Welcome, csharprat, a second newcomer within a short period of time with such an eventful musical background! Wonderful.

One sentence of yours particularly touched me: » … but I decided to hang in there and accept my limitations ».

I can only sign that for myself at my level. And we can still have a lot of fun 👍. 

I wish you a good start, enjoy your MGA membership. There are so many wonderful tutorials to discover, so you can do what you set out to do.

Birgit

@bluesiline Thanks for the welcome! One of my biggest challenges is the fast phrases or flurries of notes that so many advanced players like Robert Renman do. Robert did this in one of his YouTube Shorts titled "These 4 Notes Sound AMAZING". It happened at the end of his E minor run. (I've attached it) He was kind enough to send me tabs and GP file. I can't reach the speed that he is playing it at. I'm hoping that he and others can help me practice the right things to get my picking accelerated.

-Robert

Welcome Robert! Glad you are here, and I love reading about your background. We love hearing members play, and I highly recommend you follow Birgit's journey of doing your practice log. Then you can also post videos or audio files of yourselves, and I and others can comment and give you encouraging feedback.

You can create a new topic as your practice log here - https://www.masterguitaracademy.com/forums/practice-logs/

I'll do a follow up to that lick you mention, in the near future. I'm off for a relaxing week in the mountains - need a recharge after a very exhausting holiday time! I will share some photos with you. The Rockies are amazing. 🙂

@robert Thank you Robert, I'm glad to be here! I'll follow your advice and check out Birgit's practice log. I hope you have a great vacation in the beautiful Rocky Mountains - a great way to recharge and rejuvenate!

@csharprat welcome to you. I can't agree with you more about the level of enjoyment derived from jamming with friends.  Pre-pandemic I had a group that I got together with every Wednesday evening.  Myself and two other guys that were both far better players than I am.  So much fun and I always learned so much.  Much like this forum in how encouraging and helpful the two guys were each week.  And that is what you will find here.  And I have no doubt Robert is going to be very helpful with that lick.

Best of luck to you.  

Looking forward to those photos @robert!

@matonanjin Thanks for the welcome! I hope we can all get closer to our goals with each others help. I think jamming with friends is the proving ground of our studying and practice. Regardless, it's so much fun!  Take care.

Howdy, Pardner, and welcome to the MGA.  

May I recommend a search for "Killer" or "Fast" in the MGA web site magnifier icon in the upper right.  RR really lays out some wicked fast rock stuff AND shows you how to build speed. 

Posted by: @csharprat

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I get an enormous amount of enjoyment just jamming with my friends and playing in clubs for free or occasionally a little bit of money.

I hear ya, it's two nights a week for me in very different jam projects as guitar and bass player. 

So, the big lift in practice skills is recording, recording, and maybe some arranging, and then more recording.  

@clayton Howdy! I didn't know RR has approached how to build speed. I'll check it out. Thanks for for the tip! This is my achilles heel.

I used to have a camcorder but it quit working. Maybe I can use my phone to record videos of my practice. I have an extensive home studio but only for audio.

@csharprat oh, I'm just an audio recording fellow myself.  Birgt and Craig @wobbly_bob are the video wizards.

Posted by: @clayton

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 I'm just an audio recording fellow myself.  Birgt and Craig @wobbly_bob are the video wizards.

@csharprat, Robert,

Clayton and Craig are, of course, seasoned musicians, who keep surprising us with their ideas, Craig with his beautiful video animations and Clayton with his very creative audio recordings. I recommend that you take a look and listen to it!

I, on the other hand, post videos to my practice log so that Robert can hear and SEE my weaknesses.

I’ve been working on the position of my picking hand for a long time and thanks to Robert’s tips I’ve already been able to improve my hand position a little bit. I’m so glad. It wouldn’t have been possible without sharing videos.

I also learned a lot about rhythm from Clayton!

Since you also want to work on your weaknesses, it would certainly make sense to make a video and present the runs you want to improve.

Then, maybe, »our» Robert can analyse your picking technique and give you tips on how to get faster.

By the way, for my practice log videos I don’t mic my amp. I only use my phone and the mic of my phone. I think the quality is sufficient for an analysis of my playing technique and it is so easy to do.

Birgit

@bluesiline Birgit, I watched some of your videos and the phone audio is fine. Thanks and that's what I'll use. Picking technique is challenging, and over the years I've settled into a comfortable style that includes hybrid (using a pick and fingers) for some things. I just can't seem to get the pick moving fast and accurately enough to play certain licks like the one I've shared in this thread. When I just try on one string to see how fast I can go, my best results are when I fix my wrist and pivot at my elbow. I know that whatever way is best, you have to put a lot of time in to perfect it. That's part of my problem, wanting instant gratification LOL.

@bluesiline that's why you shine- present and indefatigable!

@csharprat I've heard that going to a less rigid pick works for speed....doesn't work for me! LOL You could try it tho and see if it works for you...what thickness do you use?

@rjrubin Thanks for the suggestion. I've been using the 0.6mm Dunlop Tortex (orange) for a long time. And oddly, I turn it to the wider side instead of the point. For some reason it seems better for me. Maybe that's contributing to my problem. I've tried thick and thin picks and jazz picks but always go back to the orange Dunlop. I joined "Cracking The Code" for a while, that discusses how to play really fast licks. They have videos that show closeups of fast pickers. From that, I realized that I was "hopping" over the strings with my pick instead of how the fast pickers weren't hopping. They describe different angles to attack the string that create a natural clearance, called "trapped zone" and "escape zone", "upward escape" and "downward escape". It is kind of mind boggling LOL. I haven't been able to crack the code 😆 

https://troygrady.com/primer/picking-motion/escape-motion/