(Dispiriting) practice with a surprising payoff

randella

I've always played with a lot of legato in the left hand, but I've been working lately on alternate picking.  Troy Grady, slanting, all that sort of thing.  Was getting the right hump with it.  I love fast picked passages in Jazz, bluegrass, rock, but the horizon seems a long way off.

Anyway it turns out that it's given me just enough strength in my left hand, I found out purely by accident, to finally nail Paul Gilbert's big, slurry legato lick at the start of Mr. Big's Alive and Kicking.  

Instant elation - I've been playing a half-cocked version of it pretty much since the tab book for the album came out.  I learned it properly note-for-note a month or so ago but didn't have anywhere near the dexterity, but just mindlessly played it without thinking this afternoon while practising and bang - first time.

To say I'm happy would be understating it.  Anyway I suppose the moral is that if you're getting down, don't - turns out practice does pay