Can Anybody Here Play Mr. Crowley? I Need Advice

[TSJMajesty]

Speaking of crazy-good legato, this is one I've been learning parts of, then practicing, then learning some more. I've got it at about 80% tempo, but haven't learned the chromatic walk-up part yet. Most of the solo is sextuplets, but during that part he has some 32nd-note riffs that are even sicker. And that final sextuplet, alt-picked section!! Underpinning all the flair, the whole thing is very melodic! (I'm a sucker for harmonic minor-based music in general.)

Edit: screw all those sweeps!! Lol The sextuplet part at the end I was referring to is when JP and Jordan are playing in unison.

Here it is, cued to the start:

 

[Gearzilla]

I think this probably one of the more melodic songs Michael Batio has. Absolutely insane guitar pyrotechnics from about 2:20 on for awhile. The guy seems like he’s from another planet.

 

[DrewJD82]

Make trills part of your warm up!



You'll grow a pink beard, a whammy pedal will appear at your feet and your trills will quadruple in speed!

 

[la szum]

That dude was special.

 

[TSJMajesty]

So I forgot about mentioning something I'd tried a little while back. Since I can do other things faster with my pinky than I can trill, it's not necessarily a physical limitation, but maybe more neurological...?

So I figured, what if I tap my right hand at the same speed I want to do a trill, and see if that helps. You know, sort of trying to trick my body into sending the nerve signals at the same rate to both appendages. And damn if it doesn't work! Or at least help.

If I just do the trill, @ 140bpm, I can't keep up with 16th notes. But when I do it along with my right hand, I can. I tested this like 4 times, and it does help.

Of course, it can only be used as a possible way to build trill speed; we'll see. I'll track this tempo and see if it actually does help me get faster.

It must be something along the lines of why you can't tap your head and rub circles on your stomach at the same time.

 

[Piing]

So..., nobody has really answered my main question which is, can you really build trill speed?
Can you trill fast, and if so, was it pretty much always there, and you just had to refine it?

OK. Here is the secret: making her squirt repeatedly with your left-hand fingers really brings fast results, and it is much more fun than spending hours practicing trills over the fretboard. Sometimes you build more skills when you step aside from your guitar

 

[Stone]

Well I know when doing War Pigs doing trills in both solo's was super hard (for me) and took many hours of practice to get up to speed
besides my regular practice routine id bring my axe unplugged on the couch and just practice trilling

 

[TSJMajesty]

Well I know when doing War Pigs doing trills in both solo's was super hard (for me) and took many hours of practice to get up to speed
besides my regular practice routine id bring my axe unplugged on the couch and just practice trilling

So any idea how much faster you got, and how long it took?

 

[Stone]

So any idea how much faster you got, and how long it took?

About 1.5 hours of practice per day on average practicing trills, whole song took me about 2 Months
I did notice Improvement for sure as i got in more practice, can i go any faster ? like maybe Die Young from Iommi (some really fast trills on the outro) maybe with a lot more time and Practice

 

[Bruce]

Not sure this will post I got a copyright strike for it

Damn. Oh well. Let me see if I can upload somewhere.

 

[Bruce]

Try this. My humble offering. Was 11 years ago pre most tattoos lol

 

[Stone]

Try this. My humble offering. Was 11 years ago pre most tattoos lol

Hot Damn Bruce, man that was spot on boy can you ever play

 

[Bruce]

As far as the ops questions.

Speed. It sucks lol. I have the opposite problem. My picking is straight up garbage. Look at my video and look how I pick that passage. It’s awful. My legato developed well because I’m left handed and play righty. I work around it with whatever god gave me.

For picking I’ve started playing 3 note patterns down up down DOWN up down DOWN….. so there is a little mini sweep in there. Malmsteen does this if you study him. It somewhat helped me but not at the time of my video.

I really couldn’t give a trills pointer other than keep developing strength in your left hand. The more you work at it, speed should come. I tend to trill between my index and how ya doin finger mostly so long as I can reach. Otherwise I find it difficult too. I also play pentatonics this way 12th fret and above. It’s just faster for me.

 

[Bruce]

Hot Damn Bruce, man that was spot on boy can you ever play

Thanks, pal. I used to play this in a band so I had a good grasp on it at the time. Would have to work at it again today.

 

[TSJMajesty]

My legato developed well because I’m left handed and play righty. I work around it with whatever god gave me.

That's interesting. Makes sense that you would have more speed since it's your dominant hand. I can do all sorts of things faster with my right hand. Maybe I should switch to playing lefty. Oh nevermind. They don't make LH Majesties. Forget that.

That was pretty sick Bruce. Respect.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

So..., nobody has really answered my main question which is, can you really build trill speed?
Can you trill fast, and if so, was it pretty much always there, and you just had to refine it?

Like, with my alternate picking, I could always tremolo-pick a single string at about 600 nps. But in order to play actual riffs at that speed, I had to develop control, and L/R finger hand coordination. And I had to practice it to a metronome to get it consistent, without "tripping" over the string. But I can't seem to "will" myself to go much faster, even with practice.

I've said this before, and I got disagreements, but I think we all have a natural speed limit that we just can't go beyond. Sure, you may be able to gain say, 10-20% extra, but beyond that, I'm not so sure.

Which is why I was looking to see if anyone, who when they started working on hammer-ons/pull-offs, were able to really see any truly appreciable speed gains with practice.

Yes, you can build trill speed. You build it the same way you built your alternate picking technique. The challenge is that since you are now fast with alternate picking, you likely have less patience to stay at the super slow speeds, focused on playing perfectly cleanly than you had when building your alternate picking up.

I hit a max speed on a lot of this stuff...because I got to where I could play most of the stuff I wanted to play and so stopped practicing. But there have been times in my life when I've been given something that is a little beyond my speed limit, and putting in a couple of weeks of conerted effort, dialing the tempo down and really focusing on ingraining muscle memory, has allowed me to push up to the speed needed for the solo I was asked to play. Once I recorded the solo, I went back to playing all the stuff I normally play and reverted back to my previous speed limit.

 

[Bruce]

Yes, you can build trill speed. You build it the same way you built your alternate picking technique. The challenge is that since you are now fast with alternate picking, you likely have less patience to stay at the super slow speeds, focused on playing perfectly cleanly than you had when building your alternate picking up.

I hit a max speed on a lot of this stuff...because I got to where I could play most of the stuff I wanted to play and so stopped practicing. But there have been times in my life when I've been given something that is a little beyond my speed limit, and putting in a couple of weeks of conerted effort, dialing the tempo down and really focusing on ingraining muscle memory, has allowed me to push up to the speed needed for the solo I was asked to play. Once I recorded the solo, I went back to playing all the stuff I normally play and reverted back to my previous speed limit.

The petrucci method of this is kind of the opposite and helped me in the past for alt picking.
His book (or video, I can’t remember) has you playing at tempo, then pushing slightly beyond where you can play it well, then dialing back down.

 

[JT]

Try this. My humble offering. Was 11 years ago pre most tattoos lol

You are RIPPING IT \M/ Great job!

 

[dk_ace]

The petrucci method of this is kind of the opposite and helped me in the past for alt picking.
His book (or video, I can’t remember) has you playing at tempo, then pushing slightly beyond where you can play it well, then dialing back down.

I’ve found both approaches to work well for me at different times. Most of the time playing past the speed I’m clean at gets me over the hump. I did have a gig a while back with a fast alternate picking part where the only way I could get it was slowing it way down and getting it clean. I’ll try both approaches anytime I’m struggling with something, one of them usually does it.

D

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

I’ve found both approaches to work well for me at different times. Most of the time playing past the speed I’m clean at gets me over the hump. I did have a gig a while back with a fast alternate picking part where the only way I could get it was slowing it way down and getting it clean. I’ll try both approaches anytime I’m struggling with something, one of them usually does it.

D

I find when the issue is getting my brain to work/hear at the higher tempo, or the issue is remaining relaxed at the higher tempo, the going above and backing off approach works better where when the issue is my fingers tripping over themselves slowing down is the better approach.