I am almost at my wits end with trying to get a satisfying and efficient scalpal going....I have watched Pebbers vids with scalpal explanations and the kenny burrel vid a bunch now...I dont know whats wrong with me...Its holding so much back from blossoming in my playing...Its weighing down (clunky-fying) my sarod...its messing up my sweeping because I get confused and start to mixing arm sweeping movement with the scalpal extension/retraction movement...and on its own as a lone scalpal motion the fastest I can get with it is 120 BPM 16ths on the most very basic of patterns....ie

E|-0-4-5-7-----0-5-7-8------0-7-8-10---0-10-12-13--|
B|-----------------------------------------------------------|
G|-----------------------------------------------------------|
D|-----------------------------------------------------------|
A|-----------------------------------------------------------|
E|------------------------------------------------------------|

as for stuff that changes strings a bunch...if I want to scalpal 16ths...the metronome has to dip down to 80-90 BPm in order for my lone scalpal to suffice for 16ths........If it were not for sarod, I would not be able to pick much of anything....But I am really being crippled by my gimpy ability to scalpal pick...I really need some help on this one...I just know that if I could fix up this scalpal problem, that Soooooo much would start gelling in my playing that I almost cant stand to really think about all of it because it makes me so upset. If there is anyone out there that is willing to take some time to AIM today to help me figure out what is causing all the problems....I will happily sign over all rights to my firstborn child. On a frustration scale from 1-10...this is an solid 8

How Dlraben is able to scalpal 16ths at 180 is just totally beyond me... /-:

First off, I suck. Don't try to do what you see me do in some silly youTube video because you'd just be trading one set of problems for another. Just keep practicing.

Second, why don't you post a short video on how you are doing with the timing challenge I posed to you? Using scalpal picking only and at 60 bpm, play 1 minute of quarter notes, 1 minute of eighth notes, ..., up through 32nd notes. Should be an 8 minute video all at 60 bpm. Please be sure we can hear the metronome and guitar clearly before posting it. Then really consider & implement whatever feedback you get from the crowd.

It wont let me post a link...Guess I cant post links any more....oh wait here we go

Quote: NicholasJacquet wrote in post #4

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It wont let me post a link...Guess I cant post links any more....oh wait here we go

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The one thing that I realllllllyyy want to get down PAT is the feel for 7's....My flutter has the speed to zoom right past 7's @ 108 BPM...but that doesnt help me rip the Sarod septulets that those we do not speak of can play in Nottingham Lace (one of my favorite songs!), I want to get the technique where I can let rip dense and radiant tuplet tapestries of
my own design at such tempi...lol...muffin man playing on my shuffler just now...I do love Frank Zappa...

Nick, were you able to detect any improvement in your timing as you've been doing these drills? (Please don't say no.) I certainly could. Hopefully you can now appreciate how practicing as Ursin just explained is an absolute MUST.

Playing fluent 7's @ 108 bpm shouldn't even be on your radar now. I mean it's good for all of us to have goals, but we should have many more short-term attainable ones than long-term possibly unattainable ones. Anyway, I recommend you ignore that goal for a long time and instead really slowly build your speed.

Anyway, kudos to you for putting in some time at a slower tempo! Don't stop.

Thanks! I never thought that impressing and pleasing you guys was as simple as playing in time at tortoise pace hehehe!!! Yes, we been putting in consistent 17 hours days....(thank god for being the only night-shift guy @ my gas station) I can squeeze in 5-6 hours of practice during the night shift and then rest constitutes my hours of daylight (-: Just the Trills and Sarod till it saturates my very being!

Hey Nick - nice work.

I'd encourage you not to attempt to speed up yet. It seemed to me the timing - though much better than before - still wasn't quite right, especially when you were playing 32nds at the end. I'd suggets, if you're not doing so already, that you make sure you're tapping your foot along with the metronome to help get this nailed.

Regarding speed, it seems to me that your scalpel motion is quite a lot larger than it needs to be. I find it helpful to keep my picking motion as small as possible, even at the slower speeds. They key I think is to practice the same motions slowly that you ultimately want to be playing quickly. So to pick with small motions at a slow speed, you're not treating the pick like a pendulum where the degree of swing decreases as the speed increases. Hope this makes sense and is useful.

Funny you say this cliff....When I was taking notes last night on all the things I noticed that irked me from the days 10+ hour practice webcam vid (They are starting to make my hard drive weigh like +1lb now there are 100's of em...I noticed that I HAAVVE to start tapping a foot...Its a habit it need to pick up/ There are no two wayes about it.

Yeah. Playing in time is definitely something I struggle with, and this was advice given to me many years ago. I still find that it makes a big difference. Without it, I'm in time in the sense that I play 8 notes for every tick of the metronome, but the first isn't necessarily on the beat. With it, the first of that group of 8 is much more accurate.

(Works fine until I get in over my head, at which point my foot is tapping along to my played accents rather than what the metronome is doing, but that's a sure sign for me that I'm playing too fast for my own good.)

Pebber, maybe you should include "or crappy grammar and spelling" to the new bookish forum disclaimer to make us all concentrate on that more than building our guitar technique.

My apologies at my (lousy) attempt to respond with a sarcastic joke of my own, given I was one of the mis-spellers. Meant nothing by it. I'll self-ban myself for awhile.

I dont get what all the fuss is about...I like the new disclaimer

Quote: NicholasJacquet wrote in post #16

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I dont get what all the fuss is about...I like the new disclaimer

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Dear Ursin,

I am perplexed why you dont think I have any respect for yourself or any of the virtuossic otriad of players you mentioned...you guys are quite litteraly my heros...the pinaccle and ideal of guitar playing towards which i am striving every day (-: I really hope that you can beleive me on this...

Hey guys--as another scalpel and forum noob, I thought I would share a few quick things.

I'm only 3 weeks into trying to learn the squalpyul (kidding PB) technique, and I'll admit I was initially skeptical of its use in my own personal style of playing, and after about a week of 5-6 hour days with no discernible progress (or so I thought), I was really really close to bagging it altogether. But after sticking with it for the next two weeks, I managed to make some real progress in the last week or so, I had kind of an "aha" moment during the one string exercises where I felt (just for a moment) what it was supposed to feel like, and I'll I have to say, it was a big moment for me musically.

Anyway, I'm officially a believer now, and after 20+ years of casual playing with no particular initiative, I'm remotivated and I feel like I'm in the first mile of a marathon.

Vid to follow.

Echo. Dude, anyone who chooses to dedicate themselves and their valuable time to this instrument and can actually make music come from the instrument has the right to be proud of that.

Don't ever compare your insides to any one else's outsides--you'll lose every time.

Quote: Vote_For_Kodos wrote in post #21

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Echo. Dude, anyone who chooses to dedicate themselves and their valuable time to this instrument and can actually make music come from the instrument has the right to be proud of that.

Don't ever compare your insides to any one else's outsides--you'll lose every time.

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Hey Nick,

Regarding tapping the foot. I really couldn't figure out from your response whether you were acknowledging a weakness or being sarcastic. At any rate, I've found someone who I suspect you'll respect who reinforces the point:

Not one bit sarcastic...I recently was looking at every di meola vid i could find...And this very vid had made quite an impression on me as I was/am very encouragable to any advice that guitar wizards such as aL are willing to offer up.

Just out of curiosity, what is it about my posts that make people think I am trying to be sarcastic?

The only way one could deny not tapping foot as a weakness is to take up argument with Al di meola...And how the $%$ can ANYONE think that they are baller enough to dispute something guitar related said by Al...one would have to be very delusional to say the least.