Working On Right Hand, No Improvement |
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Working On Right Hand, No Improvement |
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Jun 26 2012, 09:02 AM |
Ah, the old alternate picking riddle again !!
I've often said that before you can get a good picking technique everybody should be able to develop some way of getting a good tremolo picking motion on one string, one note. (By the way, people often think tremolo picking means something else, like a different technique, but it's not. It just refers to picking one note as fast as you can but the technique is still alternate picking.) There's some different things you could try, all of which have helped me out with finding my picking style. 1. Find your 'natural' picking position. Look at your hand when you're playing rhythm, riffs and things like down strokes. This will be the most natural way that your hand / wrist / forearm has chosen to move. One thing you should notice is that most people allow their wrist to be floppy and lean outwards a bit more. ( You never really see anyone playing rhythm guitar with their hand absolutely parallel up against the guitar body because it restricts movement and your forearm and wrist just don't rotate that way. The only person I've seen play like this is Stephane Lucarelli in his videos but guitar height / sitting down can make that possible) If your hand position looks different from that when you're picking fast then that's a good clue that you're not going with your body, you're going against it. This may not be true for everybody but it's good place to start. 2. Concentrate on the strong beats of a bar by accentuating the quarter notes.. 1, 2, 3, 4 These will be down strokes. If you make a bigger effort to make these guys stay in time with the metronome it kind of gives you more energy. I think it's a psychological thing because if you use mental strength to concentrate harder on those quarter note beats, you stand more chance of staying with the count instead of drifting away and slowing down. 3. As an opposing technique to the previous one, try concentrating on the tip of your pick. Let it rest 'on' the string. Instead of thinking of big pick strokes that go up and down, think instead that your pick tip moves directly from one side of the string to another. All it does is move over the string itself and rest on the other side ready to come back. It's hard to describe but it's like you've got to concentrate the energy of your pick 'on' the string and not allow it to escalate into bigger strokes that take you further away from the string. At slower speeds this is easier. As you get faster it will try to make you do bigger strokes but your job is to keep them small, even as you increase speed. The very act of doing this really works the forearm muscles. First try it without a metronome and then when you feel this working, start doing bursts of it against speeds that you previously thought were impossible. The key is not to aim for endless endurance at first but to give you the feeling of playing fast and to know you can build on the stamina from there. 4. This is perhaps the weirdest and hardest to explain. Have a look at my post here, post 10 https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...st&p=556254 As a final word I would remind everyone that you don't make progress by doing the same thing all the time. To have progressive results that increase, you have to increase the work that you put in. In other words, if you want fast to come out you've got to put fast in. There is a balance of course.. you can't just blaze away at top speed and expect clean technique to miraculously develop but on the other hand you can't expect to only ever play slow within your current ability / comfort zone and expect to somehow develop a fast motion. I think the whole 'avoid tension, be relaxed, avoid injury' can actually frighten people away from pushing themselves on the guitar so that they constantly remain in a state of limbo where they are just practising licks to a metronome at slow speeds forever and wondering when they're going to get better. Remember, before metronomes became popular there was Yngwie Malmsteen and countless other old school players that just did it and worried about it later. First, find something that works and has some raw, fiery results and shows a slightly rough version of what you want.. and then worry about honing it later ! At least one of those approaches, or a couple of them, may help you Good luck ! This post has been edited by Ben Higgins: Jun 26 2012, 09:07 AM |
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Jun 27 2012, 01:38 PM |
QUOTE I would try to avoid over analysing things. I know it's tempting and seems like the right thing to do but it will probably take you further away from finding the right way for you. It's one of those things you have to feel physically, rather than try to reason with it. QUOTE I don't think this is bad like some people make out.. I think the whole anchored fingers vs no anchored fingers is a very old fashioned and outdated argument that has no place. Read this column the other day that seems relevant in that respect; The Dreaded GIFO Disease |
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Jun 27 2012, 03:26 PM |
What a great article.. love the guy's humour ! |
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Jun 28 2012, 12:20 AM |
Great Article man! -------------------- |
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