What are you learning?

SyXified said:
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That's at least the first part of the fingering I'm using. I put up the pick stroke notation at the beginning to show how adjacent string could warrant an economy picking motion. I can play it at about 90 bpm with very good accuracy wholly alternate picked... I just worry that the motion to pop over a string to alternate pick EVERYTHING when transitioning between strings may be too precise a movement to ever get down at the full speed (around 150 bpm I think). I know there are some instances where you simply have to economy pick certain parts (like part of the intro to damnation game is hopeless unless you economy pick some parts). I've tried watching Petrucci do it on the Scenes from a Memory DVD, and I really can't tell if he is truly alt picking EVERYTHING or if he is incorporating the type of economy picking as I have illustrated (which I believe is how many guitarists might play it).

P.S. Ignore the D Standard tuning, I just happened to be playing on a guitar in that tuning when I was working on this so I transposed it (aurally). The fingering is still the real fingering for E-standard tuning.

My email is syxified@yahoo.com if you want to send me any literature, etc, on it. Thanks guys!
Click to expand...

just uploaded the .pdf and e-mailed you a link- if you find it useful and fancy doing me a favour, it'd be a great help if i could get some constructive criticism on my bands new CD, (songwriting not production!) so we can try and make our next one better haha-

http://www.grindheadstudios.com/At_Sunrise_Sapphires_EP.zip

have fun learnin! :headbang:
 
What a great publication this is. What did you say it was called? Guitar Techniques? I'll have to look into a subscription. The synopsis in the beginning is exactly what I needed to know - that outside alternate picking will genuinely work even at that speed.

I checked out your demo but I want to listen a few more times, and I'll send you a PM with my thoughts. I loved that you have a singer doing the dirty vox thing but I can actually understand what he is saying. That's rare.
 
Yep, it's Guitar Techniques and it's an incredible magazine. It's a bit pricey here in the US, but quite worth it.

BTW, I'll look at the tab you posted and put in my picking patterns if you still want (seems that article got you sorted out though), but it might not be until Sunday. I've got rehearsals during the day tomorrow, a few things going on at night, and I'm trying to deal with a broken fridge/freezer.
 
Humm....
On guitar, the last thing I briefly looked at was Close to the Edge by Yes. Pretty intense, but it looks like it's a lot more simple than it might sound. Along with that, I'm also planning to cover "Yours Is No Disgrace", also by Yes, as soon as I get ProTools.
On keyboard, I've been working on a number of things: I'm currently learning the intro to Tarkus, by Emerson Lake & Palmer, and I'm also trying to add my own cool ideas to the organ solos. It's a little insane considering I've only been playing keyboards seiously for like 2 years, but I feel that I can do it.
 
Horus said:
Humm....
On guitar, the last thing I briefly looked at was Close to the Edge by Yes. Pretty intense, but it looks like it's a lot more simple than it might sound. Along with that, I'm also planning to cover "Yours Is No Disgrace", also by Yes, as soon as I get ProTools.
On keyboard, I've been working on a number of things: I'm currently learning the intro to Tarkus, by Emerson Lake & Palmer, and I'm also trying to add my own cool ideas to the organ solos. It's a little insane considering I've only been playing keyboards seiously for like 2 years, but I feel that I can do it.
Click to expand...

mmmmm close to the edge. choon.
 
Today I was playing along with Dream Theater's Images and Words on bass, taking out the cool bass lines and riffs out of Pull Me Under, Take The Time and Learning To Live... Good fun. Also been following some transcriptions of Marcus Miller's bass line from 'Run For Cover' and playing the main theme out of John McLaughlin's 'Raju'.
 
Picking up bass has actually saved my passion for music to an extent, I was quite burnt out on guitar and hardly playing it at all, but now I'm playing bass a lot. It seems like you can play cool stuff in a much wider variety of musical genres.
 
So, I can comp chords like a demon, but I suck hard at single note stuff, especially fast. I suspect it's a combination of bad picking technique and left hand finger choices.

"Shred" is not and never will be my style of playing, but I'd like to be adept enough to zip in a run here and there. What are some good basic exercises to improve this?
 
Any video/still shots of your right hand while you're playing? If it is poor technique/right hand posture that's hindering you, exercises are only going to help to a certain degree. Tuck Andress has a good article on this stuff: http://www.tuckandpatti.com/pick-finger_tech.html

That might be way more involved and in depth than what is necessary for your situation but even if so, it's an interesting article if you are a nerd like myself. Either way, I'd give the following general advice:

-Make sure your picking hand is super relaxed. Work on alternate picking one note as fast as you can for an extended period of time and pay attention to any tension in your wrist (which is where pretty much all of the motion should be coming from) and try to eliminate it.

-Beating a dead horse here...but the tried and true method of playing licks/exercises/scales/arpeggios/etc. to a metronome and gradually increasing tempo is always the safest bet to improve speed and clean up technique. Don't focus on speed though, focus on technique.

-Those chromatic-based exercises (and their permutations) that show up in just about EVERY technique tutorial any of us have ever seen are ok, but I prefer to work on things that are (for lack of a better term) more relevant to real life playing situations. Practicing scales intervallically is a good one, as is taking arpeggio patterns that are usually swept and then alternate picking them. Most beneficial is to just find licks you like in songs/solos and work on those. Also...once you learn these things, try using them against backing tracks/with records rather than just a metronome. Putting licks in context and making them work presents different challenges than a metronome, and is way better for you.

I've got a fuck-ton of PDF and powertab stuff full of helpful things and I'm happy to send some things your way if you like. Just let me know.
 
This is great man, I'd definitely like to get a bunch of PDF and powertab stuff!

From your link, I'm type "Standard variation 1" - pick is held between side of index finger and pad of thumb. I strike hard in a flick kind of motion, and find my upstrokes to sound more pleasing than down strokes. My movement can be likened to a hinged arm - my forearm moves and the wrist accentuates - all very loose. When I try to alt pick a single string quickly, it's all in the wrist. This may also contribute/draw from my percussive rhythmic style. As I said, I'm very, very much a rhythm monster. But it doesn't at all translate into accuracy on the single note domain.

Before I get to speed, I need to pick up technique and get it right. Consider that I have little if any knowledge of the proper technique for alt picking, economy picking, or sweeps. That, if anything, indicates my neglected study of the topic.
 
PM me an e-mail address and I'll shoot some stuff your way!

I'd define good technique as anything that a) produces good tone b) doesn't cause discomfort or lead to injury and c) doesn't prevent you from conveying what your musical ideas. The one adjustment I'd try making to standard variation 1 as Tuck describes it is to address the disadvantage he addresses with it, and that's the fact that the hand is still suspended over the strings and it makes accuracy at quicker speeds hard to achieve. Try resting the heel of the palm on the bridge or lower strings so that your wrist has a pivot point...it'll help a ton with accuracy. This is basically the technique I use and it does me just fine for just about everything...and I keep my other fingers curled up into a fairly loose fist to help facilitate hybrid picking, which I do a lot of.

Let me know how the stuff I send you goes...and if there are specific licks or patterns in there (or other stuff you are trying) that are giving you trouble let me know and I'll be able to zero in more on what might be holding you back. Always harder to diagnose these things with out audio/visual references of what I am diagnosing. I'm currently working on some video lessons for the place I teach at, so I'll see if I can convince them that I need to do a picking tutorial and then post it here for so a "test audience" can check it out :)

The other advice I'd give is that if fast picking just isn't your thing, work around it rather than against it. Use more hammer-ons/pull-offs or try incorporating some hybrid picking. Produces way more interesting articulation and cooler lines when you combine all these things than when you pick every note anyway IMO.
 
I've come to realize that I'm not as good at drums as I'd like to be...

Lack of practise is the culprit. It is especially frustrating because my musical knowedge is much more advanced than my abilities to play. I'm very capable of writing complex, captivating, and original music... I just wish I could play along.
Maybe I'll join a band one day and sing, lol. I'm not too bad at that.
 
Ken! My apologies dude, I've been busy the past few days. I just tried sending some PDFs but they were too big for e-mail. I'll get them to you via yousendit within the day or two. Sorry for the delay!
 
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