Attempts at Not Ready To Die's first 8 bars.

Dominik Gräber · Apr 13, 2020

Well that's EXACTLY the type of stuff you should post! Sure it's cool if you can upload a perfect cover. But this is where you can really track your progress and get feedback on what to improve!
So I liked it. I think you are doing well already. And I totally know that problem about speed and making more mistakes at a slower tempo.
One thing I would suggest working on is your picking hand. You pick the strings more than sweeping. I know it's hard at "slower" tempo but try to focus on making one fluid motion with your picking hand. Hope that makes sense!

Matt Wildcat · Apr 13, 2020

Dominik Graeber said:
Well that's EXACTLY the type of stuff you should post! Sure it's cool if you can upload a perfect cover. But this is where you can really track your progress and get feedback on what to improve!
So I liked it. I think you are doing well already. And I totally know that problem about speed and making more mistakes at a slower tempo.
One thing I would suggest working on is your picking hand. You pick the strings more than sweeping. I know it's hard at "slower" tempo but try to focus on making one fluid motion with your picking hand. Hope that makes sense!

This is really encouraging to hear! I've always been a bit of a perfectionist, so it was a little out of my comfort zone lol. I'll certainly work on my sweeping, I haven't done it in so long so I think I really need to revise it again properly. Thank you!

Ben newton · Apr 13, 2020

The frustrating thing with a slower tempo is it allows us to really over think what we are playing, not to mention keeping a time at a slow speed! I think we all have our moments with a slower tempo. But we have our ways of dealing with it, such as counting twice as fast for example to fill those big gaps.

This is a really good effort! The determination with practicing with a metronome is sometimes unheard of. In the long run, your licks,, rhythm and playing in general will advance due to that inner clock you are building. So please, please keep that one up!

Sweeping is awkward because as Mr Graeber said above, its not quite your standard picking, but more so a rake across the strings.A really great way to get a feel for the fluid motion of a rake is to mute the strings with your left hand and just brush your pick down and up. Down and up. Down and up. Down and up. Down and up. Avoid picking each string individually, but also at the other end of the spectrum you want to avoid the classic strum too. I hope this will help with your right hand technique.

With regards to your left hand technique, a few points pop up. There isnt really a correct way as such to position your thumb, but try to be logical with it. If our thumb is wrapped over the top, we may not be able to get a solid stretch when playing whatever shape we are playing. It really depends what you are playing (Much like your chords, scales and arpeggios), but just explore thumb position. Your thumb wont stay in the same place comfortably.

For the fingers on the left hand themselves...I like to break things down. Like well and truly take apart a section (in this case, arpeggios) and work on the individual motion between two strings, and gradually add a note when I feel comfortable to do so. Definitely keep doing what you are doing in your video, but use other systems to get to your goal.

As a final small note, I'm not sure about others, but personally, when I struggle with sweeps, its never been my right hand its normally my left that needs the strength. My right hand can rake all day, but if I'm unfamiliar with a shape then it's my left hand that needs to do alot of learning!

Otherwise, you are doing very well. And great vibrato!

(Also, try to fan your right hand and see how that feels. My hand closes on the down, and fans on the up).

Matt Wildcat · Apr 13, 2020

Ben newton said:
The frustrating thing with a slower tempo is it allows us to really over think what we are playing, not to mention keeping a time at a slow speed! I think we all have our moments with a slower tempo. But we have our ways of dealing with it, such as counting twice as fast for example to fill those big gaps.

This is a really good effort! The determination with practicing with a metronome is sometimes unheard of. In the long run, your licks,, rhythm and playing in general will advance due to that inner clock you are building. So please, please keep that one up!

Sweeping is awkward because as Mr Graeber said above, its not quite your standard picking, but more so a rake across the strings.A really great way to get a feel for the fluid motion of a rake is to mute the strings with your left hand and just brush your pick down and up. Down and up. Down and up. Down and up. Down and up. Avoid picking each string individually, but also at the other end of the spectrum you want to avoid the classic strum too. I hope this will help with your right hand technique.

With regards to your left hand technique, a few points pop up. There isnt really a correct way as such to position your thumb, but try to be logical with it. If our thumb is wrapped over the top, we may not be able to get a solid stretch when playing whatever shape we are playing. It really depends what you are playing (Much like your chords, scales and arpeggios), but just explore thumb position. Your thumb wont stay in the same place comfortably.

For the fingers on the left hand themselves...I like to break things down. Like well and truly take apart a section (in this case, arpeggios) and work on the individual motion between two strings, and gradually add a note when I feel comfortable to do so. Definitely keep doing what you are doing in your video, but use other systems to get to your goal.

As a final small note, I'm not sure about others, but personally, when I struggle with sweeps, its never been my right hand its normally my left that needs the strength. My right hand can rake all day, but if I'm unfamiliar with a shape then it's my left hand that needs to do alot of learning!

Otherwise, you are doing very well. And great vibrato!

(Also, try to fan your right hand and see how that feels. My hand closes on the down, and fans on the up).

This is extremely helpful! I'm definitely gonna go back and try it with a slower tempo, reviewing it this morning I've seen that I could really do with getting my left hand used to playing the notes and getting comfortable with it before going forward too far. It's funny, so many people have drilled it in to start using a metronome, and I can really see why they do now. Sure, it kinda sucks when you have to do it slow, but it's super helpful!

I'll make sure to work on my sweeping technique too, and I think I'll dedicate a little bit of time in my practises each day just to getting familiar with the motion and how it's supposed to feel when playing. I think part of it might be my wrist locking up when I play, so I think I need to relax a bit more into it.

Thumb position has always been a weird thing for me since I never really knew whether it had to be in one place or another. I kinda just found it naturally hooked over with chords and a lot of the time, it went behind when doing lead stuff. I'll make sure to give it some thought when I'm playing to try put myself in the best and most comfortable position. I think I also really need to essentially deconstruct that second half too, I feel that's the weakest art because it's not the easiest shape.

Thank you so much for all your advice, it's been super helpful!! (I gotta thank Jak for the vibrato, it was her advice to really put my wrist into it and it sounds so much better!!)

Ethan Keeling · Apr 14, 2020

That was really clean with no unwanted string buzzing which is one of the hardest things! That was really good!

I recommend pulling off the first note of the sweep into the second note if that makes sense? Also, to make it more ‘sweepy’ Use the momentum of the pick, I.e. if you are going down the pattern, tilt your pick downwards slightly and let it almost fall to the next string.

Matt Wildcat · Apr 14, 2020

Ethan Keeling said:
That was really clean with no unwanted string buzzing which is one of the hardest things! That was really good!

I recommend pulling off the first note of the sweep into the second note if that makes sense? Also, to make it more ‘sweepy’ Use the momentum of the pick, I.e. if you are going down the pattern, tilt your pick downwards slightly and let it almost fall to the next string.

Thank you so much! I'm not the best when it comes to pulling off but it'll probably make it a lot easier, so I'll give it a shot and see how it goes! Gives me more to work on and improve if I can't get it at first!

Calvin Phillips · Apr 14, 2020

You got the notes down.. definitely know what you're playing. The tone is pretty good too. Lots already said so I'll leave it at that.

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Attempts at Not Ready To Die's first 8 bars.

Dominik Gräber

Matt Wildcat

Ben newton

Matt Wildcat

Ethan Keeling

Matt Wildcat

Calvin Phillips

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