It's been a while since I've posted, here is an offering...

Now the above video is my "practice piece" - Basically, it's what I play at the end of my practice routine. I can actually play the whole thing pretty well from beginning to end, I was just playing it too fast and I petered out. lol funny. I will post another clip of it in a few months, it will be fun to compare.!Just my Godin through a Hughes and Kettner Statesman Dual 6L6 combo (Love that amp)

In the last year, I have literally tried everything picking wise. Every possible slant, and every variation of holding it, and every pickstroke variation, etc etc. I left no stone unturned, and I tried hard to give good attention to Pebber's concepts. Some successes, a lot of failures. I really took a look at a lot of Pebber's Youtube vids, and even slowed them down so I could really see what was at work.

The one thing that I feel I ironed out, is how Pebber tells you how to hold the pick. (He is on the money) Ignore that advice at your peril. That is critical advice I think... For me, holding the pick that way absolutely felt bizarre, due to a numbness in my picking hand. I would actually exert so much pressure that my first finger would ache. I tried doing scalpel/sarod path, but I actually ended up really lowering my expectations of myself, and setting one objective: LEARN HOW TO HOLD THE PICK. It's a start. My tempos and control went through the roof once I got that under control.

Also, notice how my picking hand fingers fan out, and I'm anchored? I have already begun work on changing that. It's a result of a lot of tension, and I think that it kills my endurance, particularly if I wanted to shred for 3 minutes straight. (Only in an exercise... lol Rarely in a song, hahahaha)

Some other things I did;
1) Changed my tuning to straight 4ths. There are a lot of reasons why I did this... EADGCF It's working out quite well.
2) Picked up a Chapman Stick. Wow, are they ever cool, and holy crap is it ever hard to play!
3) Became obsessed with sightreading...


More to come. Hope you all are having a great summer!

Who's transcription did you use there? That one seems a lot easier to play than some of popular ones (stetina, petrucci, etc.). If that's your own, well done!

It is a fingering I came up with based on an accordian arrangement! Haha I have abandoned tablature completely, plus I tune in straight 4ths a la Stanley Jordan... I would be happy to share a guitar pro file if anyone was interested! A rough, but pretty funny rendition of it complete with crash landing! Haha

Now this is the video that made me want to sign up on this forum, and of course that's what I did! Just nice playing and the end "blooper" was just pure gold. It is refreshing to see people with great technique to be not so uptight about their mistakes.

Mr Gurgle; Thanks for the kind words, and thanks for checking out the trainwreck! hahaha I'm still learning too! It's fun to come and discuss music ideas. This is a great forum for that!

On another note;
Now that I have the pick held the way it should be, it's all about relaxation. I may try out Chris Broderick's Pickclip, actually and see if that helps. I dig how he goes back and forth from picking to fingerstyle and tapping. He's really good, and the pick may resolve some issues I have with picking hand/arm paralysis. Yeah, I know it's a crutch, but it might be fun to try...

That a trainwreck? no way! Kudos and kudos for those kinds of trainwrecks!

That pickclip is an interesting idea to try. I didn't know what the pickclip was so I googled it and it is a thumb pick (not your traditional one though). I found also some youtuber showing how he played a sweeping pattern from a solo (might've been a dragon force song) with it and he used tapping too. Looked like it would be useful, but in the comment section he said that he had abandoned it for now because it got seriously in the way of his alternate picking. Strange. Perhaps Chris Broderick uses it like you said by mixing fingers and picking seamlessly and it takes some time to find what works and what not. (Chris of course is quite the guitarist so he would hammer things out.)

More power to any tool that may be a help to improve picking and playing! I've tried all kinds of grips on the pick and have for some time now tilted the pick up (not the 45 degree down). This helps with the upstrokes and gives a quite a lot of definition when playing root + 4th at the same time, which I like to do. Some of the riffs and jumps just don't sound the same (or become even muffled) with the normal grip. It also may help in a quest to dial down the gain. Now this may not work for all, and is not so intended, but I took to it and found it to be just what I needed. And like you said, after you find what works for you it's more about relaxation. (I do tilt the pick down too and can play all that I play that way, but mainly the pick is pointing up nowadays! Positive message I guess?)