I’ve been quite limited in my practice time lately, so I’ve had to focus on improving its quality. An interesting post on TGP suggested one trick (mentioned later), and I’ve noticed a few others myself. This post exists to catalog small factors that I have found reduce my ability to play accurately and quickly as well as methods to make more consistent progress. It’s meant to capture the small things that have an outsized impact:
- Over-complicated picking: The main exercise I’ve focused on is the simple sextuplet exercise from the Paul Jackson Jr. video below. I found the turnarounds particularly problematic. Only by making the decision to start each six-note phrase (upwards and downwards) with a downstroke was I able to break past the first barrier that I struggled with. I was never actively trying to maintain alternate picking or any sort of economy picking plan, but moving to a downstroke-only initial note gave me a consistent starting point that allowed me to make progress when I’d been quite stuck.
https://youtu.be/2g37NtzmTsY?si=4DKfsdDNfIUcy9vT&t=279 - Slow elbow/forearm: Recently I’ve noticed that I’m most frequently botching notes when I’ve not moved my hand fully into position, and I’m trying to make up for it by bending my wrist. In the Paul Jackson Jr. exercise, you’re frequently traversing three separate strings. If you aren’t moving your hand (from the elbow) into position properly to pick the current note, you try and make up for it by bending your wrist and adding more complexity to the action. For me, this leads to quite a few more botched notes and progress stopping. It’s also something I didn’t consciously realize was happening. Focusing on getting the pick over the right string quickly helped cut down on these gaffs.
- Underdeveloped upstrokes: A great thread on TGP that I’ll have to dig up talked about practicing only upstrokes and only downstrokes. I’ve added this into my routine as a quick warmup ahead of a main exercise. I simply ascend and descend the scale/position (say A Dorian at the 5th fret) using only upstrokes and only downstrokes at half speed and then alternating at full speed. Typically I use the target end speed for the exercise I’m working on as the full speed for this warmup. This gets me practice at ‘full’ speed and still allows me to work on the individual upstrokes and downstrokes at reduced pace. Doing this highlighted how much weaker my upstrokes were/are relative to my downstrokes. This is a work in progress, but a heretofore unknown impediment.
- Wrong picks: I wouldn’t say I’ve nailed down a perfect all-around pick for me, but I’ve discovered a number of things that don’t work. Very small picks are a definite no-go. Picks with a sharp point, while preferred by many, simply don’t feel right to me. Nor do picks with a very broad edge. I know many like very thick picks for speed, but that’s also a no for me. Nor are very thin picks for obvious reasons, at least for single-note work. I’ve ruled out quite a few picks here, including some favorites like the Jazz III. What HAS worked are standard shape picks that aren’t overly thick but are still rather rigid. My favorite here has proved to be Graphtech Tusq picks in the normal shape. Most of what I have are the yellow .88mm variety, but I’m interested in testing the 1.0mm across the range of colors (supposed to reflect brightness of attack). This remains an ongoing pursuit and is open to evolution, but it’s worth considering what picks truly work for you.
https://graphtech.com/collections/tusq-picks-standard - Never practicing at a stretch tempo: Until very recently, I was only working at the maximum tempo I’d achieved for the specific exercise I was working on. Recently, I’ve begun doing the simple downstroke/upstroke/both exercise at a tempo well above the max tempo I’ve managed for the exercise in focus. This gives me practice at both a controlled low speed (downstrokes only & upstrokes only) and at a stretch tempo (both simultaneously) on a simpler exercise in addition to the main effort.
Things that help:
- Picking one exercise at a time: Most of the time I start a regimen with the best intentions. It’s purposeful, specific, and relatively limited. Unfortunately, my proverbial eyes are always bigger than my stomach, and so the list of exercises grows until its become an unwieldly group covering every possible thing I’d like to improve. As someone with far too little time to devote to the pursuit, this shortly proves unworkable and discouraging. This year, I’ve focused on one exercise with the goal of working on it specifically until I’ve hit a target pace. From there, I can make a decision on what’s next. What this has allowed for has been far less backtracking and slow but steady progress. I still play and record all sorts of unrelated bits, but when it comes to working on simple performance capacity, I always know what exercise I’m working on, what tempo I’m at, and where I want to get. This allows me to easily take advantage of smaller bits of downtime, as there’s minimal overhead in popping out the cell phone metronome and picking up where I left off. If you have four spare hours a day for musical improvement, this likely isn’t for you, but if you don’t even consistently get four hours of uninterrupted sleep, maybe it is.
Pedal On 