Okay... I'm just going to put it out there now. I do not look for the same things at all as Nick when it comes to guitar playing.

I just wanted to show off my picking in this video. I had never heard about saord or scalpel picking before I started lessons with Pebber. Honestly I was a bit skeptical about practicing these strange picking techniques in the beginning but Pebber advised me to give it a shot. I had always done wrist and arm picking motion until 8 months ago (before I started lessons here) and my picking hand/arm used to be very tensed. Now my picking hand and thumbs and fingers feel very loose and comfy. I think I use hybrid picking (motions of scalpel and sarod combined).

I saw Scott's picking video and he said that his thumb was getting tired probably because he is using pure scalpel picking. I have never had a tired thumb probably because my picking hand/thumb feels very relaxed.

I am just doing some B Major Scale patterns in the video. Haven't had much time to practice last few months because of work. Hopefully will catch up soon with the lessons.

I like it!

Me too! Very inspiring.

Do you happen to have a video of you playing before you started your lessons? It'd be really interesting to see how much you've progressed.

Quote: Cliff wrote in post #154

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Me too! Very inspiring.

Do you happen to have a video of you playing before you started your lessons? It'd be really interesting to see how much you've progressed.

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holy cow...thats far to cerebral a way of practicing for me to be able to understand whats going on.

Thanks for posting that Diego. It's funny how frustrated you got with yourself, yet you were doing a fantastic job with a really tricky exercise :).

It's interesting to see that, even before you started with scalpel and sarod, you still had a really good right hand technique.

Hey Scott - nice work on that A harmonic minor lick - it's sounding really clean. Funnily enough, I had a go at learning that one a year ago. I was following the wizard of shred's advice at the time, and spent two solid weeks practicing just that and another one from Troy Stetina's book. This is as far as I got:



Seeing you play it again, I tempted to give it another go and see how far I can take it with scalpel picking and what I hope is now a better left-hand technique.

Cliff,

Get them fingers curled up

Uggghh, I hate critiquing guitarists that are better than me.

Thanks for the advice. This was recorded almost exactly a year ago, before I joined this forum. So my technique is a bit better now (including curled fingers), but I don't seem to be much faster :)

I appreciate the criticism, and I'm sure there are *many* aspects of guitar playing where you're better than me.

Cliff; nice work! Yeah I made some changes since last week, and tempos ate steadily going up. It is nice to see improvement! Oh hey, D that's awesome stuff!

So I've been working away at playing scales with 3 notes per string, up and down the fretboard and across all the strings. I'm playing 6 notes per beat, and am *still* struggling to break 80bpm and maintain clarity. I tried playing the same thing with legato today, and recorded myself at 92bpm. Then I recorded the same thing picked at 80 and 72bpm. Then I took the recording into Garageband and slowed it to half speed. I'd assumed my problem was with the left hand, but in fact the legato sounded clearer and had better timing than the picked versions. Slowing the playback down like this helped me to hear how unevenly grouped the six notes are across the beat when picked. Anyone got any ideas what I need to focus on to improve this aspect? Also, with sixes, should I be emphasising just the first note in the group of six, or the first and the fourth?

(I also tried speeding the recording up in Garageband to 50% faster. That sounded pretty good :)).

Here's the vid, in case anyone's interested:



I think it's the string changes that are tripping up my timing, but I'd appreciate any insights or advice. I've just re-watched Diego's picking vid earlier on this thread, and I notice how very little pick motion he's making. I thought my picking was reasonably tight, but maybe I need to focus on yet smaller motions?

(OMG - just noticed the faces I'm pulling here. I guess I'm not very relaxed :)).

You've improved lots since your last video, so keep it up, Cliff, and keep the same mindset -- you'll be really good soon. Best of luck to you.

Cliff, check out my Vlog Of Doom thread. I commented on your picking.

Tom - thanks as always for your words of encouragement and advice. You've been a great forum member. Best of luck to you too!

Ursin - thanks, man. You rock! This new way of holding the pick certainly feels different - maybe a little more fragile - but I'm going to make it work, and try and keep the damned thing relaxed this time around. I'm definitely feeling aching in my right hand at the moment from trying to pick fast. Not good. I think I'm going to re-incorporate some basic picking exercises back into my routine too. I foolishly let these go a few months ago.

Id did that too Cliff started concentrating on just scales.
and soon realised you need those basic picking exercises every day.
I will now do at the least 5 mins alternate each string everyday.

Yeah, it's so easy to focus on one thing and to let other aspects slide.

CLIFF, I dont think there is a definitive consensus regarding yout sextuplt accenting Q...personally I find It very cool to intentionally aviod accents falling on the beat so that I can rest easily knowing that I have not been ussing accents as a crutch timingwise...

Quote: Cliff wrote in post #163

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I think it's the string changes that are tripping up my timing, but I'd appreciate any insights or advice. I've just re-watched Diego's picking vid earlier on this thread, and I notice how very little pick motion he's making. I thought my picking was reasonably tight, but maybe I need to focus on yet smaller motions?

(OMG - just noticed the faces I'm pulling here. I guess I'm not very relaxed :)).

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Hey Nick - thanks for the reply about sextuplets. Now I think about it, I'm pretty sure I've seen them occasionally notated simply as six notes, sometimes as two groups of three and sometimes as three groups of two. I guess it depends on the music. At any rate, in this particular case of three notes per string, it's very easy to fall into two groups of three, and I take your point about using accents as a rhythmical crutch.

Diego - thanks for the explanation. It's perfectly clear, but it'd be cool to see a video nonetheless. Playing scale sequences on one string should give me a chance to practice my Yngwie meedly-meedlies, so that's something to look forward to :).

For some reason, I noticed sextuplets are easier to do over a swing rhythms when more that just the first sextuple gets accented. hmmmm.... food for my thoughts i guess

You must focus on accents. Accents serve numerous functions.

A triplet accent would be ONE two three ONE two three
A sextuplet would be ONE two three four five six

That's the normal "rock" way but, literally, the accents could be placed anywhere. You should experiment with moving the accents around. Generally, it's more difficult to accent on an upstroke than on a downstroke so that should be practiced.

Complicated looking time signatures like (3+2+3)/8 are telling you where to put the accents instead of simply writing 8/8 or 4/4 which would not sound the same due to the accents.

In short, I'd say it's very very very very important to find the accents and make sure you are accenting them

Man I been bustin my ass trying to take the Sarod tech that I have worked up to now and getting it 1.) quickly summmoned and dispelled without all playing any gunk while shifting from sarod/sarod hybrid to scaplal pure. 2.) organic enough to insert sarod picking to bisect certain phrases without it "sounding forced into the phrase" 3.) Making the timeing as obvious to the listener as I can, and 4.) 1-1 fret hand to flutter coresspondence...I just want this to gel and get it 100% effortless so badly...I can honestly say that I while practicing the daily module 1 sarod stuffs///that thusfar I am trying with my all...Since I have basicly become a hermit now in order to give this shit as much of my time as it requires...Maybe this sounds cheesy....but I am really glad I have this forum and for all the guys in it...Even thoughg we are basically strangers talking talking here, its sort my one remaining window outside of my little practice area/bed room...Thanks for being hereeeee!

Ursin, I've got say a big thank you for the picking advice. With this new way of holding the pick, my thumb and forefinger are a little more extended, which makes them feel a lmore relaxed, and also requires less effort for the scalpel motion. Perhaps the biggest plus is now my forefinger is actually pointing at the string I want to pluck. It seems so obvious now! It feels so much more focussed, like I have laser targetting :). This, coupled with much smaller picking motions, and I can already feel my left and right hands synching up much tighter than before. I'm really looking forward to seeing how I'll improve over the coming weeks.