jabak

Sorry for not understanding. I've never come across this one "...I get one die out. Start at 1, play the piece, go to 2, play again". :) English is not my native language so sometimes I run in to words, sayings etc. that I just don't understand. :rolleyes:

Finally my new stoneworks pick arrived in Denmark. It took a month or so. But i must say it was well worth the waiting time. Besides the obvious visual qualities of the pick, which is a proof of Mike's craftsmanship, i've noticed a few other pros. First of all it adds more attack to the sound. Secondly it also adds a unique picking sound to the overall tone in a way i find pleasent. And I agree it does glide through the strings effortlessly. I've taken on economy picking after watching troy grady's mechanics stuff. I kinda figured out that two-way pick slanting would be to much for me right now. And the alternative of either down/upward pickslanting wasn't an option for me. So economy picking became the obvious choice as a supplement to strict alternate picking (with no conscious pickslanting). Btw. Mike's personal touch when it comes to customer service is much appreciated. That's a very rare thing these days.

My problem exactly. The helix freezes when booting and a restart fixes it. Pedalboard version also. This odd behaviour started a few weeks ago. No clue what started the problem.

Agreed.

For 15+ years (can't remember exactly) i did not touch a guitar. 2-3 years ago I started playing again. Got my self a Line6 UX1 and pod farm. I quickly realized that I wanted something better and more "wow" - the kind of gear that I couldn't afford when I was younger. i can tell you one thing. the Helix is one piece of gear you wont regret buying. Every day when I go into my little "home studio" and turn on my helix I smile all over my face. It's super enjoyable to fiddle with and it sounds great. As mentioned a lot of people use FRFR speakers to get the most out of their Helix. i have a pair of JBL LSR305s studio monitors (FRFR). They're cheap and sounds awesome with the helix.

As you may have gathered from the posts here I do analyze every bit and piece of my playing at the moment. It's not that I analyze to the extend of what Troy grady does but yes I'm very conscious of what is going on when playing guitar. i think it's just a temporary thing. When at some point I feel comfortable with my new and hopefully improved technique it will be at thing of the past. But right now I feel that I can't afford to make the same mistakes I did some 30 years ago and consequently hitting a brick wall once more. What I'm trying to say is that I agree with you. Probably 9 out 10 will agree with you. It has to and will come natural to most of us. But natural to me for a foreseeable period of time is to analyze and correct :) While we're at it and most of you (i'm guessing) are proficient guitar players (which i'm not) I've got one more question: how many of you are economy pickers and how many are alternate pickers. If alternate picker do you use pick slanting and edge picking?

I think were using very similar picking techniques. I'm not sure but when you mentioned moving along the strings lengthwise as you go from sixth to first string it totally made sense. This morning I found a video that pretty much nails how I pick the only difference being that i also use my thumb to mute strings as you do. Also I probably have a more light touch with my palm: Yup I've seen Glenns videos. I also purchased his first custom artist package months ago. Great tones and some very complex patches. And yes he is a great guitarist. When practicing I sit down with my guitar strapped. It's positioned high enough so it doesnt touch my legs and therefore the whole weight of the guitar is supported by the strap. i do occasionally stand up while playing and it makes no difference. I've started to do 2/3 of my practice routines above the 12th fret to get rid of the problem but it's a hard nut to crack. It's frustrating that no one else is having the same issues when playing the high frets. it makes you think that there's something wrong with your technique.

Michael Batio comes into mind when reading your description of how you pick. Marty Friedman also. Not that I think their styles resembles yours but they too have a very unique approach to picking. If it works it works the morale being that there's no right or wrong?

I've watched a few Steve Morse videos since you mentioned him. Amazing stuff.

Never thought of it that way but I think it's a accurate description of how things are. When thinking about it I remember that when i started playing the guitar I took giant leaps forward to start with and fast also. New peak summits was reached every month. Later on things slowed down quite a bit. The next summit was only a fraction higher than the previous one but the time spent in between the peaks were increasing.

You got it right. 46 y/o my self and started playing when I was about 16. Had the guitar in one hand and a bear in the other for 11-12 years and then just stopped (not the latter though). I can't really remember why that happened but I guess life got in the way. Like me I sense that you enjoy playing guitar in a completely different way now compared to when you were younger. When I go in to my home studio and start practicing sometimes I completely lose track of time and end op noodling around with all sorts of stuff for several hours. It's super enjoyable and when I call it a day it's with a big smile on my face. After watching football tonight (the kind of football where the players actually and predominantly uses theirs feet) I took the time to look around for guitar teachers in my area. I didn't have high expectations regarding the selection of qualified teachers in my area and I wasn't disappointed. Zero. But i'll keep looking. Maybe some local music school will have something to offer other than a crazy shredder. Like you I'm not exactly versed in theory, chords and stuff like that so any teacher at any level could teach me a thing or two about that. That's for sure. You say that your teacher considers your picking technique to be quite good. Out if interest how do you handle moving from string to string while economy picking notes? I've watched several youtube videos on the subject. Most of them tells you to anchor the underarm while moving or rotating your wrist. So your wrist's range of movement is then supposed to cover all 6-7-8 string without unanchoring your arm. At first i tried to adapt this technique but it felt so unnatural. Then I started moving my underarm up and down while using the wrist to make small motions to pick. The right side of my palm just barely touches/slides over the bridge without actually hovering above it. I would call it a very light anchoring technique. My wrist movement is not up and down entirely but close. And sometimes I rotate my wrist. Like I said in some other post I also find it harder to pick single notes (scales) fluently when playing on the high positions on the neck. i have no clue why but tension is part of the problem. i hope it makes sense.

Jazz not only makes good exercises - it sounds cool too. So for me it's serves multiple purposes. But it's not like I practice jazz on a daily basis. Far from it. It's just fun to do something different from time to time.

Spot on. What I was trying to convey can be boiled down to one simple sentence: 'get it out of the way'. That's right. Eliminate the worries of having some technique issue blocking progress. I think I'll give troy grady a shot for a couple of months. And I'll certainly continue to practice, practice and practice my technique.

Very insightful story ric. Good points there. Crazy speed is not my ultimate goal. Not at all. I dont want to sound like a machine. Speed is just a tool like anything else. Lets say i got my picking up to 180 bpm 16th notes on a single string when playing simple stuff. Great! But if i cant go 180 when playing moderately to really complex stuff crossing strings or moving up and down the neck it doesn't really matter to me. When I picked up my guitar for the first time in 15 years I decided to reboot and start from scratch. That's two years ago now. So where i'm at right now any input is of value to me. And i can't think of a better place than here in this forum to discuss the challenges i'm facing at the moment. So i've set goals for my self. One of them is 160 bpm 16th notes when alternate picking moderately complex stuff. If i can do that then it's okay that I have to slow down when playing more complex stuff. Another goals is being able to sweep arpeggios cleanly and being able to alternate pick them comfortably. Speed is not a goal here. My laser focus on technique, tension, picking motion, posture, hand positioning etc. comes from my desire to be able to play what i want when i want to. The drawback of being so methodically as I am is that i think to much about every apsect of my playing. I guess I'll have to loosen up a bit and just play.

The single most annoying issue I have with my playing is that i feel much more comfortable playing low neck positions like 3 to 10 fret (scale runs). Beyond that the tension of the strings when fretted changes in a way that for me feels awkward. It slows me down considerably. Anyone else having the same experience?

First pick ordered. $40 for a 1.7mm Argentine Agate pick heart shaped pick. Thanx for the tip.

Had no intention of hi-jacking this thread. Sorry for that.

For me the smaller picks has become a pain. Regarding the thickness I also favor picks around 1.5 - 2.0 mm in thickness. For me $25 - $100 is ok.

For me "It depends" is quite comforting. Reassuring really :) When reading your answer it reminded me of this video that i found yesterday. In the intro Jens uses a hammer when needed and a saw when that's the best fit for what's he is playing. he constantly switches between alternate, sweep and economy. So what you are saying totally makes sense. I just have to be more confident in choosing the tool thats feels right to me in the context i'm in. Btw. I'm not into jazz but jazz pieces makes great exercises.

The small stubby Jazz III's is collecting dust at my desk right now. I think i'll go for the teardrop size.

"My mom didn't know what I was up to, she was just happy to have something new to play.": that made me smile all over my face :) Thanks for taking the time to post such a comprehensive answer. It's much appreciated. Food for thought. And I totally understand your decision to stick with your technique - good, bad whatever. After all it's your job and correcting your technique would most likely not have made any difference for your career as a professional musician. Many top notch guitar players are economy pickers only. But unlike you I had the luxury of going back to square one without having to face any consequences at all. It all came down to my personal ambitions of becoming as good a guitar player as I possibly can with my limited talent. And my old technique, self taught by the way, was holding me back that's for sure. Thanks again.

Ooops! :)

Steve Morse? Never heard of him :wacko: By guitar synthesizer do you mean like using the helix synth stuff? That's really a new angle. I guess the synth sound could maybe reveals any imperfection in your right/left hand coordination/synchronization?

Funny thing is that just recently I stopped using the Jazz III's. I found some petrucci picks that gives me way more control. Or at least I think so. I think i'll give the stoneworks a try. Can you point out any particular picks?

Thanks for your reply. Actually I have no problem finding the time to practice on a daily basis. One and half to two hours is normal for me. I have my default routines including simple picking hand only exercises plus 3 and 4 notes per string exercises (scales) plus string skipping exercises. I do them every day for about an hour or so. Then i move on to some more musical stuff and do that for an hour or so. I try to do different musical stuff every day but sometimes i just dive into to the same stuff for weeks. I did watch Troy Grady's series on "cracking the code" - it helped me realize that I was on the right track regarding my picking hand technique. But I'm still not sure if it's spot on unfortunately. I'll certainly have a go at the "Master of Mechanics" Regarding technique and being comfortable with it you are absolutely right. For weeks I searched the internet looking for some kind of valid explanation on thumb positioning. They all seemed to echo the same message: keep your thumb behind the neck and so fort. But for me it just made no sense to position my thumb like on the countless youtube videos. I stiffened and cramped. A week ago I just gave up all that "classic thumb position" mumble jumble and started to move my thumb to a comfortable position as I moved back and forth on the neck. The end result may be bad technique but for me it works. Now I position my thumb the "classic" way when playing on the low part of the neck and the further I move up the neck my thumb starts to go over the top of the neck. I hope i t makes sense? As you pointed out: play your guitar in a way thats comfortable for you.