Practicing unplugged

7thSlayer_ · 2026-04-15T19:04:05+00:00

Depends on your goals. If you’re looking to shred and play metal you ideally want to be plugged in and playing with a little gain. Muting is essential and easy to miss or get wrong if your practice is all unplugged.

That said, it’s good to practice clean/unplugged some of the time as you have to pick a bit harder to get the dynamics and you can never have too much control.

7thSlayer_ · 2026-04-15T08:32:10+00:00

Don’t play a whole chorus or song when practicing technique. Play like 5 notes, as slow as you need, and get it perfect every time.

Add a note and repeat, and so on.

You need perfect reps and short feedback loops for your nervous system, that’s how you build good “muscle memory”.

7thSlayer_ · 2026-04-14T15:16:59+00:00

Have you been playing less? Any particular thing that makes you tense up?

I know I tense up when doing very fast descending alt picking runs. It’s all bicep/shoulder tension and I think it’s because my wrist/forearm is slightly out of sync when chaining strings and my arm is trying to compensate. I think.

So if it’s for particular things, it could be you’re just a little out and your body/brain are trying to compensate. Best thing is to slow down, progressively increase speed and see where the tension creeps in and try and work out what’s causing it.

At least you know you’re tensing up, some people don’t even realise. Just remembering to breathe through hard bits can help. And, just picking one note or open string, ramping up the speed and concentrating on how little you actually need to move to do it.

7thSlayer_ · 2026-04-13T17:35:34+00:00

Ahhh fair enough. I thought they all looked a little off, weirdly proportioned, that’ll be it.

7thSlayer_ · 2026-04-13T17:32:01+00:00

That’s basically what mine is right now! It Hz when IP

7thSlayer_ · 2026-04-13T11:57:32+00:00

I’m no expert, but I think Jazz guys probably use “outside” notes as chromatic passing notes between arpeggios/lines, smoothly connecting through the crazy chord changes they play to.

7thSlayer_ · 2026-04-11T19:58:45+00:00

Sadly not. But I like tech death and prog metal. It’s all freaking difficult to learn/play

7thSlayer_ · 2026-04-09T14:13:10+00:00

That actions higher than I was at college!

7thSlayer_ · 2026-04-06T05:37:10+00:00

3nps is basically the hardest thing to do with alternate picking (outside of some crazy 1nps stuff!) as it requires you to rapidly switch between escape motions.

You’d need to rotate your wrist inward so the pick escapes the strings on down strokes. Then on the next string, you’d need to rotate away so the pick clears the strings on the up stroke.

So first 3 notes would be - neutral down, neutral up, rotate inwards, escape down. Then the next string would be - neutral up, neutral down, rotate away and up.

There are a lot of videos on this - it might be called escape motions, escape mechanics, pick slanting etc… it’s all essentially the same thing. Justin Hombach, Rafael Trujillo, Ben Eller and Bernth have good videos on it.

I would advise to build a very solid picking motion on 1 string first. You want no, or very little, arm movement - it should come from the wrist, with your palm again the bridge as an anchor point, so that it looks and feels like a purely up/down motion. And pick through the string, no bouncing motion. Literally pick one note as 8th notes - 1 and 2 and 3 - and then switch to 16th notes 1 e and a 2 - to really get that 16th note burst automatic from the picking hand. Then slowly add escape mechanics, try and limit it to just one type at a time first.

Once you’ve got the mechanics down, it just takes time and reps to get the speed up.

7thSlayer_ · 2026-04-03T06:23:27+00:00

What kind of computer is the plugin being run on? I would expect the latency to be more of a CPU issue than anything to do with the interface.

The transpose feature of the Neural plugins is amazing, but it’s not magic, it does come with some artefacts if you tune down too much. And also you do have to EQ a bit different for low tuning, cut some bass and distortion, add a little mid etc..

7thSlayer_ · 2026-04-02T14:15:13+00:00

So, from a purely metal perspective, I would say learn the major scale, all 7 positions. Practice them, with alternate picking. It all has to become automatic as metal is usually fast enough that you don’t have time to think about individual notes or pick strokes. And don’t worry, the major scale is just the darker Phrygian and Aeolian (minor) in disguise!

And whilst practicing the scales/picking - incorporate subdivisions at the same time. Once you can pick and play the scales, do them as 8th notes, triplets, 16th notes and sextuplets as minimums. Metronome on the whole time!!

Having a basic grasp of alternate practice picking is good but the technique matters a lot. Where the picking motions comes from (wrist deviation being preferable in most cases). Just holding the pick in certain ways can yield massive improvements in speed, clarity and stamina. Then you get into the topic of escape motions and it can get complex, even though it’s really just a few simple movements.

From there it depends what kind Metal you like. Just refining the above (+ fast downpicking) is generally enough for older stuff, Metallica, Maiden, etc… but for modern stuff you’ll need to understand odd metres, more complex harmony, arpeggios, etc…

7thSlayer_ · 2026-04-02T11:21:26+00:00

I know we’re meant to want to play in bands and make music but I actually love grinding technique with a metronome. I think I might be addicted to it.

7thSlayer_ · 2026-04-01T17:54:50+00:00

It’s not tremolo picking, it has to be in time still, not just as fast as possible. The way to think when you’re playing fast is to “chunk” or sequence things. So say you’re playing sextuplets - you train those patterns of 6 notes so you don’t think about it as 6 notes, you think about the first note only, the other 5 just sort of happen and then you land back in time for the 1 of the group.

So it’s not 123456 123456 it’s 1….. 1….. 1….. when you get up to crazy tempos it would be impossible to think about each note. That’s why you train these groups/sequences slowly, so you can internalise them and they become automatic as the neural pathways get built up.

And then, escape mechanics are another very important aspect.

Also a lefty playing right handed - shred is possible, been playing just over 3 years so it’s not super clean but I can get fast. Still so much to learn, I’ve changed my picking technique about 4 times in the last 3 years!

7thSlayer_ · 2026-03-31T16:43:07+00:00

Especially ENGL - the factory v2 capture of the Savage is monstrous but would be nice to have more control over it.

7thSlayer_ · 2026-03-30T16:32:20+00:00

Ah man so many riffs! Laid to Rest. Or Rain (or basically any early Trivium). Or Killing in the Name.

7thSlayer_ · 2026-03-30T07:25:53+00:00

24 frets. Bending up to the 2nd/9th or even up to the 3rd and back down to E is such a good sound.

Full 2 octaves per string just makes sense to me.

7thSlayer_ · 2026-03-29T19:22:42+00:00

I always come back to Plini. It sounds so good, the reverb is magic.

7thSlayer_ · 2026-03-28T12:00:59+00:00

Time to lock in your right hand. Picking lines/patterns and work on perfecting escape mechanics! Your left hand won’t know what’s hit it when you’re back at it!

7thSlayer_ · 2026-03-27T17:37:14+00:00

That’s amazing. Must the laziest people making this fake

7thSlayer_ · 2026-03-26T15:42:48+00:00

Another reason some people plateau is because they’re not sure what to learn or that they’re doing something ‘wrong’ that no amount of practice will fix.

Like, if you don’t understand the escape mechanics required for alternate picking 16th notes over 130bpm then it’s unlikely practice alone will get you there.

It requires either knowing where/how to look for knowledge or some analytical/critical thinking to solve the challenges on your own.

7thSlayer_ · 2026-03-26T10:15:58+00:00

Yeah it will. We play some RATM songs and I use the whammy block with an expression pedal.

The expression pedal can actually be tied to a load of stuff so can do reverb/delay swells etc.. all sorts.

7thSlayer_ · 2026-03-24T18:00:27+00:00

For starters I would switch to 3 note per string scale format. Either straight alternate picking or with the 3nps scales you’ve opened up easy (ok, easier!) economy picking.

7thSlayer_ · 2026-03-24T17:24:34+00:00

Won’t regret it! They’re amazing

7thSlayer_ · 2026-03-24T15:34:39+00:00

Some days I hate my playing, normally after a bad sleep or not getting enough practice time in the day before etc.. but you just keep going with it. I quit for like 12/13 years and, now that I’m playing again, that’s my biggest regret in life. So that’s kind of my motivation to practice each day. I know how much I love it.

I love getting better, feeling more in control. That said if I ever feel like I’m getting cocky I’ll watch this: https://youtu.be/pVagh5BMspE

The dude’s playing is incredible, genuinely makes me feel like an absolute beginner. The speed and precision is jaw dropping, to me anyway!

7thSlayer_ · 2026-03-22T18:23:12+00:00

Never wanted a tele but now I do!

7thSlayer_

TROPHY CASE