How Would You Practice This?

[TSJMajesty]

This is the beginning of Scarified by Racer X. I try to learn riffs using the fewest position changes (regardless of how the artist plays it, unless it significantly changes the timbre of the notes), so in the 1st measure, I stay in the 2nd position, which makes it sound a bit cleaner also, since I don't have to shift 2 times. Plus, I have that 4-5-7 triplet shape pretty well down, but doing a (fret/string/finger) 4/6/3-5/6/4-2/5/1 triplet pattern needs more work, since anything involving my 3-4 fingers isn't as fluid. My pinky isn't as strong, and those 2 fingers always tend to want to stay linked.

So my thinking is: practice it in such a way that it improves a pattern that needs work, yet results in a cleaner execution. But I really had to practice that triplet form over and over and over to get it right. I worked on it all over the neck/strings.

The next measure is sort of the same type of trade-off. If I play it like it's written, it's easier (even with that 5-7-9 stretch), but if I shift it to 4th position, it helps me work on that same 'pinky/ring-finger' independence & pinky weakness.

Plus, playing the triplets, 2 notes on 1 string, then the next note on the next string, is also less fluid for me than 3 n.p.s. triplets, due to the timing. My Pentatonic 2 n.p.s. triplets also need more work.

Would you go to this trouble, to try to "dial in" a new fingering, or just say screw it, and play it whichever way is more comfortable?

 

[Eagle]

I used to play this tune years ago, you need to just use use 3 nps shapes . It totally conforms and will probably only flow properly if you use them. The only hard part of this tune is the stretches on the arpeggios at the end. Even that is made easier by the fact that the picking pattern just repeats itself all of them. Just practice seven positions of F#m 3nps over and over and then it just flows.

 

[Eagle]

Oh and it’s only one position shift , you can’t make it simpler than it was.

 

[TSJMajesty]

Oh and it’s only one position shift , you can’t make it simpler than it was.

In measure 5, shift once to 4th position to play the 4-5-7, shift back to play the F# power chord. I didn't say position shifts; I said "shift 2 times."

It is simpler without a shift, but harder in the other fingering. But that's only because I haven't practiced it as much, which is my point. You're one of the few who comment on my technique questions, so maybe you've picked up on what I'm mostly trying to get at in these examples, which is to improve in areas where my playing is weak. I can't play either way quite up to speed yet, but I can play both so they sound the same.

 

[Eagle]

I always use the original fingering because it is part of the sound. Also you are moving the same time is on the original so that is where the time is.

 

[Ed DeGenaro]

Well unless you're Paul Gilbert I'd use middle/pinky any time over ring/pinky cause the latter are on the same tendon.

And i also prefer inside picking cause it's less distance...again other rules apply for PG :-)

 

[Eagle]

Play it like it was is always my starting point.

 

[TSJMajesty]

Play it like it was is always my starting point.

Number one, tabs aren't always right, especially fingering positions. Even the ones in the Hal Leonard books.

And two, I posted this, and even JP himself switched from playing it the way it was tabbed (in Songsterr), to the way I ended up working it out.

The way even the artist who wrote it does not matter. As long as it sounds the same. And the only things that make something sound different are:
-Using open strings when it wasn't played that way, or vice-versa,
-Playing it legato instead of picked, or the other way around, or
-Putting the accents in the wrong places.

Those 3 things are much more important than playing a fast riff in a different position.

 

[TSJMajesty]

-Using open strings when it wasn't played that way, or vice-versa,

And even that doesn't always matter.

Petrucci plays a riff in Just Let Me Breathe by playing an A octave by using the 6th string 5th fret, then string-skipping to the A on the 7th fret, 4th string. I play both A's on the 5th string, and you would NOT be able to hear the difference.

Right here-

 

[Eagle]

Number one, tabs aren't always right, especially fingering positions. Even the ones in the Hal Leonard books.

And two, I posted this, and even JP himself switched from playing it the way it was tabbed (in Songsterr), to the way I ended up working it out.

The way even the artist who wrote it does not matter. As long as it sounds the same. And the only things that make something sound different are:
-Using open strings when it wasn't played that way, or vice-versa,
-Playing it legato instead of picked, or the other way around, or
-Putting the accents in the wrong places.

Those 3 things are much more important than playing a fast riff in a different position.

Tabs are usually wrong. One of the first tab books I bought is the right notes but all in caged shapes and this is nothing like it was played. The book is Rising Force, I got it when it came out. I don’t know if it has ever been revised but it showed me from day one that fingerings need to be how it was done to flow properly. Try playing some fast fluid run with a huge position shift in the middle.

 

[Eagle]

Anything that is economy picked is not going to work unless it is the original fingering. Players that use it Malmsteen and Eric Johnson are good examples of pieces that you absolutely need to use the technique of the player and their fingering. Scarified is pretty easy in the original fingering anyway until you get to the end.