how can people alternate pick so fast?

[elgalad]

Originally Posted by jamminoutloud1

Do you guys mainpulate your thumb a lot when picking...I've noticed when I have lines with larger string skips(1st string to third string or 1string to 4th string), if I raise my thumb up on the pick, it's a lot easier for me to play these lines, as opposed to just keeping the thumb right on top of the pick. Anybody else do this?

I think I get what you're saying, and I do this as well. If I'm skipping strings, I'll pull the pick up a little bit by bending my thumb and forefinger a little to get the pick over the intervening string. I've found this reduces the amount of wrist movement involved and helps me stay more relaxed

[jamminoutloud1]

I think you get what I'm talking about elgalad...I'm glad it's not just me who does this.

[KRosser]

Beats me. That was never a skill set I aspired to.

[jamminoutloud1]

What's that, playing fast?

[GovernorSilver]

Originally Posted by jamminoutloud1

Do you guys mainpulate your thumb a lot when picking...

Not consciously.

I tried picking in a circular motion for a little while, and that obviously involved some thumb manipulation. Then I realized that if I simply stuck to the less glamorous, not so sexy, downright boring advice that the elder statesmen here have posted repeatedly, any technical issues, including speed of execution, just take care of themselves. You know, boring advice like:

- Practice with a metronome, turned down to a really slow speed

- Play whatever you are practicing perfectly. If you make too many mistakes, your metronome is too fast. Turn it down and try again.

- Do not turn the metronome up until you can play whatever it is you are working on perfectly at the current tempo.

- If after a while you start making mistakes you weren't making before, take a break of at least 5 minutes.

Follow the boring advice and make progress, or ignore it and keep plateauing. Your call. What I discovered in following the above advice if that if I play something perfectly at slow tempo, my hands magically stay relaxed when I try to play it faster.

[rotren]

I think speed is way overrated among guitar players. I can't play like Yngwie or Gilbert either, so instead I try to focus on developing a style that works for me. In the end, I think we all want create good music, and there are lots of great players who play slow.

However, sitting for hours practicing fast alternate picking will pay off eventually, but it's so dang boring... Instructional videos might help somewhat, but nothing replaces that time you spend practicing.

[elgalad]

Originally Posted by rotren

I think speed is way overrated among guitar players. I can't play like Yngwie or Gilbert either, so instead I try to focus on developing a style that works for me. In the end, I think we all want create good music, and there are lots of great players who play slow.

However, sitting for hours practicing fast alternate picking will pay off eventually, but it's so dang boring... Instructional videos might help somewhat, but nothing replaces that time you spend practicing.

+lots

If you want to learn to alternate pick really fast that's cool, and you should definitely go for it, but don't let people make you feel like less of a guitarist because you can't. I'm pretty slow at alternate picking by most people's standards, but that's more because over the years I've developed a style of generating speed that comes from a legato approach. I throw in lots of hammer-ons and pull-offs and trills if I want to do a fast line. This is the something I've picked up from playing WAY too much Jimmy Page material over years. It works for me, and I prefer the sound to straight-up alternate picking, so I never bothered to develop that skill

[GovernorSilver]

Regarding the issue of using the thumb, I forgot to say that when I get my hands into that desirable relaxed state for faster playing, the thumb just does whatever it does on its own without my having to pay attention to it.

I started working on alternate picking with string skips a few months ago using the Steve Morse exercise. I have yet to experience a need to pay any special attention to my picking hand's thumb.

This kind of sounds like the conflicting teaching approaches I got between an old man and my cousin's husband both trying to teach me how to ice skate. The old man was all about details regarding the feet and such. My in-law was more about just take it easy and let myself glide slowly. The in-law's approach proved to be much more effective at getting me to skate without having to hold onto anything.

[MBreinin]

Get a drill and mount a pick! LOL

I can burn pretty good tremolo style on one string, but I could never sweep with any skill or perform any of those serious string skipping speed drills. So, instead I concentrated on bending and vibrato.

I do agree that practice, practice, practice. Also, at some point you have to realize that not everyone is Yngwie. :-(

Mike

[buddastrat]

I love fast playing, and I can do it, but I do it like Yngwie. But it's not truly alternate picking nor is it economy picking. It's a little blend of both utilizing the best of each setting up for the easiest licks to play fast. It sounds great and it's almost like sleight of hand, at fast speeds, you think it's alternate picking. Eric Johnson does this a bit as well.

Paul Gilbert is awesome and his right hand is a drill. That's what true alternate picking sounds like. Very even and mechanical a lot of times. Same with Morse, Petrucci, Dimeola. Alternate picking has a very defined, practiced sound to me. I have to keep at it, or I can get sloppy, especially on specific moves.

Metronome is good for monitoring progress and working on steadying your time, but for speed, for me it was more about figuring out which movements and muscles to use and not use and then it happens very fast.

[Dickie Fredericks]

Originally Posted by jazzandmetal?

I spent a lot of time learning songs by Slayer, Metallica and Fear Factory.

Bingo! On the first 2 at least for me.

[fiddler]

The spaces between the notes are just as important as the notes themselves....don't get hung up on speed....

Tension and release is what people wanna hear....not all tension

The music has to breathe....like a singer....proper breathing is key....don't breathe, and well, you know what happens

Listen to BB King.....he can speak volumes with ONE note!!

[dhdfoster]

Originally Posted by buddastrat

I love fast playing, and I can do it, but I do it like Yngwie. But it's not truly alternate picking nor is it economy picking. It's a little blend of both utilizing the best of each setting up for the easiest licks to play fast. It sounds great and it's almost like sleight of hand, at fast speeds, you think it's alternate picking. Eric Johnson does this a bit as well.

I've wondered about this. When I watch Yngwie play, he tends to move up and down on each string, whereas Paul Gilbert, Morse, and Di Meola tend to move across from string to string, if that makes sense.

[buddastrat]

Yes he does a lot of single string runs, which of course are alternate picked. But he does a lot of moves across the board, and he's not quite alternate picking. He's figured out a pretty ingenious way of making it look like he does though. It's very efficient. It's cool cuz when you do it, you're right hand barely has to move and it looks and sounds effortless.