It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Subscribe to our Patreon, and get image uploads with no ads on the site!
Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
Comments
You're right - the talk of playing something slow and gradually speeding it up is a waste of time. As you say, slow technique is completely different to fast technique.
The advice would be to play it at a medium to fast tempo, don't worry if it's sloppy, you can always clean it up. Just get the fingering and feel of the lick down and then clean it up.
I've done a bit more work on it and found a version that works for me that has some slight differences from my previous post. I'm still not 100% sure whether it's exactly what Gary Moore plays on the album version. but it sounds similar to my ear.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
So don't forget the most important thing when you reach the fast bits - make sure that you correctly adopt the rock stance, gurn properly and generally look as if you're going through a particularly troublesome exorcism. That'll go down a treat with the punters, even if you monumentally fuck up the actual solo.
If you find any bits are just not sitting quite right there's probably a hammer or a pick stroke in the opposite direction so, if you see a chance to be more efficient, that's the name of the game.
If you get one tricky lick like that really nailed you can use it all over the place, take bits of it and make your own licks etc from it, drop it in other songs. If you hit a roadblock like this, it's so worth putting in the time to overcome it because that's what pushes you as a player - not just learning more stuff in your comfort zone.
Then having developed the basic 'motor skill' (or muscle memory) it's possible to reuse use it, even for a different phrase (which I think connects back to what @Dan_Halen said). However, having developed a motor skill, the problem for a new lick then becomes more about getting it into your head, which is where the 'chunking' approach works for me.
I have to say though, trying to force through a barrier and learning how it 'feels' to play fast is part of the process of building the speed for me. Although, I'm not a fast player by modern standards.
Maybe different things work for different players.
Incidentally I listed hammer-ons/pull-offs and legato separately earlier because to me they're slightly different things. I see hammer-ons/pull-offs combined with fast picking as something that Gary Moore does (e.g. on this lick). Whereas, legato is more akin to what Holdsworth or Tom Quayle do, so it's a related discipline but not exactly the same with regard to practice. Perhaps a gross oversimplification might be to say that Hammer-ons/pull-offs are more 'thumb over'. But it's a shades of grey thing and many players (e.g. EVH) sit somewhere in the middle.
I notice the guy in the Youtube video is keeping his thumb high and not using his pinky so I guess there's no excuse for me really
I'm left handed but play right handed and often use my pinky in preference to my 3rd finger as it results in a more comfortable hand position for me. Although I believe Gary Moore was left handed as well so that's not really a good reason.
Btw. When I was learning the fast bit, I missed out the preceding couple of notes with the bend because that unnecessarily increased finger fatigue during constant repetition.
Yeah I think I’ll just stick to how I instinctively felt was natural for me which is thumb over a bit but I might try using the pinky on 8 instead of the third finger. I’m over stretching for it with the third finger and it’s making me sloppy on the 5th fret notes.
Which makes me think about metronomes and playing quickly. I think they’re probably a good discipline for very accurate finger control but I’m not sure that’s what you actually want if you’re trying to copy Gary Moore’s rather free-flowing, organic style.
I expect he didn’t use a metronome to get to his level. I reckon his approach was to play what he wanted to play as quickly as he could, getting more accurate (and quicker) over time; not having precise licks in mind and then trying to reach a certain speed incrementally over time with a controlled speed approach. Apart from set pieces like the run in Out in the Fields. I think he’s also partly playing what’s comfortable to him - his note choices in those flurries are as much about what his fingers naturally fall to as they are a deliberate choice - as is evident from his 1-2 finger approach which is quite bizarre but works for him. He’d probably have struggled just like anyone else to play exactly like Van Halen or Satriani or Vai. Not because they’re more difficult to copy, but because their styles wouldn’t fall naturally to his fingers.
I don’t know if I’m right. But if so then I’m not sure metronomes are the right way to go. It could be better deeply to study the journey he went through to reach his level (which can be reverse engineered from studying his later playing) and copy that. You might end up with slightly different licks from Moore’s but they will sound as natural as his because the music will be based on your own natural technique and characteristics. Maybe metronomes can supplement that but maybe they might actually be detrimental to that style.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
In the main I would agree and normally have little interest in ‘note for note’ learning of a phrase. But having just started lessons, my tutor picked Parisienne Walkways for us to look at, and having given me this lick to work on, I really want to nail it. I think he’s expecting me to come back on Friday and be able to play it at maybe 40% speed and I’m aiming for 80% so it’s keeping me very disciplined in my practice!
It’s easily the hardest lead thing I’ve ever played so I think the act of focuassing solely on this and trying to take something out of my comfort zone and power through it will be really good for my general development.
It feels weird right now to do it, where I’m not very used to using the pinky, but I can tell I’m more efficient if I use it, despite having to drop the speed back down, if that makes sense.
When practicing at lower speeds rather than just bash away with slow techniques getting sloppier as the speed increases instead concentrate on the tiny movements and angles used when trem picking. And also playing short fast bursts and increasing the lengths.
And Paul Gilbert says there's nothing wrong with the odd bit of legato in fast picking.
Keep up with the fast picking and concentrate on getting the coordination. The wrist movements you use to play fast are completely different from those that you play slow with, so that's why practicing at a medium to fast speed is important.