Re: Speed MechaniX practice thread!
Yeah bros, I'm still practicing.
I am working diligently on the 3-note per string, strict alternate picking while changing strings. Working up to playing those 3-note per string scales. Looking at exercises 39 through 50. I'm not really doing them per se, but I'm working out the movements I need to do to finally tackle them.
This part has really got me in the dumps actually. Unfortunately, I have never concentrated on strict alternate picking ever. I sort of always did a hybrid kind of thing where my hand would always move in the direction of the string change (if that makes any sense). I figured it was more efficient. It probably is when you go from one string to the next to the next etc, but it is not if you are jumping between two strings and not all six. So, I can see why Mr. Stetina teaches it this way and I agree with it. The only problem is that I am battling years of playing wrong - and well it's just tough to break through. I was stuck for seemingly weeks at the about 140-bpm mark (going between 2 strings). I just could not break through and it was getting me down. So I tried one of his techniques where you bump up one or two bpms, keep doing it doing it. By the end of the session I was past 150 so I figured that as progress. Funny how you forget these little tricks when you get all focused up in something.
But anyway, long and short, I'm still doing it - and like I promised myself - I will do this for an entire year or I will quit playing in the process
God did not grant me incredible skills, but He did grant me a ton of patience and a ton of drive, so I have to go with that.
So Cal: I've heard good things about those books also, and after this year is up I plan on picking one up - after I take a couple of months off to just play tunes again.
