UNPLANNED DOWNTIME: 12th Oct 23:45
Alt Picking and rock/metal solo-ing advice needed
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So, Ive been trying to work on my alt picking since forever and yet, I'm still not happy with it. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a "Holy shit he's amazing and hes been self deprecating" style post, I cant see to get past a barrier of anything above 90 bpm in triplets and that tends to be a well worn pattern using a minor pentatonic shape and then it just sounds like a fast bluesy thing.
So, what Im after is some real life experiences from you lot who have managed to get a speedy, clean picking technique, what types of things you did, songs you looked at, how much wood shedding you did etc to get it on the up. Im not trying to get into a metronome pissing battle but just some practical advice and real life experiences that helped.
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For me, my big thing (I'm still working on mine, I've got some patterns that are shit fast, but some that are very slow - and no more difficult or easy) was picking a lick, and using a tiny bit of the pick to pick. Practice very slow and choose patterns that make sense - watch Paul Gilbert videos, he's not against starting on an up stroke if it makes sense.
And other than that, start slow and increase metronome a couple of bpm at a time. And do it every day until you think the lick sounds shit, cliché and useless. And you'll still need to practice it, every day.
I used to be very good, but I've lost it since working on funk and general rock. Now I'm a bit more hardcore... Well, I suck a bit.
Triplet, 3 note per string patterns are a good place to start, ascending and descending. Chromatics are good, and sound amazing when thrown into a finale of a solo... The main riffs in Technical Difficulties by Paul Gilbert is very good, and boggo e minor. The fingerings and patterns make sense for speed - simple, no weird string crossings.
But also, work on quadruplets. I use a 3 note per string group of 4 pattern than I'm still very slow at, but it means I'm not abusing triplets all the time... When I'm fast, anyway. It's (descending) 11-10-8 on the high e, then 11 on the b. Then start the same pattern one note lower - 10-8 on the e, 11-10 on the b etc. It's actually quite nice, and I've built 2 beats of it ascending into a chorus riff of a song I'm writing.
Lastly, groups of 5. I only know one, but it really sounds great. It's a Tremonti lick pentatonic minor, so 15-12 on the high e, 15-12 b, 14 g, then 15-12 b, 14-12 g, 14 d etc. Very, very cool sounding, quite Eric Johnson.
Actually, one more lastly, the solo from In The Fire by roadrunner United. It's very metal, not sure if that's your thing, but Corey uses some really great sounding ideas.
Satriani has a similar warm up idea that's chordal (well, not pretty to listen to).
@digitalscream is absolutely right, don't do it for hours on end, half hour dedicated to picking licks then a break (or just strumming stuff). When you come back, you'll either need to start over (I often do, so down goes the metronome) or you'll be able to pick up where you left off.
Don't be afraid of slow progress. I also echo the thoughts on picking being useful, but there are plenty of other stuff.
If you listen to zakk Wylde in Suffering Overdue, the solo has this fairly simple pentatonic lick that starts slow and builds up. Bloody impossible to pick everything unless you're him, but it's a nice demo to prove that two note per string ideas can be fast and sound bluesy, too.
6th string: 5,7
5th string: 7,5
4th string: 5,7
3rd string: 7,5
2nd string: 5,7
1st string: 7,5
And then:
1st string 6,8
2nd string: 8,6
3rd string: 6,8
Etc
here's one.
6th string
5-6-7-8
then diagonally
string 6-5-4-3
fret 8-7-6-5
3rd string 5-6-7-8
then diagonally
string 3-4-5-6
fret 8-7-6-5
or one from Kirk Hammett/Joe Satriani
using fingers 1/2
trill 12-13
trill 12-14
trill 12-15
using fingers 1/3
trill 12/15
trill 12/16
trill 12/17 (if you can)
using fingers 1/4
trill 12/16
trill 12/17
trill 12/18
5 mins total on this in one go.
when it's fairly comfortable starting at the 12th fret, move down to the 11th, 10th etc
See how far you can get, obviously if the longest trill hurts stops doing it.
If you can find it, Kirk Hammetts book of exercises (from his Guitar World column) is well worth getting, as are the Troy Stetina series of books.
Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21)
Yeah.
I forgot to say you can go either way with them.
Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21)
Ah, nice to see the 10-hour workout being aired again. Here's the original magazine article, with Steve's footnotes. The 30 hour workout has more stuff in it obviously and I think you have to refuse to eat for longer, but all the good 10-hour exercises are in here.
http://picksnlicks.com/Guitar%20Lessons/Exercises/30_hr_workout/30_hr_workout_1.html#exercises
you can simplify it down to a simple pick-hammer-pull, pick-hammer-pull etc and not trill until your fingers are up to it.
When I said 5 mins, start slowly, build up to 5 mins. Don't be afraid to do 1 min. When that's comfortable, move to 2 mins.
Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21)
Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21)
Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21)
That'll be everything then....
Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21)
Only bit of advice I'II throw in is when speed picking, move your picking forearm to go up and down the strings and keep your thumb straight and locked into the side of your finger. I kind of prefer to hold the pick down at the joint of my thumb. If you can move your picking thumb and finger easily with your left hand, then it will move when you pick strings and you will miss. Also I like to have my hand inline with my wrist, that way the pick is at an angle to the strings and I can make minimal movement with my wrist.
When moving up or down a string from a downpick, always practice picking an up pick on the next string, keep everything alternate, it's smoother.
If you can do fast legato, the battle is with your picking hand. Practice 3 notes per string on the open strings or barred and remember to practice rhythmically with good timings and eveness. Alot of it is just relaxing mentally, making minimal movemet with your wrist and making all the adjustments with up or down forearm movement.
Usually you'll have a weakness, changing from three picks to two on the next string to three on the next, or simply changing from the D to the G string going up. Whatever they are in a scale pattern, concentrate on them and start slow and repeat slow until your muscles remember automatically and try not to look at either of your hands or move your mouth.
Given that there are 7 degrees of a scale, until you get back to the root note again, an octave higher, practice scale patterns in groups of notes such as (4 note groupings) 3-1-2-3, 4-2-3-4, 5-3-4-5, 6-4-5-6 and 1-2-3-4, 2-3-4-5,-3-4-5-6 which is the same pattern in a different sequence.
..and coming back down 6-1-7-6, 5-7-6-5, 4-6-5-4 and 1-7-6-5, 7,6,5,4, 6,5,4,2 etc.
Or, again descending try this in groups of eight notes 1-7-6-5-4-3-4-5, 6-5-4-3-2-1-2-3, 5-4-3-2-1-7-1-2 etc Also try that pattern going up.
You can practice these patterns or similar patterns on any scale, major/minor/harmonic minor etc. on a single string with fast postion changes, two strings up and down the neck or all the string in any position. The point is it makes it less frustrating, more fun and teaches you more in the process than straight scales would.
Ideally eventually you get to a stage where you can play any scale or pattern or scale pattern up or down the neck a few octaves, where ever you are on the neck...
Has anybody checked out Matt Raines's lessons on Youtube..AHHHHH. Makes me feel the hero in that like Kick Ass movie on box last night - He is a real guitar player, I am just an idiot with a bunch of guitars. lol.
Only bit of advice I'II throw in is when speed picking, move your picking forearm to go up and down the strings and keep your thumb straight and locked into the side of your finger. I kind of prefer to hold the pick down at the joint of my thumb. If you can move your picking thumb and finger easily with your left hand, then it will move when you pick strings and you will miss. Also I like to have my hand inline with my wrist, that way the pick is at an angle to the strings and I can make minimal movement with my wrist.
When moving up or down a string from a downpick, always practice picking an up pick on the next string, keep everything alternate, it's smoother.
If you can do fast legato, the battle is with your picking hand. Practice 3 notes per string on the open strings or barred and remember to practice rhythmically with good timings and eveness. Alot of it is just relaxing mentally, making minimal movemet with your wrist and making all the adjustments with up or down forearm movement.
Usually you'll have a weakness, changing from three picks to two on the next string to three on the next, or simply changing from the D to the G string going up. Whatever they are in a scale pattern, concentrate on them and start slow and repeat slow until your muscles remember automatically and try not to look at either of your hands or move your mouth.
Given that there are 7 degrees of a scale, until you get back to the root note again, an octave higher, practice scale patterns in groups of notes such as (4 note groupings) 3-1-2-3, 4-2-3-4, 5-3-4-5, 6-4-5-6 and 1-2-3-4, 2-3-4-5,-3-4-5-6 which is the same pattern in a different sequence.
..and coming back down 6-1-7-6, 5-7-6-5, 4-6-5-4 and 1-7-6-5, 7,6,5,4, 6,5,4,2 etc.
Or, again descending try this in groups of eight notes 1-7-6-5-4-3-4-5, 6-5-4-3-2-1-2-3, 5-4-3-2-1-7-1-2 etc Also try that pattern going up.
You can practice these patterns or similar patterns on any scale, major/minor/harmonic minor etc. on a single string with fast postion changes, two strings up and down the neck or all the string in any position. The point is it makes it less frustrating, more fun and teaches you more in the process than straight scales would.
Ideally eventually you get to a stage where you can play any scale or pattern or scale pattern up or down the neck a few octaves, where ever you are on the neck...
Has anybody checked out Matt Raines's lessons on Youtube..AHHHHH. Makes me feel the hero in that like Kick Ass movie on box last night - He is a real guitar player, I am just an idiot with a bunch of guitars. lol.
OK....You asked.....this is how I did it (Still improving it) from my experience.
IT'S HOW YOU HOLD THE PICK:
Right, when you play that pentatonic blues thing with a few bits of shitty legato, ascending or descending thrown in, up or down, you move your wrist kind of freely, at an angle to your forearm, so the pick is more in line with the strings because you are aiming for pick attack and pinch, rather than tonal clarity and eveness. Well this doesn't work for picking fast, especially not when learning.
What I learnt to do is hold the pick between the side of my finger, resting against the knuckle joint of my thumb. Yeah that far down! Not that far down, the knuckle, not the base of my thumb fool! OK, try that and try moving your thumb or finger about rigerously with your left hand, it doesn't move right? Cause it's a tight little supportive picking box. Now hold the pick as you would normally, further out toward the tip of your thumb, past the joint - Yep it moves all over the place, as you thumb and index finger joints move. If it moves that easily, what do you think is gonna happen when you are playing at 1000 miles an hour? You will miss strings, that is what will happen.
Right, next, you want to straighten you wrist, so it is straight and about inline with your forearm. You want to use your forearm to navigate up and down the strings, not your wrist, you do not want that flailing about or you will miss.
With your wrist at this angle the pick will be angled on the strings and offer up less resistance, you just want a bit of it sticking out and make tiny shaking movements with your wrist to pick the strings. Remember to use your forearm to go up and down the strings. Do not start bending your thumb about, you will only miss again. Tiny wrist movements.
RELAX:
Take a shit, have a wank, grab some sex with your bitch or whatever, avoid the coffee and breath deeply.
Whenever you play, try and play as strictly alternate picking as you can. Avoid all this hybrid bollocks. Alternate is the best for control and fluidity and speed. Naturally you might find that you have a tendency to go from a downpick to another downpick when changing strings whilst ascending in triplets. This is hybrid picking. You might want to practice (B) v3-^5-v7 (E) ^3 (B) v7-^5-v3-^5-v7 (E) ^3 (B) v7-^5-v3 again and again until you are getting those uppicks right on the E string. Then try this on all strings, or use a simpler pattern if you like, but with the same amount of notes on each string.
You don't really need a metronome so long as you try and hear the pulse of the notes, 1,2,3,4 or or 1,2,3, 1,2,3,4,5,6 etc. Stay tuned to that pulse and practice it at the speed you can manage so each note comes out even and rings clear. Whenever you practice start real slow and build it up, always keeping the timing of the notes and intervals correct. Do not attempt to outperform your abilities. This is especially important because in playing slowly, you build up muscle memory which will not develop if you try and cheat
Practice the bits you are crap at. For example if you have trouble going from 3 notes on the D string to 2 on the G to 3 on the B and it is letting down an otherwise flawless routine, then just practice that bit, don't waste time doing the whole exercise or scale if that is the weak point. Or perhaps the 3 note - 4 note - 3 note per string is difficult, for example in harmonic minor patterns and scales.
Another weakness, besides changing strings, might be changing positions fast and cleanly. For example you can play a pentatonic lick with two picks (Down/Up) on the high E and one pick (Down) on the B, all repeated, again and again at hyperspeed, but you can't play a descending two string malmsteenb dimished phgrian harmonic minor arpegio or whatever. Well just practice picking two notes on the same string for the position changes, rather than the whole three note arpegio, until you have them nailed cleanly. Interestly such a riff will have you hybrid/sweep picking as you have to play both the B and the E with a downpick as you cannot alternate...this is the beginnings of sweep picking....but anyway.
If you are crap at everything, just start practicing.