Need Help Relaxing + Picking Correctly

[aeln2011]

I have been playing for a year and a half, and I play mostly rock music.

I'm learning Yngwie Malmsteen's Trilogy Suite, and I'm having problems on the first run hah...

Started at 70 bpm, up to 130 still relaxed, but above that I can't relax my right hand.

I can't seem to relax it. I got up to 180 bpm, but at that speed my hand was so screwed up, I knew I could play it, but not consistantly and never without tension.

Slow down... you might say, but even then I wont do it right if I don't know how

I'm playing so much, I want to KNOW FOR SURE THAT MY TECHNIQUE IS IDEAL... I don't want to cement bad technique into my hands you know?

I hold my pick normally, but I have a tendancy to move my elbow and keep my wrist almost totally still. Is this bad? It feels stiff, not relaxed.

Is Jamie Andreas' finger flapping drill effective? Has that worked for you?
http://www.ibreathemusic.com/article/41
I wanna be as light as possible

Do you guys know any drills for lightness in your right hand?

what do you do to use your wrist more i picking???

so any TIPS, ADVICE, LINKS, EXPERIENCES would be a lot of help for me to learn the song and get better long-term

Thanks

[forgottenking2]

I think the best advice anyone can give you on this is to slow down and concentrate on relaxing your hands, still not sure of what you are doing? Slow down even more, then play as quietly as you possibly can (a good exercise is to crank up the volume on clean and try to keep the level at bedroom levels by using light pick strokes) do that and use as small motions as you possibly can. That will help you out in the long run.

Maybe some of the more technical players in the forum will add more insight on this.

Good luck.

-Jorge

[aeln2011]

thanks,

and to clarify, i just mean that right now i move my elbow and keep my wrist more solid, but that this feels clunky.

is there any disadvantage to using more wrist in your picking?

it feels much more relaxed and tensionfree, but right now i am inaccurate and mute notes accidentally once in a while, which can lead to a choppy sound

can you achieve the same speed with either technique?

lots of views, does anyone have any advice

[Joe Pass Jr]

If by your elbow you mean your using your forearm to pick and not your wrist, this isn't a great way to start. Some people might play that way but In my opinion you shouldn't. Try only using your wrist and the fingers that are holding the pick. This leads to a more precise and accurate movement and it also makes string skipping a whole lot easier.

As Forgotten king said, Slow down, If you cant do it fast, do it slow :) Then slowly up the metronome, if only by 8 bps,, play it over and over and over at that speed until you have no doubt you have mastered it at that speed. If something is worth doing, its worth doing properly and jumping the gun wont make you any better.

I am not familiar with the tune but i know Yngwie uses alot of arpeggio movements which require utter precision or else they sound terrible. Check out some of the etude's and picking articles on the site here. Take your time, you will learn what works and what doesn't.

Good Luck.