than I am with my Jazz III. Having said that, some people are much quicker with smaller pics.
• What's your action and string gauge like ?
• You don't look like you're a pinky-anchor person.. have u tried being a pinky anchorererrer ?
• Try sitting classical style and see if that position speeds you up.
• Do you find yourself faster on one string vs many (ie. string skipping being the issue).
• I suppose the only other thing was a Nita Strauss tidbit.. only increase the metronome speed when you can do the passage 5 times without error.

 

[Dan Shipway]

Here is the 90 bpm vid, one thing I know for sure is that my fretting hand fingers are lifting up a lot which makes it hard to get a smooth run, the video used chromatics as apposed to semi chromatics because of this. Everything felt normal in the picking hand it was just the fretting hand that felt a bit painful because my thumb kept moving around

 

[William B.]

fretting hand fingers are lifting up

my thumb kept moving around

Maybe could focus that sometime, possibly working on thumb position could help both
Recently I started to try and Barre minimally two frets in anticipation changing frets, it also helps me some with fret hand muting.
I was just listening to this song again and I think this part was alternately picked, maybe practicing in song form could help too.

Beast And The Harlot - Avenged Sevenfold

 

[Dan Shipway]

I find that with fingers jumping everywhere it tends to be when im not playing scale type runs since when im doing semi chromatic work they are all running in succession to each other and i know when each finger will fall but if im playing something that isnt as linear my fingers feel (this isn't the best way of putting it but i feel it makes sense) like they dont know what they should do with themselves or where they should be when not in use.

As far as thumb pain goes I think its because I only recently just started using a different placement so maybe its just a muscle memory type of deal?

 

[William B.]

Try to go faster than you can go a bunch of times even if it's bad, the point of the exercise is to feel fast first then you reduce the speed and work to that speed or below it where you can play it cleaner. An example, 120% is your max speed so the piece you want to perform is at 100% speed but you can in fact play it at 120% if you wanted. Eventually you'll sync up both hands

Did that make sense? I think @TheRedMageGuitarist said this too

or something similar

Pressing too hard with the thumb could also be a thing for the pain and maybe building more strength.
Sharp pains are bad, like a stinging sharp feeling. I think this leads to damage over time. The other pain is more a throbbing or ache

 

[Dan Shipway]

The main goal was to make it feel like one smooth motion at high speeds. I find that sometimes when I play it can sound like I am ending on one string, moving on to another and then playing the notes on that one etc as apposed to all the notes flowing one after the other. I also experience it on single strings where it feels like the pick gets caught and therefore each stroke can be clearly heard

 

[William B.]

The videos you shared your playing counting 4's have you tried counting to 3 or 6? I think all the time divisions are in multiples of 2's and 3's
2-4-6-8-10-12
3-6-9-12
I think there's more ways like you can mix and match, I don't think it's a rule but I think ending on a division of 4 is safe