Everyone's weakest technique...

[JJ Rodriguez]

Fucking EVERYTHING. I'm so sloppy at everything. But one major thing I REALLY want is the ability to compose. I can't compose for shit, and if I could, I could deal with sloppy technique.

 

[god_puppet]

My alternate picking for lead has been getting better the past couple of months. I think the technique i have to work most at is my legato and tapping.

 

[SevenatoR]

Alternate picking escapes me. I gave up on it a long time ago and started using a circular-economy thing that works a lot better for me. The weird thing is that if I spend time working on alternate picking, it improves my circular picking.

 

[Desecrated]

Everything, I dont think I´m good a t a single thing and I´m slow as hell, cant play good over 150 bpm. which is a real problem cause my music is mostly written in 180 so when ever I have to lay down guitar it takes forever and sounds shit anyway

 

[Aghorasilat]

Learning other peoples stuff....


and also maintaining picking. That seems to be one of those things that if you do not do everyday it goes away.

Sight reading.....But then again I have never had to use it in the real world and I heard holdsworth doesn't read....God I sound Ignorant.


Santiago Dobles
www.aghora.org

 

[Drew]

I'd say I need work in every area other than actually picking up the guitar.

Learning other peoples stuff....

That's a biggie for me too - I just don't have the patience for it. I'm more of an improv player anyway, and I enjoy making my own shit up more than learning someone else's. The problem is, I also am aware that learning someone else's licks is a great way to get you outside of your "comfort box" and make you grow as a player. It's a tough one...

For me, though, sweeping. My sweeping fucking blows. Not that the rest of my technique is a fuck of a lot better - I basically just let my legato carry me - but that's the one that I reallly just can't get down.

 

[distressed_romeo]

Learning other peoples stuff....


and also maintaining picking. That seems to be one of those things that if you do not do everyday it goes away.

Sight reading.....But then again I have never had to use it in the real world and I heard holdsworth doesn't read....God I sound Ignorant.


Santiago Dobles
www.aghora.org

I'm terrible at sitting down and learning stuff as well, not because I can't do it; my ear's good enough for me to pick up most music pretty quickly, but by the time I've worked out and notated a whole song, there's always the annoying little voice at the back of my head that tells me I could have come up with about 100 ideas of my own in the same length of time.

That's similar to the problem I have with alternate picking...it's just pushing your 'bottom level' up each day that requires a lot of dedication. I mean it's one thing getting all your picking licks perfectly precise and clean at any speed when you have your own equipment, and you have as long as you want to warm up, but what happens when you're in a guitar shop or a friends house, and they put a guitar into your hand and ask you to play something?

Alternate picking escapes me. I gave up on it a long time ago and started using a circular-economy thing that works a lot better for me. The weird thing is that if I spend time working on alternate picking, it improves my circular picking.

I'm much more into economy picking in my lead playing (still tend to alternate pick rhythm parts for extra punch), but I still practice alternate picking, as it's an important component in good economy picking, and it's still a good discipline for hand-to-hand coordination.

 

[kung_fu]

I hadn't really analyzed my alternate picking technique until a few weeks ago, i discovered that when crosing strings I "sweep" or economize the motion instead of continually alternating. My problem is that i economize while crossing from higher to lower strings, but when going from low to high i have a tendancy to continually alternate. This results in me being able to play descending scales faster than i can ascending. Definately something i need to work on.

 

[Hexer]

hmmm...... lead-playing in gerneral I think

especially:

my left hand!!! strength, speed, precission, coordination

sweeping. when I practice it for some time I can sweep descending (high to low) pretty ok (not good by any means though) but me sweeping ascending (low to high) is just horrible. I also kinda got away from really wanting to perfect sweeping as I'm kinda under the impression that everyone who uses it a lot sounds pretty repetitive, boring and most of the guys sound very similar. there are exceptions of course, no question. but I think I have more important things to practice first that I can do more with

legato!!! I'm getting better at it but it needs a lot more improvement

tapping. I'm kinda good with simple tapping stuff like those triplet-licks ( like -17-15-12-... you get the idea) and I use my 2nd finger for that without any problems (can keep the pick right where it is when picking) but I really need to work on more complex stuff and using more than 1 finger (you can do really nice things with that but I need to practice more and come up with some good stuff of course)

and WHAT THE HELL is that "running"-"technique" you guys are talking about? can anyone explain to me the differences in technic/style/whatever in playing fast as opposed to playing at "normal" speed?

 

[MetalMike]

Strict alternate picking at moderate speeds. I took the Jason Becker, start fast and work to improve your accuracy method with alternate picking rather than take it slow and build up. It worked great for me and I can alternate pick at high speeds but those in between speeds kill me. Because of the point I'm at with economy/sweep picking I don't practice alternate picking as much as a should. I have no motivation to alternate pick at moderate speeds, which sucks.

 

[Jason]

Anyone who has heard me play..Everything I got a good sense of melody..that's about it

 

[Nidolf]

I'm bad at sweeping, but It's not something I aspire to be really good at either so I guess it doesn't bother me to much

Also practicing the same thing over and over for longer times beats me. (Starting slow, building up...)

 

[Mastodon]

Definately sweep picking. Everything else seems to have come to me easily but no matter how slow I practice sweep picking it always sounds disjointed. I've tried different attack approaches but so far no success.

 

[Aghorasilat]

That's a biggie for me too - I just don't have the patience for it. I'm more of an improv player anyway, and I enjoy making my own shit up more than learning someone else's. The problem is, I also am aware that learning someone else's licks is a great way to get you outside of your "comfort box" and make you grow as a player. It's a tough one...

Yeah I agree

I'm terrible at sitting down and learning stuff as well, not because I can't do it; my ear's good enough for me to pick up most music pretty quickly, but by the time I've worked out and notated a whole song, there's always the annoying little voice at the back of my head that tells me I could have come up with about 100 ideas of my own in the same length of time.

Yeah I agree I sometimes feel like damn...I could be writing music!

That's similar to the problem I have with alternate picking...it's just pushing your 'bottom level' up each day that requires a lot of dedication. I mean it's one thing getting all your picking licks perfectly precise and clean at any speed when you have your own equipment, and you have as long as you want to warm up, but what happens when you're in a guitar shop or a friends house, and they put a guitar into your hand and ask you to play something?

Yeah That is tough I learned that if you can't play good on a piece of shit....you need to work more. So the last few years I have been practicing on an acoustic with thick gauge strings and relatively higher action than my electric guitars. But that all goesout the windo when I see Allan Holdsworth on Video and I REALIZE.......FUCK I SUCK!

 

[distressed_romeo]

Yeah, I divide my time fairly evenly between acoustic/classical guitar and electric, which helps keep my chops up when real life starts getting in the way.

 

[Shaman]

NOthing, I am perfect

No, just kidding. I think the weakest aspect of my playing is my right hand stamina. In alternate picking it's OK, but I suck at fast downstroke stuff.

The problem with my left hand is that weird chords often give me a hard time.

Then, I don't have the patience to learn other people's songs too. I have been working on it these days though.

I need to work on my tapping too and I would want to know more scales too.

 

[JD80]

What areas of technique does everyone have to work hardest at? By this I mean the physical act of playing, not things like theory, sight-reading or aural skills.

For me it's pure alternate picking for lead playing (not so much of an issue for rhythm). Don't know why, but for some reason sweeping and legato came pretty naturally to me early one, whereas speed-picking didn't. It's started to come together in the past year or so, but obviously, there's always something that needs improving.
IM-style fingerpicking is still awkward for me as well, although that seems to be a common complaint.

I think strict alternate picking is objectively *the* hardest skill to master on guitar. I came to this realization while watching MAB’s Speed Kills, where he demonstrates alternate picking, economy picking, sweep picking, and legato. He starts off with alternate picking and says (paraphrasing) “This is the first, and most difficult technique”. At the time, I was like…huh? No, that’s the easiest. But once you start to incorporate all these techniques, it really is the hardest.

I’ve only been sweeping for about 6-7 months, and economy picking for maybe 3-4 (finally starting to get it), and I think those two techniques are better than my alternate picking in terms of how clean they are at what speed. I’ve been playing for about 8 years now (although only very seriously in the past year).

sweeping. when I practice it for some time I can sweep descending (high to low) pretty ok (not good by any means though) but me sweeping ascending (low to high) is just horrible. I also kinda got away from really wanting to perfect sweeping as I'm kinda under the impression that everyone who uses it a lot sounds pretty repetitive, boring and most of the guys sound very similar. there are exceptions of course, no question. but I think I have more important things to practice first that I can do more with

My guitar teacher had me start out learning to do descending sweeps because he said they were easier. I have the complete opposite problem. My ascending (low to high strings) sweeping is definitely better than my descending, and especially with my economy picking. My ascending economy picking (especially with 3 notes per string scales and what not) totally slays my descending economy picking technique. I think its because I relax my arm and wrist and use gravity to assist the motion, but I don’t have that advantage when going back down, so I tense up more.

Anybody else have this issue?

Strict alternate picking at moderate speeds. I took the Jason Becker, start fast and work to improve your accuracy method with alternate picking rather than take it slow and build up. It worked great for me and I can alternate pick at high speeds but those in between speeds kill me. Because of the point I'm at with economy/sweep picking I don't practice alternate picking as much as a should. I have no motivation to alternate pick at moderate speeds, which sucks.

I have the exact same issue. I fucking hate playing 16ths at like 130-140 bpm. It just really makes me mad because it seems like I can play the same thing easier at like 150-160 sometimes.

What exactly is Jason Becker’s method for improving alt. picking?

 

[distressed_romeo]

My guitar teacher had me start out learning to do descending sweeps because he said they were easier. I have the complete opposite problem. My ascending (low to high strings) sweeping is definitely better than my descending, and especially with my economy picking. My ascending economy picking (especially with 3 notes per string scales and what not) totally slays my descending economy picking technique. I think its because I relax my arm and wrist and use gravity to assist the motion, but I don’t have that advantage when going back down, so I tense up more.

Anybody else have this issue?


What exactly is Jason Becker’s method for improving alt. picking?

It wasn't a problem with the big arpeggio sweeps, but when I started economy picking scales and 3-1-3 type patterns, I found it much easier descending than ascending for some reason. I don't know why. It's fine (OK, adequate...) going in both directions, as I practiced my ass off to get it together.

Apparently Jason did the same as Shawn Lane when developing speedy alternate picking; you start as fast as possible, even if it's pretty sloppy, and then practice to clean it up, in other words the opposite of how John Petrucci and Pablo Gilberto practice.

That's a good observation about alternate picking; when you start out it seems easy and comfortable, but once you take it to a higher level you realised how many in-built difficulties there are. I'd also agree with what a few people have already said, that it's probably the hardest technique to maintain on guitar. If I go without playing for a few days, then when I pick it up, I can usually start doing all my sweep and legato stuff straight away, but alternate picking a complex passage will kill me.

Probably the best resource I've seen on it is Troy Stetina's 'Speed Mechanics for Lead Guitar' book. Personally I think the MAB stuff is a little overrated (no flaming please...it's purely a personal opinion).

 

[mefrommiddleearth]

well having only been doing this for about two years there are alot of areas that I'd really like to be better at (i.e. most stuff) but I would say my biggest weakness as a play is in the combination of a couple of things

*I only know a few simple songs all the way through
*have difficulty playing in time to a metronome anything more difficult than a few riffs
*to eager to move onto more complex stuff before having the basics down really solidly

 

[Kotex]

I suck at everything.