Originally Posted by: PoundhoundChristopher, thank you for the deep analysis. All of it is spot on, I think. Sadly, the amp situation isn't going to change while in my current residence. My wife is currently intent on moving to a detached house, which would give me the freedom to play through an amp. I value my eardrums too much to use headphones. Years of listening to music on Walkmans/iPods etc. have already left me with moderate tinitus and I'm not going to push it any further.
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Fair enough. But the amp or headphones don't have to be loud. There are plenty of great sounding small amps & software that can simulate a loud amp & tone similar to EJ at very low volumes.

For example, I keep my Boss Katana in the common family room area of our house. I use the 0.5 watt setting, big overdriven tone on with the volume on low & can play it easily without disrupting conversation.

Originally Posted by: PoundhoundOne thing that stood out in your response was pressure. This is true for me particularly on lick 5, which due to its speed is the most difficult lesson. I feel heavy-handed playing it and the pick often gets tangled up. I've tried altering the pick position, to no avail. I'll just need to try and work out how to play witha lighter touch without missing notes or deliberately using pull offs to cheat a bit.

Yes, that's an important issue to keep working on. At first trying to play fast is going to raise your tension & adrenaline! But as you keep working on it try to relax & back off on the tension. It's something that I still deal with when learning a fast complex lick I've never done before.

If you can find a way to get it done with legato instead of picking each notes that's fine! You can also move the notes to (mostly) one string if that helps.

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=287

I have a series of lessons on how to deal with speed & sequenced patterns like that.

This one shows how to visualize all the minor scale patterns.

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=929

And this one has a lesson on sequencing the patterns in 4s. Straight across.

https://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=14668&s_id=973

And in one position.

https://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=14669&s_id=973

[quote=Poundhound]I guess that if I pick a lesson that's a wee bit out of reach, it's going to take significant time and effort. Just reading the comments has given me the impetus to keep trying.

Good deal! Don't stop. Keep going. :)