Alternate Picking – Mine Sucks

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Yesterday, browsing through the Borders magazine section, I came across the March 2005 issue of Guitarist – The Guitar Players Bible. Paging through it I found a complete transcription of No More Tears, another song from the Ozzy / Zakk Wylde albums that I always just loved the solo from. Since there was a complete transcription of the solo, I bought it and sat down yesterday afternoon to work through it.

While ultimately I want to learn the whole thing, the final passage of the songs solo is the one that I wanted to get under my fingers the most. It’s a pretty repetitive pentatonic pattern that just sounds completely cool. I can play it at some semblence of speed when hammering or pulling off, but Zakk picks all of it. The sound of the pick is what makes it sound so cool. The tab looks like this:

Ending Passage of "No More Tears" solo (Zakk Wylde):

---------------------13-10-13-10-------13-10-13-10-------13-10-13-10-----
--------------------------------13-10-------------13-10-------------13-10
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------


-13-10-13-10-------15-13-15-13-------15-13-15-13-------15-13-15-13------       
------------13-10-------------15-13-------------15-13-------------15-13-
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------


-15-13-15-13-------17-15-17-15-------17-15-17-15-------17-15-17-15------
------------15-13-------------18-15-------------18-15-------------18-15-
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------


-17-15-17-15-------18-15-13--18-15-13--18-15-13--18-15-13--20-17-15---
------------18-15----------15--------15--------15--------15--------17-
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                                B^^^
-20-17-15--20-17-15--20-17-15--20---(20)-----------------------------
---------17--------17--------17---------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------

(section extricated from this full tab of the song)

So, I started trying to play it without the hammer ons to find that my alternate picking skills are really lacking. This is a pretty hard skill to learn. I tend to do alternate picking by default all the time. The problem is that my practicing has always used alternate picking on three note per string patterns. I don’t deviate very much from the standard routine when it comes to picking excercises. Any deviation from the three notes per string pattern sounds completely sloppy.

The other piece of playing this, aside from the picking that I am struggling with is whether to barre the bottom two strings with the index finger in order to make the finger changes easier. The struggle piece of it is that I feel like it’s cheating and that the left hand should be able to do this type of action without barring. I guess I’ll have to sort that one out on my own. What I do know is that my left hand doesn’t move quickly enough between the strings to do it without barring.

I really need to spend some time and force some patience on the idea of picking starting slowly and building up speed. I think part of the problem is just that I rush into this stuff without really focusing on quality vs. shredding. I have to keep drilling into my head that it is the accuracy of the picking that counts. Speed without accuracy sounds like crap.

I read a book a while back called Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within by Kenny Werner in which he described an exercise that one of his instructors showed him that took five minutes a day. It was a five finger excercise in which the pianists goal is to release his fingers “effortlessly”. This excercise was to be repeated for five minutes and gradually incremented over time until the pianist could “practice effortlessly for as long as one wanted”. The focus of the book is a lot about releasing the tension we put ourselves through to “be the best” and just focus on playing, because, as the author states in the book over and over again, “it’s only music” and “there are no wrong notes”. I really have to read this book again and start applying it, because my head tends to get in the way too much.

Now, on the bright side, while I was searching around the web for picking explanations and exercises, I found some great Randy Rhoads links that I had never come across before. To end the post on a high note, here is a list of the links I found: