getting faster

[Mav87]

Alright ive heard that when trying to play guitar pretty fast (like Yngwie) that you shouldnt use your arm to play and that you can go alot faster with your wrist. But whenever i play with my arm i always seem to go 10 times faster than with my wrist. Ill admit that it sounds alot cleaner with my wrist and not as choppy but i just cant seem to get some speed.

[Death55]

Well i guess you should just use whatever you find is best. I find i use my wrist more than my whole arm but i have seen really fast players using their whole arm when they are shredding !

[Displacer]

i agree, do what is more comfortable for you then rather what people say...as long as you can keep getting better at it and it doesnt hurt, keep it up :)

[jleraan]

I third that advice. When I think about it, I wonder about that I use a combination of both the arm and the wrist sometimes. I don't think too much about it. As the people say, just do what is comfortable.

You know, I was like that before, was very worried about whether I held my pick the 'right way' or not. Then I just forgot about it and focused on playing, and whoa, now I don't think about it anymore. Same with pinch harmonics, palm muting, everything really. Just experiment.

[Azrael]

dont worry too much about it as long as it works. i mean - just look at Marty Friedmans picking technique - thes dude is completely spastic, but he can play pretty fast.
of course there are general rules of how to hold the pick and how to pick, but they dont apply to everyone since we are all individuals ;)

[The Ace]

We are?


(Hey Ma! You don't have to pick my clothes out this morning! I'm an individual!)

[Azrael]

sure we are - ok - i might be slighly more individual than the rest of you.. but then again i´m also sightly insaner than the rest of you *LOL* (jk)

[u10ajf]

What's so spastic about Friedman's technique? I love his album "True Obssessions".
As for the arm thing, I pick with my arm too but I would like to work on getting more motion from my wrist - maybe if you could combine them things would speed up even more?

[Death55]

Originally posted by Azrael
dont worry too much about it as long as it works. i mean - just look at Marty Friedmans picking technique - the dude is completely spastic, but he can play pretty fast.


Haha, thats funny. hey Azrael... did you get that signature pic from a game or something ? I'm sure i saw it on a game on 2flashgames !

[Death55]

Originally posted by u10ajf
What's so spastic about Friedman's technique?

Well i didnt really think his technique was spasticated. I guess it doesnt matter if you look like a spastic when you play.. as long as the sound your producing is good.. i mean the sound from your guitar !!!

[basics]

Hey, while we're on this subject, when I'm going at it, my pinky finger is digging into the top E string to such an extent that I periodically have to stop and massage where the string is cutting into my finger for fear of implanting the string right into the skin. I don't know if this is normal or not, but at any given time when i'm alt picking the E string is being bent by my pinky and supported by the thrid finger for leverage. This uncommon?

[aiwass]

You can get fast in less time picking from the arm, but accuracy will be difficult, not to mention that tension can easily occur. Building wrist speed only takes time.

[mindspikes]

Not only will control and speed eventually come better with the wrist, but you risk developing tendonitus or something picking from the elbow... if you look at Yngwie he doesn't even use his wrist when picking, just his index finger and thumb. It's all about efficiency of motion to get true speed and control (I still pick from my wrist, finger and thumb is too advanced of a technique for most of us).

[Azrael]

Originally posted by Death55
Originally posted by Azrael
dont worry too much about it as long as it works. i mean - just look at Marty Friedmans picking technique - the dude is completely spastic, but he can play pretty fast.


Haha, thats funny. hey Azrael... did you get that signature pic from a game or something ? I'm sure i saw it on a game on 2flashgames !

that (old) signature was Flippy from the Happy Tree Friends

[lord of chaos]

cool me an yngwie have somethin in common, thats the way i pick as well although somtimes i find the wrist and arm comin into play as i get faster. as as for spasm-inducing death metal tremolo picking, the arm is the only way to achieve the speed. as sombody said before tho, itsharder to achieve the accuracy required to pick a single string.

[aiwass]

Get your facts straight, Yngwie picks about 90% from the wrist.