So here's me working on some scalpel, sarod, chromatic and wholetone exercises. Its funny how shitty your technique looks once you record yourself.



There's a lot of movement when I do an A pent. pattern with scalpel picking. Is that ok? I can definitely feel my thumb joint moving but it just looks wrong when I watch it.

Also, I find that when I'm on strings 5 and 6, doing a chromatic scale for example, my thumb moves up. Is that fine, or should I be trying to keep it down all the time?

That looks pretty good to me. Keep it up!

Fretting hand looks great. Scalpel doesn't "look" that unusual to me, though I think I rest the pick on the pad of my thumb a bit closer to the tip of the thumb that you do. Not sure that matters.

I couldn't tell if you have the Sarod movement correct or not ... a bit too far away to see if you're using the forearm movement or if you're relying on your wrist.

I think you're on the right track but if you're after constructive criticism, what popped out to me was your tone and timing.

For tone, and maybe this is due to your amp/camera setup, I didn't think all of the notes were ringing clearly. When I sound like that it's either because I'm fretting the notes poorly, or my hands are not synchronized. To fix this, obviously just slow down. You clearly want to play fast, but don't make the same mistakes others make. Get it SUPER SOLID slowly first.

For timing, the chromatic form part didn't sound perfect to me. Maybe I'm crazy (very possible, and you can test this yourself by using Reaper/Audacity/Youtube HTML5 to slow it down) but it seemed like you were cramming the four 16th notes a bit ahead in the beat to allow you to shift positions in time. You should work on keeping those 16th notes as even as possible. Also, keep an ear on your tone once you shift to a new position ... it's got to be clear.

you are on your way man! full steam ahead and b4 you know it I bet you will be one badass guitar player!

Thanks a lot for the advice guys. I hear you, SLOW is the key.

Up until now, what I’ve been doing for something like the A pent. exercise, is alternate, scalpel and sarod with single notes, then doubling up on each note, etc, at whatever speed I got to the day before....So should I scrap that and just focus on one, like doubling up for example, real slow, then gradually going up like you said every day until I have it down, or should I just keep doing them all but always starting slow and then speeding up gradually every time? Time’s my issue. Since I only have a limited amount of time (about 3 hours per day), I'm guessing I should just choose a few exercises to work on from module and 1 & 2 until I get them down, as opposed to doing a lot for a shorter amount of time?...yeah, no shit.

Yeah, don't answer that question. Ursin I read your thread on 'Practice Time Balance/Focus' and I get the picture.

Hi everyone,
I was looking for the right thread for posting my very first videos when I came across JohnA's and saw he was practising the same exercise in it. So, this is my take on scalpel. Any feedback would be much appreciated.

If I remember correctly the metronome was on 120, 130 and 150bpm. I know I'm not accurate on the last one, but I included it so you guys can see how my technique changes and what I need to watch out for (e.g. the middle finger sticking out).

Thanks



[Video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ioq4QbDhfg
[/Video]

Hmmm. Let's try to post the rest of them....

To Case

This is good work. Both hands look good. And, I like the idea of pushing beyond your limits. But always remember to reign the BPM back to something you can do.

The main issue I see is your muting needs work. The notes ring together WAY too much. You don't want that. Work on different muting techniques. Maybe start by resting your pick hand on the strings near the bridge. Another muting technique is to use the pickhand thumb to mute the string you just played as you move to the next.

Try these and see what happens. Resting your palm near the bridge is the most commonly used. I'd start there.

Thanks Ursin! I'll work on muting and will post an update in a few days to see if I'm on the right track.

Hey Ursin,

A quick question about muting while using sarod picking. I read a discussion a while back about muting the picked string and if I remember correctly the conclusion was that this technique doesn't lend itself to muting as easily as other ones, though it is possible to achieve it. So how about muting the rest of the strings during sarod picking to prevent unwanted noise?

Cheers!

Quote: Case wrote in post #11

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Hey Ursin,

A quick question about muting while using sarod picking. I read a discussion a while back about muting the picked string and if I remember correctly the conclusion was that this technique doesn't lend itself to muting as easily as other ones, though it is possible to achieve it. So how about muting the rest of the strings during sarod picking to prevent unwanted noise?

Cheers!

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Cheers Ursin! So even more focus on coordination :) I'll try to keep the hand floating as much as possible and use all the techniques you mentioned. I'm at work at the moment but I get the feeling one may still be able to use sarod while the fleshy part of the palm (close to the wrist) touches the other strings. Will post a video soon. I appreciate all your feedback. They have been very helpful! Thanks!

Quote: Case wrote in post #13

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Cheers Ursin! So even more focus on coordination :) I'll try to keep the hand floating as much as possible and use all the techniques you mentioned. I'm at work at the moment but I get the feeling one may still be able to use sarod while the fleshy part of the palm (close to the wrist) touches the other strings. Will post a video soon. I appreciate all your feedback. They have been very helpful! Thanks!

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I was going to ask you about muting with the picking hand thumb. I tried it and it felt very unnatural the first time. Of course, this is often the case with correct techniques, so that didn't put me off. I'm positive it will take a while to master it. If you have time, maybe next time you shoot a video for the Vlog'O Doom, could you please address it? Just a min demonstration so I can see I'm doing it right.
Another general question about muting. Do you think it helps if you practise it with distortion? Unwanted string noise is way more obvious there... Thanks for the feedbacks on this!

Quote: Case wrote in post #15

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I was going to ask you about muting with the picking hand thumb. I tried it and it felt very unnatural the first time. Of course, this is often the case with correct techniques, so that didn't put me off. I'm positive it will take a while to master it. If you have time, maybe next time you shoot a video for the Vlog'O Doom, could you please address it? Just a min demonstration so I can see I'm doing it right.
Another general question about muting. Do you think it helps if you practise it with distortion? Unwanted string noise is way more obvious there... Thanks for the feedbacks on this!

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With pick also in general is alot to do wiith what type of pick you use as well. Heavy gauge picks are my preference. Either Dunlop Jazz 3, Dunlop 1.5mm or Dunlop 2.0mm. At the moment I am using Dunlop 2.0mm.

Go and watch my VLOG O DOOM videos. I answer some of these questions in that. You have to watch every video but I do talk about muting with left hand and muting with picking hand.

Thanks Ursin and Guitar Player! Yeah, I'm watching the Vlog ;)
Guitar Player, I prefer heavy gauge picks too but I switched to Davas last year just to try them. I like the rubber grip ones as I've always had problems with keeping the pick in the same position between my fingers, especially when scalpel picking. As for muting with overdrive/distortion, I'll make sure I dedicate a few hours to practising with them as well as on the acoustic guitar. Cheers!

Quote: Case wrote in post #19

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Thanks Ursin and Guitar Player! Yeah, I'm watching the Vlog ;)
Guitar Player, I prefer heavy gauge picks too but I switched to Davas last year just to try them. I like the rubber grip ones as I've always had problems with keeping the pick in the same position between my fingers, especially when scalpel picking. As for muting with overdrive/distortion, I'll make sure I dedicate a few hours to practising with them as well as on the acoustic guitar. Cheers!

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Case, you are doing very good work on your guitar playing, btw. It is nice to see someone use an accoustic guitar for doing the scapel technique.

Hey Guitar Player! Thanks for the EVH video, I'm checking it out now. Yeah, I'm trying to do as much on the acoustic guitar as I can (driving my wife crazy ;) )

sorry for for hijacking your thread JohnA. please review this guys, i know my left hand thumb is slanted towards the head of the guitar which looks wrong and ive been trying to get rid of that fro a long time now. is there anything wrong other than that? i tried to go to 120 bpm playing along with pebber. couldn't do it. so this is at 112bpm.

Ashan, that sounds and looks great to me. Nice work!

Sounds great Ashan how about the doubles.
Nice work keep pushing you will get to 120

Try going way past what you can do even if it sounds shit for a while, then bring it back down
your brain sometimes needs that jolt to push on another level..

thanks damon and delta. i'll do that. i have to make a video on doubles too. i think pebber goes to doubles after he does 120 bpm in the video. what about the left hand thumb. don't you think its bad technique that it turn towards the head of the guitar?