What Are You Working On Right Now?

[Ed DeGenaro]

Link doesn't play for me, but I'm sure it's a challenge, and sounds awesome, knowing you.

Here you go.
Fun starts at 1:54 if you don’t wanna sit through the hole thing

https://on.soundcloud.com/rXfCP2KkROmfRP0LRg

 

[ian_dissonance]

Fucking trying to down pick 16th notes for 16 straight measures at 100 bpm on some middle strings. One thing about playing your own music exclusively for a really long time is atrophying at really simple shit that you just never do.

 

[TSJMajesty]

Fucking trying to down pick 16th notes for 16 straight measures at 100 bpm on some middle strings. One thing about playing your own music exclusively for a really long time is atrophying at really simple shit that you just never do.

Think back... When you first tried that, were you at like 80 bpm (or whatever), and you had to work at it to get it to 100? Or was somewhere close to 100 natural for you, and you just had to build the endurance and accuracy?

 

[ian_dissonance]

Think back... When you first tried that, were you at like 80 bpm (or whatever), and you had to work at it to get it to 100? Or was somewhere close to 100 natural for you, and you just had to build the endurance and accuracy?

Up to about 94 (starting at 80) was cake. 95-97 were rough but doable. Everything over that still falls apart by ~ measure 8 or 9. If I was doing it on the bottom end, no problem. Not hitting lower strings is what is fucking me up. At the proper tempo I’m having an issue with speed versus wrist/elbow movement. There’s a switch from straight punk power chords on the E/A to metalcore riffing on the (lower) A/E and A strings and that is a catch as well.

 

[TSJMajesty]

Up to about 94 (starting at 80) was cake. 95-97 were rough but doable. Everything over that still falls apart by ~ measure 8 or 9. If I was doing it on the bottom end, no problem. Not hitting lower strings is what is fucking me up. At the proper tempo I’m having an issue with speed versus wrist/elbow movement. There’s a switch from straight punk power chords on the E/A to metalcore riffing on the (lower) A/E and A strings and that is a catch as well.

My initial speed would've been about 70-80, and I could barely do 8 notes at 80. And now after years of practice, my fastest is still only 90, and I can't maintain it for any real length of time.

I'm pretty convinced that we can build speed past our initial "comfort levels", but not by much.

I have a couple 32nd-note Petrucci licks I've been at for years, and I still can't seem to get them past about 80 bpm. Idk if I've reached my own personal speed limit, or if there's still some type of break through that is yet to come. But it's starting to get boring trying to get them up to speed.

And those are mainly 3 nps licks. Move to a 2 nps lick, and it slows even further, to maybe 140 (16th notes.)

It's frustrating, because since JP is my favorite guitarist, I'd like to be able to nail a few of his solos, and since every one of them has some shredding in it, that's what I start with, to practice.

 

[ian_dissonance]

My initial speed would've been about 70-80, and I could barely do 8 notes at 80. And now after years of practice, my fastest is still only 90, and I can't maintain it for any real length of time.

I'm pretty convinced that we can build speed past our initial "comfort levels", but not by much.

I have a couple 32nd-note Petrucci licks I've been at for years, and I still can't seem to get them past about 80 bpm. Idk if I've reached my own personal speed limit, or if there's still some type of break through that is yet to come. But it's starting to get boring trying to get them up to speed.

And those are mainly 3 nps licks. Move to a 2 nps lick, and it slows even further, to maybe 140 (16th notes.)

It's frustrating, because since JP is my favorite guitarist, I'd like to be able to nail a few of his solos, and since every one of them has some shredding in it, that's what I start with, to practice.

At this point it’s personal between me and myself, lol. If I can’t get this up to speed I’m quitting everything, selling all my shit, buying an overpriced Sunn stack and starting a blackened doom band or some shit, lol.

 

[TSJMajesty]

At this point it’s personal between me and myself, lol. If I can’t get this up to speed I’m quitting everything, selling all my shit, buying an overpriced Sunn stack and starting a blackened doom band or some shit, lol.

I've felt that way from time to time.

Mine is also a personal quest, and I gotta say when I play one of those riffs at about 80 bpm, it does make me smile!

 

[ian_dissonance]

I've felt that way from time to time.

Mine is also a personal quest, and I gotta say when I play one of those riffs at about 80 bpm, it does make me smile!

I barely touch real lead guitar. Learning Trooch leads seems nuts to me.

 

[TSJMajesty]

I barely touch real lead guitar. Learning Trooch leads seems nuts to me.

It is nuts on some levels, but it has really opened my eyes to the vastly different ways that one can put notes together to form melodic lead lines. And keeps maintaining his creativity, after all these years!

Here's 3 that I think are so fucking creative, and sound cool af:

 

[TSJMajesty]

I just about got my Home riff @ 85 bpm tonight. Almost there!!

 

[TSJMajesty]

Pulled out the Innocence Faded solo again, with the most focus on this section, because it's the hardest part for me. No, I still don't have it up to tempo. String skips are a bitch!

I changed the E/15 to a slide into A/10, right after the sextuplet. Probably the right way to play it.

I guess it's normal to have to work it back up, when you haven't played it for a while, but at least it's taking less time to get it back to where I had it. Now to just push it closer to the recorded tempo. Better than it was, but still not quite there.

 

[TSJMajesty]

Pulled out the Innocence Faded solo again, with the most focus on this section, because it's the hardest part for me. No, I still don't have it up to tempo. String skips are a bitch!

View attachment 57821

I changed the E/15 to a slide into A/10, right after the sextuplet. Probably the right way to play it.

I guess it's normal to have to work it back up, when you haven't played it for a while, but at least it's taking less time to get it back to where I had it. Now to just push it closer to the recorded tempo. Better than it was, but still not quite there.

This riff involves changing pickslant directions, and very quickly so, when you hit that high A (e/17) on beat 3. If I break it into sections, whether it's beats 1 & 2 together, or 2 & 3, or 3 & 4, I can generally nail it at the 128 bpm tempo. But putting it all together was giving me trouble.

Oddly enough, I found that no matter the tempo, I was dragging ever so slightly. Which would force me to speed up in order to catch back up, which is where I'd end up missing a note or 2.

For some reason I thought to double the metronome tempo, and treat the 16th notes as 8th notes, and it really helped keep me locked in as I practiced, and increased the tempo. It gave me twice as many notes that I can hear whether I'm hitting them on the downbeat or not.

My timing in my head is great; but not so much when it comes to keeping my picking strokes consistent, especially when you add in string skips and slant direction changes, in order to escape the string for the next note.

So if you have that same type of issue, I'd highly recommend doubling the metronome beats, at least temporarily. I can tell it's helping!

 

[TSJMajesty]

Another thing I'm doing, and would also recommend if you have a difficult picking pattern, is to simplify the notes, to allow you to focus on just the picking, like this:

I'll run that several times, mixed in with playing the notated riff, as I increase the speed. That's also helping.

 

[Ed DeGenaro]

Another thing I'm doing, and would also recommend if you have a difficult picking pattern, is to simplify the notes, to allow you to focus on just the picking, like this:

View attachment 57854

I'll run that several times, mixed in with playing the notated riff, as I increase the speed. That's also helping.

FWIW I learned something similar when transcribing for the George Benson Method.
Same thing just all open strings.

 

[TSJMajesty]

Same thing just all open strings.

I'll find a simple note pattern that's similar in how the strings are in relation to each other during the actual riff, so that the pick is hitting the strings where they are in space, as close to how they truly are, if that makes sense.

Like if I have the high e pressed against the board, and I need to get the pick up and over the b string, the e isn't in the same place as it would be if it were an open string.

And I realize I'm talking about very small differences, but again, if it's a difficult lick, I just feel it's best for my practice if the string is in the same place as in the actual riff.

 

[Ed DeGenaro]

I'll find a simple note pattern that's similar in how the strings are in relation to each other during the actual riff, so that the pick is hitting the strings where they are in space, as close to how they truly are, if that makes sense.

Like if I have the high e pressed against the board, and I need to get the pick up and over the b string, the e isn't in the same place as it would be if it were an open string.

And I realize I'm talking about very small differences, but again, if it's a difficult lick, I just feel it's best for my practice if the string is in the same place as in the actual riff.

I can see advantages. The open string thing is harder for me because the tension is less than on fretted strings.

So my go to exercise used to be just left hand muting open strings.

 

[TSJMajesty]

I can see advantages. The open string thing is harder for me because the tension is less than on fretted strings.

So my go to exercise used to be just left hand muting open strings.

Oh yeah, the tension thing is huge. One JP riff that I have mastered uses open strings, and it was really tricky at first because of how a fretted note on, say the 17th fret feels so different than the open string.

First time I heard it I was like, I wanna learn that!

From LTE's Key To The Imagination:

It's also played on the low B. Fun riff, and within my abilities, since it's only ~105 bpm.