Eric about my picking hand?...

[Carvinite]

What do you see "wrong" in your eyes here?

thanks,

Ryan

[szulc]

Looks to me like your pick is not angled at all and should have an angle.

[UltimaRage]

Also, it seems that you anchor your hand with your other three fingers. Try putting your hand into a flat-fist. Watch some videos with Steve Vai and Paul Gilbert. I can't really explain it too well, so the best thing for you to do is to examine the picking hands of other players. But then again, if you can alternate pick fast like that, and that is most comfortable for you, then use it. Also, like szulc said, angle your pick a little more. Gives you a better tone and better control. Let me know if that's wrong, szulc! :D

[Metal Dan]

YOU HAVE GIRLY HANDS! :D

[thefallenangel]

girly hands lol
you do look like you get a manicure though.

thats a nice Kramer Focus. with the hot rod replacement scratch plate right with the humbuckers.


wish i could get one of them...do they still do them?

[wild_child]

you pick alot like i do, i dont believe there is a 'superior' way to pick, to me, resting your fingers like that is fine but i think it might help if you try to consciously make the gap between your thumb and forefinger bigger, this helps with pick angling and it allowed me to achieve more speed.
a still frame is pretty hard to comment on though because, as i say, it looks alot like how i pick, but my fingers rarely touch the guitar unless i am using my pinky to access the volume knob while playing - thats why i particularly like this way of holding a pick :)

[Koala]

Hey Erc, when you come around to reading this thread, d love to see a similar pic of you picking..... just curious, you have great technique and id love to see a still frame of your position
peace

[Carvinite]

I have girly hands? never heard that one before lol....but i do take care of my hands.....anyway thanks for the tips guys....also about the focus im not sure go look at www.musicyo.com were you askin if they sell Focus' or the hod rod replacement pu's and pickguard?

this is the page for the guitars

http://www.musicyo.com/brandpos.asp?dept_id=1&Series=Focus%20Series

this is the one for the pu's

http://www.musicyo.com/category.asp?cat=Pickups&search=1

hope this helped..later guys,

Ryan

[EricV]

Koala, thanks for your comments.
Here are two closeups... I hope they show what´s going on :)
Warm regards
Eric

[EricV]

...and if you wanna see Thorsten´s way of picking, check out this two videos we made this afternoon when he came to visit me..
it was a whole lotta fun as you can probably tell from watching them... :)

http://www.ibreathemusic.com/forums/eric/video/tk1.wmv

http://www.ibreathemusic.com/forums/eric/video/tk2.wmv

Warm regards
Eric

NP: Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral

[Carvinite]

man that ruled....hes getting paid by the note lol....howd you figure out how many he was playin?..lol...that is where i wanna be just beein able to jam like that....but hey i tried the way you pick eric and it made me fell in more control...but when im plain somthing like little wing it makes me fell like im not laid back enough...but i like it when playin more intense stuff...thanks for the help!!!

[EricV]

Believe it or not ( it might not look that way in the pictures ) but my wrist is very relaxed... I play melodies, fast picking, chord picking etc. that way... once you get used to it, you learn how to apply dynamics holding your pick that way... so you can play all kindsa different stuff that way... just take your time with it.
It took me months to get there

How did I figure out how many notes he was playing ? I did an estimate. Now I owe him about 6 billion $
:)
Eric

[szulc]

Thorsten,

Could you possibly tab out the licks on the 1st video at

13s-20s

on the first lick on the second video?

The video speed doesn't do this justice!


James

[Bizarro]

Could you possibly tab out the licks ...

Isn't it obvious? :D

I was also wondering what the heck he was doing at the 13s mark... Cool phrasing. I never know what the heck he's doing by watching his fingers, LOL. Everything is upside down and backwards. :eek:

The sad thing is on the 2nd video ending part I play some of the same licks for warmup so I can recognize exactly what TK's playing. Newsflash: It's really darn fast!:p

[wild_child]

eric,
could you possibly post those clips in a different format? i'd really like to see them but windows media player keeps coming up with an error message and needing to close, even when i save the files in my pc :(
its no problem if you cant though, i've just never seen Thorsten play before and i'm a little curious :)

[thefallenangel]

heres a video of my picking hand technique.
Comments??

Its in Divx format with mp3 audio.

Video (http://www.gwatidzo.com/FallenAngel/dfi.avi)

[Thorsten]

Originally posted by EricV

How did I figure out how many notes he was playing ? I did an estimate. Now I owe him about 6 billion $
:)
Eric

I knew that someday all my practising would pay off... ;)

James, here´s a quick tab of the three main licks I think you were refering too. Note in lick 2 to do all the shift slides with the index finger.
Everything`s basically alternate picked with the occasional hammeron/pulloff to make things smoother.

Angel, cool video there! Like I said before, you have a very good sense of rhythm which, I think, is one of the most important things in music. Keep it up!

TK

[Carvinite]

Well will you ever get him that money....or is the check in the mail..lol.....:rolleyes:....:D

About that picking style i have really been trying to get myself to fell more relaxed.....it's like they say it's 10x harder to un-learn bad habits for good one's...but it seems to me i am felling more relaxed and am able to kinda let it flow so im doin better....the only time i have started changing it is for my sweeps but I dont change from that very much...

also I have been doing these really lame osunding sweeps it sounds so bla...I was wondering if any of you had any interesting sweeps..kinda Vai'ish sweeps...thnx guys!!;)

Ryan

[EricV]

Ryan, how about this one ? It´s a classic :)
Eric

[Carvinite]

I'll check it out thanks!!!

[Carvinite]

Perfect.....I am going to go practice that!!!

[szulc]

Thorsten,

I never would have gotten this from watching the video because the frame rate is so slow. I dig these licks, but it is going to be a while (maybe never) before I can make them sound anywhere as cool as you, because they were burnin'.

It was also cool to see that these are similar to the kinds of ideas I have been posting in the Group Effort thread, I mean ideas based on 3NPS sequences which use the 3 notes (fingering pattern) on each string to guide the motive.

For years I was practicing sequences but they were based on motives moving through the scale and not the fingering like these. Those sound cool but are much harder to get fast because they have complicated picking patterns that are very difficult to memorize. I never got them fast like this.

I was watching Paul Gilbert's video and realized he was doing things based on the fingerings so the picking would be easier. Obviously this is the route you have chosen as well.

It is Guitar Centric patterns insted of Scale Centric patterns. I was watching Alan Holdsworth and he is doing Guitar Centric Ideas so did Shawn Lane. I always wondered what method ther was to their 'madness' and now i realize that these ideas that are easy to play on the guitar because of the way it is tuned.

Played really fast these are some of the coolest sounding things.

Thanks for the tab

James

[6StringShredder]

I would like to say that video has just about ruined my hopes of guitar playing (Thorsten). I played for 5hrs today thinking I sounded great (amp was rocking, fingers were flying, felt like a great session). Then I saw that video. Wow do I suck! I can't even imagine getting to a level like that. I know that Vai and all the other shredders can play like that, but Thorsten is just an "amatuer". I can only imagine if he showed up at one of my gigs. He would just be laughing at what a hack I am!

Later

[EricV]

He would not laugh at you. Thorsten is a no-ego-problem kinda guy, and he doesn´t care about how fast someone can play or make fun of someone who can´t. Neither do I.
Really, try to see this as a motivation instead of something that´s depressing you...
Eric

[6StringShredder]

That video is really awesome. I wish you had a better frame rate because his hand is just a blur. Well I keep saying you don't need to be a Gilbert of Vai to play guitar (just look at some of the current rock stuff out there), but its just humbling to know that you are maybe 0.01% of what he is...

Worst of all he's left handed ;)

[Relaxation]

Hey guys! Recently I've been criticized of my pick hand. They say it's not angled and I get the movements from my thumb and index fingers.

When picking fast lines, do you get the pressure/movements of attacking the strings from your wrist or do you also exert some pressure on the thumb and index fingers?

A guy I know who picks really fast told me that you should indeed get it from the wrist and as for your index and thumb, they should be very light to the point that when you pull out your pick there's no pressure at all (It can be pulled easily) Is this true for the rest of you fast pickers?

[Carvinite]

Hey Relaxation, I think the other guys are more suited to answer your question....


Anyway i have been workin on the video licks (well just 1 of them) I have the first one almost clean up to 120 bpm...

anyway i gtg see ya guys!!!

[Thorsten]

James,

thanks a lot, glad you like the licks!

I´m very used to playing 3-note per string shapes, they just work, but I have to say your workout was quite a challenge. Most of the time when playing 3 nps patterns I think in 2 string or 6 string groupings, that´s easiest for me to find my way around the fretboard but the 3 string grouping plus the unusual picking made it tough to memorize. So it´s really a good exercise, thanks for that one!
About sounding cool, my approach is this: I try to learn the patterns or scales or licks or whatever till I can practically play them in my sleep, like a subconscious thing, so I don´t have to concentrate on what my fingers are doing anymore and can concentrate on what my ear tells me. So it´s like: You´re hearing yourself play and then decide how you want to make it sound by adding all those little nuances like dynamics, muting, overtones etc.
Interesting concept about that guitar centric or scale centric approach but I´ll definitely always go for guitar centric. I´d always think practical instead of theoretical.

6stringshredder, thanks, man! Don´t get depressed, what doesn´t kill you only makes you stronger...;)
Seriously, I remember the first time I heard Yngwie´s "Far Beyond The Sun" I couldn´t believe it but I never had this "Oh he´s a god, I´ll never be able to do this" attitude. Instead I thought "I can do this!"
It´s not arrogance, it´s just selfconvidence. These guys are just mortals and something that you may have thought you can never play, if you take a closer look may not be that hard at all and the next thing you know is: You can play it!
Like Eric said, see it as a motivation. I know guys like Yngwie and Paul and Eddie definitely motivated me to practise a billion hours a day.
Today I admire these guys not for their technical abilities, which I know is learnable, but for their musical and compositorical (spell?) geniuses. It´s one thing to be technically able to play "Far Beyond The Sun" but it´s a whole different thing to have composed it!

TK

[Bongo Boy]

Thanks very much for sharing that, Thorsten--there are several points in there I'll take to heart. Very useful.

[Carvinite]

there are many things in there I will take to heart to. anyway when I get that lick cleaned up at 120 bpm's I will post it and see what you guys think!....until then go play 'yer guitar!!!

Ryan

[tom_hogan]

i tend to curl my fingers at the end creating a sorta relaxed fist

remeber it is important to use the same picking position slow and fast this will rant you infinitly more control

[Spin 2513]

Originally posted by Thorsten
James,

thanks a lot, glad you like the licks!

. It´s one thing to be technically able to play "Far Beyond The Sun" but it´s a whole different thing to have composed it!

TK


Hey Thorston ,

You've probably answered this before on here , but is there a CD of any of the songs on your Website , any of us can buy?

[Spin 2513]

Originally posted by Thorsten
James,

thanks a lot, glad you like the licks!

. It´s one thing to be technically able to play "Far Beyond The Sun" but it´s a whole different thing to have composed it!

TK


Hey Thorston ,

You've probably answered this before on here , but, is there a CD of the instrumental songs, on your Website , any of us can buy?

[Thorsten]

Spin, I´m afraid not!

I wanted to release a solo album this year with 8 vocal songs and 2 shred type instrumentals to keep it interesting for the general listener.
We got Marco Minnemann (who played drums on the last Paul Gilbert album) on board and even would have gotten the chance to get a guest solo from Paul himself BUT...

...I talked it over with the producer and the whole thing would have cost me waaaaaay too much money cause I´d have to finance it myself and I don´t want to release a homemade cheapo production.

But I still keep an eye on the solo-album trying to find a good record company who´s willing to finance and release it. It´s a business...

Other than that I have 2 albums out with the rock-band DEMON DRIVE and 1 album with the metal-band ATTACK. Lot´s of my guitar playing on these ones.

I think you can get the DD albums through www.amazon.com

TK

[Koala]

Oh for gods sake thorsten! Get a hold of yourself ! :D lolol
im tired of saying it, but your playng is just unreal, rock on dude!

[thefallenangel]

bah tryin all these different ways to pick......forgot how i pick now :(

[Carvinite]

ROFLMAO....that must suck:D

[Cuno]

Spin, I´m afraid not!
TK

Thorsten, have you tried Liquid Note Records (http://www.liquidnoterecords.co.uk/)? They must be the perfect label for some serious TK-shred :D

[Thorsten]

Hey Cuno, thanks for the link, I check it out!

[Alan(Lost)]

Hey, I have the same problem that some other guy was on about; I can't see the video on media player. I can hear the audio, but there's an error in loading the video. Any ideas why? And the annoying part is it sounds so good and cleanly played...now I realllyy want to see it! Help!!!

[Cuno]

Alan, you probably just need to download the latest version

[wild_child]

yeah, you need windows media player 9, it wont work on any earlier ones for some reason. You can get it here (http://windowsmedia.com/download)

[Alan(Lost)]

Thorsten - I notice in the tab that for the slides in the four note-per-string scales, you're pulling with the index, rather than leading with the little finger. Do you always do that? I always thought Yngwie leads the slides with the index for decending and pinky for ascending (the broken scales he does all the time!), so I thought it would be pretty much done by most people.

[Thorsten]

Alan, excellent you noticed that! It´s one of my little secrets to playing faster and more accurate. Don´t know if Yngwie does it but I found out when I´m pushing up the scales with my index rather than with my little finger there´s less strain involved and less strain means less motion and less motion means you can play it more cleanly and fast.
I always change positions with my index finger, no matter if I´m going up or down the neck, cause the rest of my fingers fall right into place. It´s an economy of motion thing. I do it except for maybe some arpeggio slides where it´s the desired sound that can only be achived by using the pinky. Other than that i always slide with the index.

[Alan(Lost)]

Me again, with another stupid Media Player question!

I got version 9 there, but the clip plays with a really slow, but smooth, frame rate it seems. None of the option will do anything. I presume the clip isn't meant to be like that.

[wild_child]

i think its meant to be like that.. it was only filmed with a webcam or something and they tend to have way slow bitrates. saying that, it does the same for me so if its not supposed to i guess i wouldnt know any better... i'm happy enough just to hear it though :)

[Alan(Lost)]

Ok, that's a shame. It would have been nice to see the picking motion properly.

Anyway, there's another thing I noticed Thorsten, this time in the second clip. It seems that in the last few seconds you're playing something spanning 4 or 5 frets (around 17th fret), but you're omitting your little finger (only seem to be using 1st 2nd and 3rd fingers). Am I seeing things?!!! If that's what you're doing, any technical reason?

[Thorsten]

Yeah, again, Alan you´re really taking a close look! :D

I didn´t use my little finger cause it was easier for me to reach those high notes and still have a good grip on the strings to get a good tone. I could play it using my pinky too but sometimes it´s better to use something that´s not perfect technique (like technicaly it would have been better to use the pinky) but gives you the better tone. It´s all about how it sounds like!

[JeffN]

Amazing video.

One question though, how do you possibly keep track of time when you're playing? You're not thinking of quater notes and stuff when you're firing away, are you?

[Thorsten]

Thanks Jeff,

everything`s improvised so I don´t count when I play but e.g. if I play a sequenced lick, run or pattern I keep an eye (or better ear) on the accents which could be a 1 or a 4 or whatever depending on how I want it to sound like. So I try to keep things rhythmic instead of having just a blur of notes.

When you´re beyond a certain speed it´s impossible to count every note you´re playing so it´s more like a subconscious thing where you put you´re fingers on "autopilot" and concentrate more on the general sound and rhytmic accentuation.

[JeffN]

Thanks Jeff,

everything`s improvised so I don´t count when I play but e.g. if I play a sequenced lick, run or pattern I keep an eye (or better ear) on the accents which could be a 1 or a 4 or whatever depending on how I want it to sound like. So I try to keep things rhythmic instead of having just a blur of notes.

When you´re beyond a certain speed it´s impossible to count every note you´re playing so it´s more like a subconscious thing where you put you´re fingers on "autopilot" and concentrate more on the general sound and rhytmic accentuation.
Ah, I see. I didn't know you were improvising that!

[Axe-aholic]

I've been working on my picking hand lately trying to stop from anchoring on the pickguard, so I'm trying to keep them curled, but whenever I start getting into faster speeds, like over 120bpm, my right hand fingers rise higher than my first finger and it makes my hand feel strained and uncomfortable. Any ideas? I hope I'm making sense here..