How much technique do you need to be a world-class player? To play convincing bebop, for example, with its signature twists, turns, and arpeggiated ornaments, you’d surely need the ability to make any string change at any moment, at any speed, preferably with alternate picking.
But what if the best jazz players don’t really play that way? What if, like the rest of us, they too must contend with the things their techniques both do and don’t do? And what if the difference between their workarounds and ours is that they don’t think of them as workarounds?
A forum user recently posed the following great question about practice time, and how much of it our interview subjects say they did:
Troy, just curious since you’ve interviewed so many world class players. Have you interviewed anyone who has not put in 8+ hours a day practice at some point in their career? It seems that almost everyone I’ve researched with extraordinary technique has put in these type of hours at some point. Usually in their teen years. Just wondering if you’ve run into anyone who hasn’t. Thanks!
Sometimes when I have a few minutes of downtime, I toy around with trying to do the Eddie Van Halen tremolo technique. This is the awesomely beautiful and deservedly famous pure forearm rotation motion Ed uses for the famous Kreutzer etude section in Eruption, and for the mesmerizing tremolo section in the acoustic “Little Guitars” intro.
We’ve been stealthily rolling out updates to the Pickslanting Primer to fill in long-standing gaps in its coverage. The first of these, a long-overdue section on pick grip, went up this week. You can check it out right here!
Martin Miller’s spectacular alternate picking technique is probably one of the most-discussed playing techniques we’ve filmed. And it was initially also one of the stealthiest, invisible not just to us but also to Martin himself. Wait, what? Read More
My girlfriend is a violinist who has been playing mandolin the past couple years. So we have a very nice-sounding bowlback classical mandolin sitting in the living room which I will pick up once in a while — maybe every couple weeks. And the technique does seem to be coming along despite very little specific focus on it. Here’s a section of the presto from Bach’s first violin sonata in G minor: Read More
The wrist is one of the most important and commonly used joints in guitar playing. And yet, when it comes to popular guitar teaching, its function has been almost entirely overlooked. When it is addressed at all, it’s usually by way of clumsy analogies like “knocking on a door” or “shaking hands” that are so imprecise as to be mostly useless in teaching players how they’re supposed to move. Read More
Did you know there are different kinds of pickstrokes? These pickstroke types have different capabilities, and profound implications for what you can and cannot play with them. As with anything mechanical, you have to use the right tool for the job. Read More
Remember when Billy Joel said the piano sounds like a carnival? That’s what it’s like being in the room with Olli Soikkeli and Cesar Garabini when they get their irrepressible energy flowing: Read More
Teemu is in town — wrapping up Wintersun’s Fall 2018 North American tour this Sunday at Irving Plaza in NYC (tickets here if you’re in the area!)
And on Monday, we’re hosting him at the Cracking the Code Studio for a live workshop and Q&A session.
Who is Teemu?
Teemu is the lead guitarist of Finnish power metal band Wintersun. He’s well versed in weaving punishing rhythms and intricate dual-lead flights of fantasy into epic power metal soundscapes.
Our interview with Teemu is one of our most watched ever, and for good reason — Teemu is a rare combination of ferocious player and masterful teacher. Specifically, he’s watched a lot of our stuff, and has extensive experience teaching pickslanting mechanics to guitarists of all levels.
Here’s a good clip of his scary arpeggio playing:
Event Details
We’re excited to catch up with Teemu and talk technique, teaching, and more. And we look forward to taking some viewer questions!
The event is free for everyone to watch, and will be live on YouTube.
If you have an account on the Cracking the Code Platform, you can tune in via our Live Studio and submit questions for Teemu once the event starts.
We’ll get an edited version uploaded to the site later, with clips and tablature for Masters in Mechanics members.
Tune in to watch the event live: Monday, Oct. 15th at 4pm ET / 8pm UTC
