Can Anybody Here Play Mr. Crowley? I Need Advice

[TSJMajesty]

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 do both as well. Funny you mentioned the 'slowing way down' just now, as that's exactly what I'm doing right now.

 

[Ed DeGenaro]

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.
Ditch the right hand and concentrate on left only.

 

[Rocco Crocco]

When I was working on playing fast, to build up my left hand, I would practice trills on a bass guitar. It really builds strength and it helped to build speed.

 

[megametal7]

For me….:


When im learning a solo, I usually break it down in sections, play them till I can play it fairly ok. Then I put together all sections and keep practicing them all together till im happy and have patience.

I have not learned that solo but im pretty sure i can as its all pentatonic stuff and I play mostly pentatonic based stuff.


Isolate problem and attack it from all sides.


Some stuff takes long time to have it down some dont.


Be patient , you will kill it!!!!!!!

Never give up!

You have my full support!

R

 

[Los-D]

When I was working on playing fast, to build up my left hand, I would practice trills on a bass guitar. It really builds strength and it helped to build speed.

Nylon string acoustic for me. Translated well to electric

 

[LeftyLoungeLizard]

So, I'm talking about the solo, and staying pretty close to how Randy played it. Been putting up a few threads about technique here, since my main focus is getting better as a guitarist, and I wanna reach a level of this sort of challenging stuff. Been going hard for a few years, and I'm stoked with my progress, so I'd love to get some real conversations going with like-minded players, here, cuz I don't wanna go over to, you know, that other place, cuz you know, this place rocks! But it's still just getting going, so not nearly as many people.

Anyway, I've been mainly working on alt-picking stuff, and as far as sextuplets go (most of this solo), I can juusst about get 3-note-per-string riffs at the tempo of Mr. Crowley. As long as they're fairly linear, like Petrucci's runs. But where I really struggle is when it's mostly hammer-ons & pull-offs. My trill speed of my fingers is just slooowww. So these kinds of solos are really challenging for me. But I know I need to mix this technique into my practice time, since so many songs have this style.

And being Pentatonic-based makes it even harder, since it's mostly 2 n.p.s. Even if I alt-picked this solo, I might be able to get it up to 85% of the tempo atm. I have practiced just doing trills (bor-ing), and worked on the Jimmy Page-type triplet riffs that go back-and-forth (think: Good Times Bad Times, Godzilla), but I'm beginning to wonder if my fingers are just not made for pulling off stuff like this, no pun intended. A buddy of mine back in high school could play Good Times Bad Times, and it did seem like it was just second nature to him!

So one question I have, if you can play this type of riffage..., when you first started messing with it, were your fingers "fast", or did you really have to work on building speed? I mean I know nothing comes totally naturally, but I'm just wondering if guys who can do this sort of stuff, did it come to you pretty quickly? And if not, did you see a decent rate of progress? As in, how long did it take to get there?

And of course, can you give me any tips how to get there? Like, does gaining stamina and strength eventually translate to increased speed, for example? I'm not trying to, nor am I ever gonna, be a "shredder" (despite what it says under my avatar! Lol), but I have always wanted to someday be able to conquer this solo, and others like it. Especially since, once I can do one of them, the others will come that much easier.

Thanks!

As far as "first started messing with it", I honestly don't remember (40 plus years ago), but I'm sure it didn't come immediately.

Tips-wise:

Try some legato hammer-on/pull-off exercises on the 6th, 5th and 4th strings, like 1-3-5-3-1... or elsewhere on the fretboard like 13-15-17-15-13 on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd strings. Pick once to start the note, and hammer on / pull off the rest of the notes.

Tapping (use the pinky) can help too.

You want that pinky to be stretched, loose and limber. You will build strength here only through repetitive practice.

For the triplets, you'll need to examine your picking as well. You'll need to synchronize your pick hand with your fret hand.

IIRC, for each triplet (in the outro solo) you should only need to pick the 1st and 2nd string (2 pick hits). There may be some brain confusion because you're playing 3 notes (triplets) but only picking twice per triplet.

It always helps to start out slow and build to speed.

I do a decent version of the end solo here:

 

[mbenigni]

*cough* *cough* *cough* I hope you don’t get seizures...

OK, two minutes ago I thought I knew how to play this solo.

Man, those swept/muted harmonics at around 10 seconds in are beautiful.

 

[mbenigni]

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

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

Once again: humbled. Amazing work.

 

[Bruce]

Once again: humbled. Amazing work.

Thank you!!!!!