Most difficult technique you're currently trying?

[Number Of The Priest]

Is there some new technique you're trying your hardest to nail?

Right now, I am having a LOT of trouble doing the string bend vibrato thing, you know, where you bend the string up a whole or even 1.5 steps and then doing a beautiful wide vibrato at the top of the bend. I think I just need to build my finger strength some more. I have become quite lazy and I tend to use the trem bar to add wide vibrato at the top of the bends... [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] Shame... [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Got any tips for me, other than "practice, practice, practice"? [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Big D]

Re: Most difficult technique you\'re currently trying?

I've been trying to get my alternate picking to a pace where I can play some Yngwie stuff. Problem is I've been trying to learn this for like 2 years now...I'm close but can't quite get over the hump. I think it may just be time, I only have enough time to practice about 60-90 minutes a day.

[kmanick]

Re: Most difficult technique you\'re currently trying?

The Yngwie stuff is driving me crazy. the way he descends and ascends the harmonic minor scales on the same string, at the speed he does is tough for me to play smooth and evenly. I'm almost there but everytime I jam with Far beyond the sun, I always get behind in 1 or 2 places.
[img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]
it's driving nuts.

[ApeDosMil]

Re: Most difficult technique you\'re currently tryi

Trying to learn how to do sweeps and its not going to well.

[dfvxc]

Re: Most difficult technique you\'re currently tryi

Yngwie is definitely a huge hurdle to get over...

NOTP I love how yngwie does that. Slide all the way up, and then bend and vibrato. I do it all the time now. Finger strength is no problem for me it seems. I don't think it requires that much effort to be honest. Maybe ur string tension is on the high side? My problem with this technique is that yngwie style vibratos are so wide, I often have trouble keeping the other string quiet without the right hand muting them.... Damn yngwie is good at that W/o the right hand... prbly because of his string action?

I'm also working on his single string patterns. The ascending/descending patterns are not too difficult imo, but patterns where u shift up and down really fast (e.g. before the i'll see the light tonight solo, and the fast part after a bunch of A power chords in evil eye) is hard to keep up with.

What I find that I have to do to be consistent w/ the note timings is to SHIFT hand position BEFORE my brain actually realizes my hand has finished. That way every note is clear and note timings are accurate.... It feels really weird in the beginning but the sounds that come out don't lie... damn yngwie he's so fast.. faster than the connection between my hand and brain.

As for the most difficult techniques I'm working on,
I still have trouble doing big sweeps cleanly on Jackson style necks whose radii are huge compared to Gibsons I started out with.

Sweep + taps, back to sweep.
clean smooth Combos of sweeps + Altpicking/hammering ons for those beautiful sounding extended arppegios.

[thetroy]

Re: Most difficult technique you\'re currently tryi

I'm kinda sorta taking a slight break from shred stuff. At least I have been for the past 2 days... Right now I'm working on fingerstyle stuff (I've NEVER played without a pick before) and it's frustrating as hell. It's basically starting over from scratch with my right hand.

[mazhar]

Re: Most difficult technique you\'re currently tryi

im trying to use all four fingers in succession on the same string cuz i have a very weak pinky. for example, playing the 5,6,7 and 8th frets with my index,midde,ring and pinky respectively. it may sound like im a beginner but this is one exercise i never addressed earlier. once i get over this my playing should take a leap!! hopefully. any tips????

[VitaminG]

Re: Most difficult technique you\'re currently tryi

Popped in the trusty old Vinnie Moore Hotlicks video the other night, have been working on my picking technique since.

lately it's been a real effort just playing. I've been doing a lot of simple technical exercises, just trying to get my playing to somewhere where I'm happy with it, where I can play the songs I like, after not playing much (or seriously practicing, anyway) for ages. But just when it feels like things are starting to come together, exhaustion seems to kick in and I struggle to play the simplest things. Co-ordination goes out the window, not to mention synchronisation, left hand gets tired, the pick seems to drag on every string, something I'd been playing easily 10 minutes ago is suddenly a major stumble. Sometimes I think maybe I'm just not destined to be a musician.

But I keep picking up the guitar, can't imagine NOT picking it up.

[Brad]

Re: Most difficult technique you\'re currently tryi

3 chord progression. [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Snow007]

Re: Most difficult technique you\'re currently trying?

Straight down picking!

My arm/shoulder tenses up around 95 bpm in 16ths for simple stuff and I want to get it up to around 110 if possible.

Really frustrated with that so I thought I'd divert most of my attention to tapping till I can figure out the whole shoulder tension thing.

[dfvxc]

Re: Most difficult technique you\'re currently tryi

One of the best advice I ever got is:

play/practice standing up.

solves a bunch of posture issues, especially on the right arm.
Also, try having it hang as low as your left hand allows... less strain on the right shoulder imo. It took me some time to get used to doing everything standing up, but much less time than expected (2, 3 weeks?). Its damnwell worth it.

[pagemalicious]

Re: Most difficult technique you\'re currently tryi

Sweep picking. It's such a bitch to get the hang of. Some of the arpeggios i try to play never seem to sound clean enough. Getting them up to speed is also another frigging challenge. One day...

[jgcable]

Re: Most difficult technique you\'re currently tryi

I am working on some Michael Romeo stuff that is pretty hard. It involves lots of string skipping. I find the single string Malmsteen ascending runs really difficult to master too. I can play them but they never sound as smooth as the maestro.

[Endrik]

Re: Most difficult technique you\'re currently tryi

Alt. picking arpeggios at ultra high speed, didn't have problems with it before, but I didn't practiced about few months so I need to archive that level again.

[kmanick]

Re: Most difficult technique you\'re currently tryi

The other one that's driving me crazy is the way Greg Howe
does ascending scales with the 3rd note on each string
tapped, and the way he taps out arpeggios. It's difficult
(for me anyway) to tap them out without the hammering that
you get when tapping. And you can really smoke ascending
runs if you do it like he does. I've been working on "Kick it Over" love his phrasing too. I'm waiting for his new
instructional videos to come out [img]/images/graemlins/popcorn.gif[/img]
I'm trying to go more down that fusion path lately, I need to take a break from the Neo classical shred (although I've recently re discovered Vinnie Moores 1rst album and I'm jamming to that a lot)