How fast can you palm mute?

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by Drew

Reaper- try practicing chromatics with just upstrokes against a metronome for a while, then. If you can't convert directly from downstrokes at half time to alternate picking at regular time, then it must mean your upstroke is weaker than your downstroke. Tighten up that weakest link and you oughta see marked improvements in your alternate picking. Stands to reason, right?

-Drew

yes, my upstroke is undeniably weaker than the down, and I'm trying to work on that. Thanks...

[Jeff]

My upstrokes are by far better than my downstrokes, at least on chunky rhthym playing.

[vaijem777]

Drew- I was well aware of what 403 was TRYING to say. But...punctuation makes a sentance. Without the punctuation...it's gibberish.

[Globbits]

why do upstrokes usually sound different to downstrokes?

[Ving]

- the angle of the pick
- the direction of the pick movement

If you concentrate on the way you hold and move the pick you can get them to sound the same. I find that the technique needed to do that isn't always appropriate though.

[403]

Originally Posted by vaijem777

"But the thing is you should was meant as in"? I'm sorry...but those 10 words, put together in that order make my head hurt so much that I can barely put it in to words. Please...though we do encourage and invite members from all over the world, it does make it easier for all involved if you actually respond in English, or at least something vaguely resembling it.

If you would like to offer technique advice, please do so under the "Guitar Lessons & Music Theory" topic, since it really doesn't have anything to do with "Players, Bands, People, Music & Tours". (music being recorded music-not music in general)

This thread has been moved to it's proper resting place.

Cheers!

I am so not getting into this argument (and judging by the language I've seen on this forum, my English sounds like I am from an anglophonic country)
one more thing - the reason why this went into the players, etc section: I wasn't really offering a technique but merely judging my progress (hence the gravitation towards "players")

but anyway, to return to the subject I do agree that alternate picking in rhythm can sound VERY good (a lot of the time it sounds more "fluent" than downpicking) but downpicking is what dreams are made of
and the difference can definitely be heard, maybe one can't distinguish from downstrokes and upstrokes when they are separated, but downstrokes vs. alternate - BIG difference

drew - yes that's what I was trying to say 4 notes per one quarter note beat

[Drew]

Originally Posted by Ving

- the angle of the pick
- the direction of the pick movement

If you concentrate on the way you hold and move the pick you can get them to sound the same. I find that the technique needed to do that isn't always appropriate though.

Not technically true... I mean, your first point is close to the truth, depending on what you meant by it. If you mean that you hold the pick at a slight angle relative to the horizontal plane of the string, then this shouldn't matter- the leading edge will hit the string before the trai;ing edge on the downstroke, but on the upstroke while the actual "angle" is now the reverse, so is the motion. All that chances is the contact point moves back about two millimeters, and while technically that WILL give you a tonal difference, anything under an inch is virtually indistinguishable to the human ear, especially under heavy distortion.

You could be saying that the pick is slanted in relation to the horizontal plane of the ground- i.e, when you pick, it's sloped so that the string can slide off the edge easier, then yes, unless you change the angle of the pick for the upstroke, you will get a VERY different pick sound. You will hear the pick catching on the string. It'll sound slightly muted, "clang"-y, and, due to the slight time delay for the pick to release the string that's trying to slide up the pick to your fingers, the note will be out of time. This is a very BAD thing to be doing, so i'm guessing this isn't what you're talking about.

The direction of the pick movement should make no difference, too, in terms of anything else aside from muscle movements. Turn the guitar upside down and play downstrokes (you'll prbably have to grab a lefty for this). Sounds the same, right? but you're picking in the direction that would normally be an upstroke.

Assuming a clean picking technique, the only possible difference in tone you're going to get is going to come from a weaker attack on the upstroke. Given an excellent picking technique and dead-even muscle control (a rare combination, and one i'm still working on), the notes should be indescernable.

It's all in the muscles, guys. Work out!

-Drew

[Drew]

(I'm talking about single note lines, of course. When you're dealing with chords, you hear a difference due to the order in which the notes are hit. However, as your speed increases, the time difference between the notes decreases in turn, and by the time you get to the really fast rhythms we're discussing here, the difference should be neglegable)

-Drew

[Texter]

I just hit 120 downstroking. Is that the kind of information you were looking for, 403? After 30-35 seconds I started to cramp up so probably I'm not full shred yet. My alternate picking record is 234 on my Universe. It's JPs chromatic excercise so that's a valid PR. From the 6th to the 1st string and back, which really gets me to the 936 notes in a minute by playing it for a minute. Nothing like that good old Petrucci Rattling sound we dig so much. Shred on, people!

[guitarkatana]

Don't know, but pretty damn fast

[403]

Originally Posted by Texter

I just hit 120 downstroking. Is that the kind of information you were looking for, 403? After 30-35 seconds I started to cramp up so probably I'm not full shred yet.

whoa, 120 now, that's fast! I am still looking into songs like machine head's old (the verse rhythm has downstrokes around 116) but 120...... I'll get there someday

[Ving]

Drew, that was an unnecessarily long post and didn't disprove my point at all

[Predator]

I don't know about you guys, but recently I had to whipe away my nasty habbit of always upstroking the highest string... I'm talking every loose note here, I always played them upstroking the string.. Of course, not if I had to play it rapidly!

Bad habbit whiped away, the same with my pinkie craze.. Also gone now, I'm working on whiping away nasty sounds while hammering and pulling off notes, or just plain playing licks... Now that the action on my axe is so high, it's great excersize!

By the way, this dude around here, Shakeel... Has been playing for merely two and a half years and he is insanely fast, he can do those downstrokes in Master Of Puppets like it's no one's bussiness!!!

[Drew]

Originally Posted by Ving

Drew, that was an unnecessarily long post and didn't disprove my point at all

funny, i think it did.

[Ving]

Originally Posted by Drew

funny, i think it did.

I beg to differ :P