Tauriq
I've become obsessed with the new As I Lay Dying album "The Powerless Rise" and have taken it upon myself to try and learn to play the songs correctly.
I'm currently busy with the song "Vacancy" and I have the solo down but the intro's tremolo picking catches me. My arm either dies , is not constant or spazz's out completely.
Now...is this another case of solely sitting with the metronome going up down up down or is there some hints and tips I can use going forward along with that to speed the process and make it sound good and consistent. Another thing I can't seem to get is even when doing this at speeds I can easily achieve as soon as the strings change I can't make the swop cleanly. Do I practise string skipping or what? ?
If you're an AILD fan and you haven't heard the new album yet. Please do so.
Aldertguitarist
IMO the main thing about playing fast (and in your case picking fast) is being relaxed. ALWAYS. As soon as you tense up, your playing tends to become sloppy. To stay relaxed, use your wrist to make the picking movement and keep you index finger and thumb (that obviously hold the pick) still. Also avoid using your whole arm, as this - at faster speeds - creates alot of tension and also results in much less accuaracy.
I have an exercise that I do for about half an hour everyday as a warm up. It's alternate picking, and you use all four fingers on your left hand as well. This is how you do it:
It's a very basic exercise that will help you to synchronise your picking hand with your fretting hand. Play frets *5 (i), 6 (m), 7 (r), 8 (p) on the sixth string. Now play exactly the same on the 5th string, same on 4th etc. When you reach you pinky at the 8th fret of the 1st string, move your whole hand up one fret (your pinky should now be on the 9th fret). And then descend the opposite way than how you ascended - 9 8 7 6 on 1st string, 9 8 7 6, on 2nd, etc, and then start again from the bottom.
*i = Index finger, m = middle finger, r = ring finger, p = you guessed it pinky
VERY IMPORTANT: Practice with a metronome and concentrate on being clean. I cannot stress this enough. If you're not playing cleanly, there's no point in doing it. Start very slow with 1/8th notes (2 notes per beat), say, at 60 bpm. This may sound ridiculously slow, but concentrate on being perfectly clean. Then increase the tempo slowly, but still maintaining exceptional hygiene. ?
Make sure that your technique is the same at slower tempos as faster tempos.
On the beat I would always have a downstroke. It's my reference point for when you play really fast stuff, you know where you are on every beat. So accent every note thats on the beat. If you were playing 16th notes for this exercise it would only be everytime you use your index finger when ascending and pinky when descending. Make up your own permutations and whatever to make it interesting for you.
Technique is something that you have to practise, and also maintain, coz might lose some of your technique if you don't play guitar for a while. On an uninspired day or busy day where I don't have my normal five hours to practice, I would just spend two hours or so on things that'll maintain my technique.
Hope this helps! ?
Aldertguitarist
Oh yes, and on the string skipping, practice that exercise skipping strings. 6th string, 4th string, 5th string, 3rd string, 4th string 2nd string, etc. and do the same for when u descend.
Bob-Dubery
The position of the guitar may be important here.
Richard Thompson uses a fast tremolo pick from time to time. He used to wear his guitar fairly high up. Over the years his right elbow has sustained some damage (he says this is from playing tennis rather than playing guitar) and he has lengthed the strap and the guitar has got lower which allows him to have a straighter right arm. BUT he says he lost some things as the strap got longer, the tremolo pick being one of them. In some cases he adjusted, in others he had to figure out new ways to reproduce the effect or how to compensate for a lost technique.
It's worth bearing in mind that none of our guitar heroes emerged fully formed. They all had to learn and, despite tales of just picking it up and playing, they had to put a lot of work in (or stay within the limits of a limited technique). So don't beat yourself up over the need to work at something.
Tauriq
Thanks both of you ? Have started implementing those exercises into my practices.
evolucian
Tremolo picking is a relaxed wrist. Metronome.
Practicing up down movements.... with a pick... at 16ths or more.... but seeing as you spazz out, ie: hooking more likely being one of the reasons... which means the pick hooks and the energy gets blown away. You can damage your shoulder wif dis stuff. You must only use the first mm of the pick. A little more than that and you could hook. With the first millimetre in action, you will glide across the strings or tremolo much easier with less energy.
The second most likely reason is stamina... yes, you do need it. And the only way to get it is to practice. Alot. You need to be consistent with timing and lets say you give yourself a 10 minute workout on one note, going at 16ths (ie: 4 notes per click)... then move to 5 notes, then 6, 7 and 8 notes per click. Your metronome on 120bpm. Make sure you are doing it correctly, and not exerting too much energy in playing it. Do not stiffen up... no tension whatsoever. So you must be aware of how you are playing it at all times. It must come from the wrist and not the elbow. If it comes from the elbow, your shoulder will get screwed by a $2 hooker... ie: it will fall off... the shoulder.
Onto string skipping....Make a mental note of watching how you pick when you change strings... is it inner picking or outer picking? Lets say we are going between the A and D strings at the 5th fret (below i'll be using the string name and not the note name) and we are playing them one stroke each:
Inner picking = A string upstroke, D string downstroke
Outer picking = A string downstroke, D string upstroke
Now the best way to get better at this picking, is to make yourself some exercises. YOU need to make em. Take a scale, any scale, and practice jumping between strings... initially you'll find your hand bouncing... with time and dedicated practice, the bouncing goes away. The same applies to larger string jumps...
Good luck to ya. ?
