# Your weakest technique?



## Stealthdjentstic (Nov 19, 2012)

Whats your weakest technique?

For me its probably my atrocious vibrato or alternate picking. Hopefully I can address my vibrato this year!


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## Winspear (Nov 19, 2012)

Probably my guitar playing. My best techniques being promoting Circle K strings and talking about string tension.

 Mine is definitely alternate picking and down picking..pretty much just playing metal in general  I can't play anything with constant alt or downpicking for shit.


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## Alex6534 (Nov 19, 2012)

Legato for me, when improvising my mind just doesn't contemplate not picking every note


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## DoomJazz (Nov 19, 2012)

Consistent and accurate speed picking. 

Theory applied to guitar. Put theory in front of me, easy, put it on a fretboard... well...

*shits chicken*


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## Sam MJ (Nov 19, 2012)

All of them. Except vibrato....that isn't on bends.


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## Experimorph (Nov 19, 2012)

DoomJazz said:


> Theory applied to guitar. Put theory in front of me, easy, put it on a fretboard... well...



This. Also legato.


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## edonmelon (Nov 19, 2012)

Most definitely legato...
Just can't play clean legato lines to save my life. FML


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## hairychris (Nov 19, 2012)

How much of a list do you want?

Can't chord very well.
Can't do theory.
Pretty crap at scales.
Can't do any shred pyrotechnics.
No fingerpicking.

Probably the worst is that I sometimes corpse when recording. I hate recording, I play even worse then normal.


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## BIG ND SWEATY (Nov 19, 2012)

probably quick chord changes or sweeping and legato, it always surprises me when people say their alt picking sucks lol


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## Maniacal (Nov 19, 2012)

Shit at self promotion. Zero charisma.


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## Blake1970 (Nov 19, 2012)

I would say my picking technique, trying to use less elbow more wrist.


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## Konfyouzd (Nov 19, 2012)

Patience and restraint.


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## Captain Butterscotch (Nov 19, 2012)

I picked up sweep picking pretty fast, but I guess the balance to that is that my alternate sucks hard. And I also have this uncanny ability to NOT be able to play things I could play 5 minutes ago when the record button is hit.


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## Konfyouzd (Nov 19, 2012)

Captain Butterscotch said:


> I picked up sweep picking pretty fast, but I guess the balance to that is that my alternate sucks hard. And I also have this uncanny ability to NOT be able to play things I could play 5 minutes ago when the record button is hit.



Don't you love that? Then you get frustrated, decide to do a practice run before you record it again and BAM! You play it perfectly again but weren't recording.


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## troyguitar (Nov 19, 2012)

Chording. Never cared about it and, as a result, I'm worse than the average kid with an acoustic in the closet despite having played in bands and stuff for years now. Who needs anything but single notes and power chords?


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## Onegunsolution (Nov 19, 2012)

Guitar: sweeping, i just blow at it. Bass: properly slapping, tryin to passively remember not to hit with the knuckle -.- shit hurts.


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## Webmaestro (Nov 19, 2012)

I'm super-weak at fast alternate picking "outside" on two adjacent strings. For those who know what that means, I have no trouble fast alternate-picking "inside" two adjacent strings... but outside kills me.

I used to economy pick when switching between adjacent strings, but I'm completely revamping my picking technique right now.


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## Konfyouzd (Nov 19, 2012)

@Onegunsolution - How are you slapping the string? The bouncing off the side of your finger technique or the Wooten/Miller downward slap? The downward slap is a little easier... But to go fast that pretty much necessitates double thumbing.


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## goldsteinat0r (Nov 19, 2012)

Konfyouzd said:


> Patience and restraint.



If I had these two things I'd have no weak spots. But alas, they are too numerous/embarrassing to list.


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## BornToLooze (Nov 19, 2012)

Any kind of lead work


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## Konfyouzd (Nov 19, 2012)

Webmaestro said:


> I'm super-weak at fast alternate picking "outside" on two adjacent strings. For those who know what that means, I have no trouble fast alternate-picking "inside" two adjacent strings... but outside kills me.
> 
> I used to economy pick when switching between adjacent strings, but I'm completely revamping my picking technique right now.



Outside? Are you talking about that "trapped inside my strings" thing Petrucci talked about in Rock Discipline but the opposite?

I can't find a clip of it... But I believe he said for him it was harder to do "inside" picking but I can't really picture what it was anymore.


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## VBCheeseGrater (Nov 19, 2012)

Stealthdjentstic said:


> Whats your weakest technique?
> 
> For me its probably ....alternate picking.



i've just never been good at fast alternate picking!! Fast downstrokes like master of puppets i'll kill it, but say "Holy Wars" i have trouble with. I thnk part of the issue is i learned to solo legato from the get go - and always used it to play fast

For too long i tried to keep my arm stationary and use my fingers/wrist only for fast picking. now i'm using any means necessary, and things are getting better


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## Captain Butterscotch (Nov 19, 2012)

Konfyouzd said:


> Don't you love that? Then you get frustrated, decide to do a practice run before you record it again and BAM! You play it perfectly again but weren't recording.



Every damn time


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## Tones (Nov 19, 2012)

Has to be scales up and down the fretboard. And my sweeping has always been pretty dirty and I only know like 2 shapes


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## Onegunsolution (Nov 19, 2012)

Konfyouzd said:


> @Onegunsolution - How are you slapping the string? The bouncing off the side of your finger technique or the Wooten/Miller downward slap? The downward slap is a little easier... But to go fast that pretty much necessitates double thumbing.



I try to stay with the down slap but I often end up straying into the bouncing and hitting it with the side of my knuckle and that's been stinging like a bitch and i know you can bruise or worse chip your bone hitting it like that so I'm tryin my best to stay in "proper" technique


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## Konfyouzd (Nov 19, 2012)

Doesn't Claypool slap it with the side of his thumb too, though? I wonder how he's doing it


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## SirMyghin (Nov 19, 2012)

Probably sweeping, as I don't care and don't practice it at all . I can do simple sweeps and use them to get between notes but see no other use for it.


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## MrPepperoniNipples (Nov 19, 2012)

slap guitar, chickin pickin


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## Onegunsolution (Nov 19, 2012)

> Doesn't Claypool slap it with the side of his thumb too, though? I wonder how he's doing it



Flea (RHCP) and Claypool both use the bounce style, I do it the way Flea shows on one of his instructional vids, Its not improper as far as I'm aware but it irritates my thumb doin it.


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## Konfyouzd (Nov 19, 2012)

Hmm... There may be something you can do about that. I think Fieldy does something similar too and I thought I remembered seeing or reading him say that he wraps his thumb with something.


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## Onegunsolution (Nov 19, 2012)

I thought about doin that too, even if I start doin it the VW way it wont be a pain if I do it the Flea way again. I'm sure you develop a callus to it to where it wont sting as often but I actively play guitar too so I don't want to put my self in discomfort while playing that.


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## JPhoenix19 (Nov 19, 2012)

My guitar technique as a whole is inconsistent, slightly sloppy, and unrefined/undisciplined. My speed-picking is so-so, and I can't sweep-pick correctly to save my life.


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## kamello (Nov 19, 2012)

Sweep, Finger-style, and some patterns of string skipping


I don't give a fuck about sweep cause I can do what I want to do with that technique (sweeps of 3 to 6 notes), but I would really like to have better Finger-Style or the dexterity of the guys from CHON  



oh, and my alt. picking is decent, but I need a lot of work there....


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## Konfyouzd (Nov 19, 2012)

^ Play a bass for a while.


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## troyguitar (Nov 19, 2012)

Whenever I play bass for more than 20 or so minutes at once I get blisters on the tips of my 'picking' fingers


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## Konfyouzd (Nov 19, 2012)

I used to for a while... Even used to bruise the tips of my fingers actually. Now they're like rocks.


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## ChronicConsumer (Nov 19, 2012)

Hybrid picking (Shawn Lane / Guthrie Govan style), my bend and vibrato still needs some work with some of my fingers, and my sight reading skills are abysmal. My ear is pretty good though, and I know my theory very well.. still, I usually end up not using sheet music at the end of the day. Find it much more beneficial to just learn by ear.


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## DarkWolfXV (Nov 19, 2012)

Pull offs, hammer-ons are dead easy for me, but when i pull off its hardly audible, while hammer-ons are clear as day, same with tapping, can tap only hammering, pulling off is inaudible.


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## Konfyouzd (Nov 19, 2012)

I can only do legato the hard way... Boo hoo...


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## T-e-r-r-y (Nov 19, 2012)

Economy picking (descending) and double thumb + two pops on guitar.
The double thumb thing is fine, but adding in popped notes means i have to slightly change the angle of my hand on the guitar which makes the UP part of the thumb movement really inconsistent...

But I WILL get it.


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## cult-leader-of-djent (Nov 19, 2012)

It would probably have to be sweep tapping. I've never really took it into depth but I want to. I don't know when I'll get around to it. 

Alt picking super simple
sweeps simple
shredski medium
chords simple 
Rhythm section dependes what I play


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## Lagtastic (Nov 19, 2012)

Economy picking without a doubt. Never practiced it, never use it. If its a picked passage, straight alternate picking style for me, no matter what the passage is.


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## Webmaestro (Nov 19, 2012)

Konfyouzd said:


> Outside? Are you talking about that "trapped inside my strings" thing Petrucci talked about in Rock Discipline but the opposite?
> 
> I can't find a clip of it... But I believe he said for him it was harder to do "inside" picking but I can't really picture what it was anymore.



YES! That's EXACTLY what I'm talking about. I have the opposite problem of what JP describes there.

For some crazy reason, "inside" alternate picking between two adjacent strings is really easy for me, but outside is a real bugger. I feel like it wastes a lot of motion.

Working on it though. Right now, a lot of my practice time is spent purposely doing that motion... playing a lot of 2-string triplets.


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## ShadowAMD (Nov 19, 2012)

HA! Playing slow small note lead parts, for the life of me I can't understand why.. I'm ok with sweeping and quick alternate picking, but on a slow 5 note lead part my brain turns to mush and become dumbfounded..

I start like this:







And end up like this


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## Overtone (Nov 19, 2012)

I'm revisiting alt. picking. For the last few years I've been playing without any strict alt. picking except in some riffs. The overall feel is conservative motion, so economy picking where that makes sense, but throwing in some outside alternate picking the deal with certain string skips or other parts that don't lend themselves to economy. What I noticed recently is that for really simple box runs I found it hard not to do economy picking, which is ok except that you lose some of the timing and pick attack sound that is desirable for those runs. I'm making sure to do some pure alt. picking now and then just so I keep that as an option.


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## JosephAOI (Nov 19, 2012)

Alternate Picking and Hybrid Picking


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## SirMyghin (Nov 19, 2012)

Rather shocked to see so many of you metalheads regard not being able to hybrid pick as a weak area. The fact you acknowledge it is what actually shocks me  What I mean is it just doesn't get applied to much in a genre where it seems like picking rules the game. 

Something I feel I use well enough, I like it for getting across a lot of strings with minimal movement


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## otisct20 (Nov 19, 2012)

Everything, I just suck at guitar but I love it anyway.


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## Konfyouzd (Nov 19, 2012)

Now that's true love


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## otisct20 (Nov 19, 2012)

It doesnt help that I cant focus long enough to actually practice anything


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## Konfyouzd (Nov 19, 2012)

Love does that too...


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## daniel_95 (Nov 19, 2012)

Pinch harmonics.
I can nail everything from palm muting to (somewhat decent ) sweep picking but I can't seem to do those stupid pinchies.


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## otisct20 (Nov 19, 2012)

Konfyouzd said:


> Love does that too...



So does a pretty intense case of ADD 



But I can play me some mean sounding deathcore


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## squid-boy (Nov 19, 2012)

All of the techniques.


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## 3074326 (Nov 19, 2012)

I'm not happy with any of them.. I'm decent enough at most of them, but I want to be a lot better. I'm not seeing much progress either. If I had to choose one, I'd choose my picking in general, excluding picking speed. It's fine. My alternate picking, string skipping and picking accuracy could use some work.


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## Winspear (Nov 19, 2012)

Captain Butterscotch said:


> Every damn time





I've been thinking of maybe practicing with the red button on all the time...but I don't suppose it would help as you'd still know you're not looking to record a take


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## InfinityCollision (Nov 19, 2012)

As far as stuff I actually do... Chugging I guess, if that counts. I can't do fast, tight stop-start rhythms very well, don't practice it enough. Any sort of slap/pop/double-thumb thing too but I only just started getting into that. Otherwise sweeping probably takes it for me; most of what I've written of late is fingerpicked so I haven't made an effort to learn to sweep.


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## TRENCHLORD (Nov 20, 2012)

open barre chord strumming


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## MrPepperoniNipples (Nov 20, 2012)

Tuning it


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## Captain Butterscotch (Nov 20, 2012)

EtherealEntity said:


> I've been thinking of maybe practicing with the red button on all the time...but I don't suppose it would help as you'd still know you're not looking to record a take



We have to go deeper.


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## Konfyouzd (Nov 20, 2012)

EtherealEntity said:


> I've been thinking of maybe practicing with the red button on all the time...but I don't suppose it would help as you'd still know you're not looking to record a take



It helps to have someone there that doesn't play anything just man the computer honestly... 

There are times when we've had a random third party man the comp and he/she will just hit record whenever the mood strikes and it seems to work out really well.

That and just hitting record and leaving it recording. You eventually forget you're recording.


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## SirMyghin (Nov 20, 2012)

I have a new weakest technique, being able to play what I write 

I swear I could play the one I am working on when I wrote it, why then did I not record it.... Now it is hopeless 3/4 speed practice.


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## Konfyouzd (Nov 20, 2012)

That's how you progress, homie! 

At least that's how it was put to me. I used to get so frustrated when I would come up with a cool riff right before I fall asleep; wake up because I absolutely HAVE to record that shit or at least pluck it out; then the next day, whether I can remember it or not, I can't play it well enough to show ANYONE.

I was told that it's good to write riffs you can't play because it helps you progress, but it just drives me nuts most of the time.


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## SirMyghin (Nov 20, 2012)

^ I don't write with an instrument in my hand, makes this pretty easy to do.


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## Captain_Awesome (Nov 20, 2012)

Probably reading leading sheets, it's a technique that I haven't come across very often in my capacity. As far as actual technical ability on the fretboard I'm pretty slick at most things but my weakest would be slapping Wooten style.


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## Konfyouzd (Nov 20, 2012)

SirMyghin said:


> ^ I don't write with an instrument in my hand, makes this pretty easy to do.



Well that, my friend, is a horse of a different color.


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## Captain_Awesome (Nov 20, 2012)

daniel_95 said:


> Pinch harmonics.
> I can nail everything from palm muting to (somewhat decent ) sweep picking but I can't seem to do those stupid pinchies.



I don't know how legit this is, but I found that either using a small plectrum or holding the plectrum very low down allowed me to hit Safety Fire style pinches.


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## sage (Nov 20, 2012)

I'm pretty much equally weak across the spectrum. I would probably say I'm at about 80-85% of where I'd like to be. It's all just time on the fretboard now. I need to stop procrastinating and just work on everything a little bit every day. I think the big problem is that I'm probably more talented than I am disciplined, so I get by on natural ability where I should be focusing on improving. Not that I'm super talented, just kind of a natural.


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## Rick (Nov 20, 2012)

My weakest technique? Guitar.


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## Konfyouzd (Nov 20, 2012)

Rick said:


> My weakest technique? Guitar.



Okay... 

I literally just had this convo with a friend of mine... 

I've been playing guitar for longer than ANY other instrument I play currently. Yet I feel like I progress on all of the other instruments so much more quickly and slowly guitar is becoming the instrument I enjoy hearing myself play the least.

At the same time, I suppose it could be reasoned that the things I had to learn the hard way on guitar in terms of melody and tone production have allowed me to focus on other things in learning new instruments and thus I progress more quickly as a result of having different (perhaps easier--for me) hurdles to hop.

But yea... 

TL;DR:

I came to much the same conclusion less than an hour ago.


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## ShadowAMD (Nov 20, 2012)

Well I sing, play guitar, play bass and drums.. So, I'm never 100% sure where I should be focusing my energies on.. Probably singing TBH, I'm good enough at guitar to do a decent Rhythm and lead work that isn't awful..

I don't think mastery of any of them are any good unless you are a decent song writer, that's a technique people really should work on in my humble opinion..


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## tripguitar (Nov 20, 2012)

this is probably trivial for most of you, but riffs that are "downpick" driven are my weakest link.

i was self taught early on, started on bass. used fingers mostly. so when i picked up my dads guitar i took a pic and started up picking everything - as if i were emulating my fingers playing a bass.

so i now, i have some ridiculous up picking abilities, but i cant play simple downpicking riffs...


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## morrowcosom (Nov 21, 2012)

^ 
I can tremolo and down pick like a mother, but I currently cannot do gallops for shit. I am wood shedding with them though. I have been listening to too much Iced Earth not to.


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## Rick (Nov 21, 2012)

Konfyouzd said:


> Okay...
> 
> I literally just had this convo with a friend of mine...
> 
> ...



And we both went to Woodbridge Senior High. Coincidence?


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## renzoip (Nov 21, 2012)

Djent is my weakest technique


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## UV7BK4LIFE (Nov 21, 2012)

Double or triple pull-offs.


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## AliceLG (Nov 21, 2012)

My fretting hand is abismal. Regardless of the instrument, my left hand just sucks. The drummer in one of my first bands used to say that my signature moves in the bass where slaps and mistakes. As I switched to guitar it became chugs and dead notes. It's all because of my utter lack of discipline actually. Practicing? Nah, I'd rather jam to songs until it works ...


Spoiler



It never works


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## TheFerryMan (Nov 21, 2012)

theory and alt picking. Also Legato.


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## Tyler (Nov 21, 2012)

String skipping.

And patience when it comes to building up my speed. When I shred its just plain sloppy and BS'ed


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## starslight (Nov 22, 2012)

Five-stroke rasgueado. My ring finger flicks out enough to cover one or maybe two strings, but that's it. The triplet thing Joey Eppard and Gabriela Quintero do is by no means easy, but the real old-school flamenco shit can be truly demoralizing to try to pick up.


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## Francis978 (Nov 22, 2012)

EtherealEntity said:


> Probably my guitar playing. My best techniques being promoting Circle K strings and talking about string tension.
> 
> Mine is definitely alternate picking and down picking..pretty much just playing metal in general  I can't play anything with constant alt or downpicking for shit.



Well, You are very good at the latter!  (even though the AAL covers I have seen you do are AMAZING  )

Them feels, I suck at sweeps and alternate picking really quickly


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## Maniacal (Nov 22, 2012)

A technique I wish I was fluent at is 4 nps playing and wide 3 nps playing. I practice that approach but when it comes to improvising I go back to my old ways. 

Very frustrating. 

My picking also needs to be better.


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## lurgar (Nov 22, 2012)

Fingerstyle. I decided to do a solo arrangement of "O Holy Night" for a ceremony that my wife is putting on. I am in over my head with even a simple arrangement and I have a ton of work ahead of me in the next couple of weeks.


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## MartinMTL (Nov 22, 2012)

SirMyghin said:


> ^ I don't write with an instrument in my hand, makes this pretty easy to do.



aww, same here. Since I started using guitar pro this year, I will often write without an actual guitar in my hands. In the end I come up with stuff I can't play at all. By the way, do people consider this as "cheating"? I just feel it helps me visualize what I am writing more, and makes it easier to create harmonies. 

And to OP... just about everything. Alt picking and fingerstyle are the worst.


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## lurgar (Nov 22, 2012)

MartinMTL said:


> aww, same here. Since I started using guitar pro this year, I will often write without an actual guitar in my hands. In the end I come up with stuff I can't play at all. By the way, do people consider this as "cheating"? I just feel it helps me visualize what I am writing more, and makes it easier to create harmonies.



If you create music that you like, then there is no such thing as cheating. It's not a competition, just expression and whatever method you come up with to get that expression out is good.


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## troyguitar (Nov 28, 2012)

Maniacal said:


> A technique I wish I was fluent at is 4 nps playing and wide 3 nps playing. I practice that approach but when it comes to improvising I go back to my old ways.
> 
> Very frustrating.
> 
> My picking also needs to be better.



I do the same thing. Will practice some exercises and stuff but as soon as I relax I go back to normal dense 3 nps stuff.


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## Pooluke41 (Nov 28, 2012)

My picking technique is just weird.

When I ascend I use economy picking and when I descend I use alternate picking.

Even after trying to ascend with alt picking to a metronome for about 5 hours, I still revert back to economy picking it.


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## starslight (Nov 28, 2012)

Pooluke41 said:


> My picking technique is just weird.
> 
> When I ascend I use economy picking and when I descend I use alternate picking.



Not that weird. Yngwie Malmsteen does the same thing, as summarized here by transcription wizard Jordan Bakerman:


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## kaaka (Nov 29, 2012)

It really depends on. Certain alternate picking patternas that someone else has come up with...
Slapping i don't really know so I can't count it. The same goes for flamenco style fingerpicking, advanced country chicken picking and 8-finger tapping which i seldom/never practice.


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## Ginsu (Dec 23, 2012)

My economy picking is crap, but still better than my alt picking...Can barely sweep above 100bpm, never learned the "normal" chord shapes, since I never had a teacher...I play a lot of my chords as huge bars in drop tunings. And I rely way too much on drop tunings.


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## signalgrey (Dec 23, 2012)

"widdly widdly"


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## MontaraMike (Dec 23, 2012)

Sweep picking. I totally SUCK at it


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## AngstRiddenDreams (Dec 23, 2012)

Picking fast. Never found any use for it, so i never practice it.


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## GizmoJunior (Dec 23, 2012)

For me alternate picking has never been a problem but I'm terrible at improvising a solo or any lead work. As well when I get tired of tremolo picking I probably put too much elbow into it.


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## All_¥our_Bass (Dec 24, 2012)

Tremelo picking and super fast alternate/directional picking.


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## DamianX_JVL (Dec 24, 2012)

My legato sucks man xDDDD


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## ghostred7 (Dec 24, 2012)

Everything...I'm more rusty than an iron nail that's been sitting in the open for a decade.


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## PettyThief (Dec 24, 2012)

Fingerstyle. I really like classical stuff and can't play any of it  I am working on it and making improvements though!


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