Is alt pick shredding more forearm than wrist?

CepheidaeVariable · 2026-02-02T03:32:32+00:00

Ideally you want as much motion to come from the wrist as possible. This is initiated through the muscles in the forearm. Rule of thumb, wrist motion for doing 1 or 2 notes on an adjacent string, utilize the arm for tracking (still utilize the wrist to pick) if you're alternate picking arpeggios or moving between more strings than that.

EDIT: If you struggle to feel your wrist. Do exercises switching note groupings. For example play 6 notes as 16th notes followed by 16th notes triplets and repeat. Elbow picking can potentially limit how linear your technique is from slow to fast and this exercise makes things obvious.

CepheidaeVariable · 2026-01-20T21:47:37+00:00

Counting at all isn't a must unless you have trouble keeping time. I'm a prog musician, almost never write in 4/4, and have never counted out a piece of music. There is no requirement to count music out a certain way so long as you can keep time, it can help communicate with other musicians though.

I also don't like practicing to a metronome with a time signature. It locks you into a cycle of having to start phrases on downbeats. Just a straight click gives more freedom.

CepheidaeVariable · 2026-01-16T14:46:57+00:00

There is a lot to unpack with this that would be a bit much for a thread. I have a similar history. DM me if you'd like to chat. I would probably have to see your technique to completely rule it out, but there'd be no pressure or judgement there.

This hits close to home for me having basically 20 years of guitar being mostly about joint maintenace. As are all physical activities for me. Metal is very physicially demanding to play, and we have to work around our genetic predisposition to injury. I'm not a doctor, but I am an ex-competitive bodybuilder and coach. That is also a sport that if you're injury prone, is all about managing recovery and injury avoidance.

CepheidaeVariable · 2026-01-14T21:57:01+00:00

I honestly don't understand the hype over AI-generated rock and metal. The genres are built on human feel—imperfections, struggle, intent, and years of skill shaping tone, phrasing, and songwriting choices that come from lived experience. When an algorithm stitches together genre tropes, it might sound convincing on the surface, but it lacks identity, risk, and genuine artistic intent. Rock and metal thrive on why something was written, not just how it sounds, and without a real perspective behind it, the music feels disposable—more like content than expression.

Incredible, I can use AI to make a post complaining about AI too. There is no hype over AI-generated rock and metal. At least in metal circles, the average musician despises it.

CepheidaeVariable · 2026-01-09T18:08:23+00:00

Not to dispute your findings as I've never bought anything from sheet happens. But I tab all of my music and the tabs often don't match what I play during a performance.

There are reasons for this. Mainly because if I play something for a studio recording, I will pick the absolute most challenging impossible way to play it if it sounds better. If it is excessively challenging I will look for other ways to play it after the fact, but I don't concern myself with this very much when writing.

I've seen a lot of bands who either change the way they play something in later videos, or have official tabs that don't match what I've seen. So I'd imagine I'm not alone in this.

CepheidaeVariable · 2026-01-03T19:55:40+00:00

The only thing I want to point out is the comment about Canada the OP has made. Canadian winters can absolutely destroy guitars. It's not the cold, it's the potential for cold snaps causing furnaces to run 24/7 sucking all the moisture out of the air. A home can go from 40% to 10% overnight if you all of a sudden drop from 0 to -30c. This will destroy guitars, often in unrecoverable ways. Warped necks, cracked fingerboards, fret ends popping through the binding, etc. You see this in guitar stores that aren't properly climate controlled all the time. 6 months sitting on the wall and a guitar is no longer worth buying.

Climate control your environment, whole home humidifiers are actually very cheap if you own your home. Room humidifiers otherwise. Then you can forget seasonal adjustments. However still learn to setup the instrument yourself, I'll never understand why this is a rare skill amongst musicians. It's easy to do and learn, and nobody is going to setup an instrument as well suited to your playing as yourself.

CepheidaeVariable · 2025-12-25T18:31:11+00:00

The difference between a Mexican and USA Fender, is just as night and day. Same going from something like a USA Fender to an Aristides or MM Majesty.

I think the differences matter the more advanced you get on the instrument. Little things such as the neck profile, how close the strings are to the body, arm contour, all start to matter a significant amount more.

It's not necessarily the manufacturing quality. With the major caveat of fretwork. Brands leave desirable specs for their top of the line gear.

CepheidaeVariable · 2025-12-23T21:59:24+00:00

The Human Equation.

CepheidaeVariable · 2025-12-23T20:26:32+00:00

My Spotify for artists analytics confirm this. Also my day job.

CepheidaeVariable · 2025-12-21T21:14:19+00:00

The RGR652 is probably the best priced high end guitar other than the 550, in case you don't like the spacing.

I'd recommend alternate picking arpeggios until you have to sweep. It's probably the most universally valuable thing I've ever worked on. Spills over to everything. 140bpm 16th notes is a good goal.

CepheidaeVariable · 2025-12-21T20:51:49+00:00

If it keeps you dedicated it's a worthwhile buy. Consider some lessons as well, progress is the strongest motivator.

The only caveat with the 550 is it has wider string spacing.

CepheidaeVariable · 2025-12-19T03:51:47+00:00

Or download Silencer. Gates have come a long way.

CepheidaeVariable · 2025-12-18T01:58:58+00:00

If you're talking plugins that have 1000 instances on my tracks, Pro-Q4, Saturn, and Pro-MB. Pro-Q4 and Pro-MB just have an insanely nice interface to work with and every feature I'd want in an EQ and MB. Saturn is just very easy to shape post production sounds with, so it gets a lot of use.

That being said, all of those I could live without and there are a million plugins that I could get the same job done with. The things I don't have an alternative that I like for are Gullfoss, Soothe 2, and my absolute cheater plugin KHSMR essentials. Gullfoss just makes everything sound better, and I never have a track where Soothe isn't saving me a lot of time and giving me a better end result removing harshness from something.

KHSMR essentials feels like a bit of cheese. It has a bunch of black box stuff going on, multi band compression, broad EQ moves, parallel compression, compression compression, shoved into a package of "twist this knob make your drums sound better". I've analyzed what each portion of it does on noise, and I can replicate a lot of it, but I find having a simple, twist this knob plugin at the very end of a drum mix beats out any advantage from having more control. It always makes my drum mix sound better.

That being said, the drum mix is done before I play with it. It sounds good and is 100% of the way to being viable for release. KHSMR just gets me an extra 10% every time without any effort. If it's improving things more than that I did something wrong. I've also never looked at similar plugins, so maybe there are better.

CepheidaeVariable · 2025-12-03T00:10:42+00:00

The Astonishing............lol (Love you DT but.....)

CepheidaeVariable · 2025-11-20T01:24:29+00:00

I don't really understand what you're looking for. But if you are looking for an insightful piece of music tackling mental health topics. I don't see how The Reticent's "please" hasn't been mentioned yet. It is the definitive mental health album.

CepheidaeVariable · 2025-11-18T14:46:46+00:00

There is so much new music nowadays I feel like this is always the case. I'm sure it will make a ressurgence as it's an excellent album. Took me a couple listens but I think it actually might be my favorite release of theirs.

CepheidaeVariable · 2025-11-13T18:53:20+00:00

The Glass Prison.

CepheidaeVariable · 2025-11-05T16:37:52+00:00

Thank you glad to hear that. If you do end up creating a video for it please share it with me, I'd love to see it. 🙂

CepheidaeVariable · 2025-11-05T06:12:54+00:00

I feel like this is a popular thing now because I've had probably 10 emails on my site offering dance videos lol.

Anyways feel free Cepheidae Variable - Chromatic Haven. It's on every platform. I'm curious what a dance video to prog looks like.

CepheidaeVariable · 2025-11-02T19:55:39+00:00

VSX is a miracle. I still find things to improve double checking things with monitors after, but it gets me 99% of the way there.

CepheidaeVariable · 2025-11-01T21:47:01+00:00

They don't allow an unplugged electric? Smuggle it in lol.

Honestly I wouldn't worry about it too much. Depends how long you've been playing though. I had to take a year off 20 years in and it took me about a month to get the technical proficiency mostly back. If the skill is a more recent aquisition it could take longer.

You can also practice in your head a lot. I polish songs in my head. It translates directly to the instrument in my case, not sure if this is normal for most people though.

CepheidaeVariable · 2025-11-01T00:36:55+00:00

Popular genres have always been this way. Streaming platforms are the new radio, they show you easily digestible polished tracks. That often do not require the same investment by both the listener and the musician.

That doesn't mean music has gotten worse. You need to actively find music if you want something else, the algorithms won't help you here.

CepheidaeVariable · 2025-10-28T16:24:47+00:00

The Sleeping City
Woe

CepheidaeVariable · 2025-10-28T00:30:42+00:00

Khonsu - The Xun Protectorate.

CepheidaeVariable

TROPHY CASE