I started playing in the late 80s and was a Satch/Vai/Petrucci disciple. I had to retire in 2006 due to hand issues and recently started playing again. I used to be able to beat a metronome and though I have no desire to do that again (or do I....) I do want to tackle the one player I never could quite get the hang of: Eric Johnson. It took a reddit post and a then CtC site visit to figure out what I'd been missing and I actually feel like I stand a chance this time! My picking hand is slowly getting back to where it was, but my fretting hand probably never will. I think focusing on the EJ style of playing is the safest thing for my hands. I used to squeeze like SRV, even when I played Satch and Vai tunes, and if I tried that now, I'd never be able to play again. Most of my practicing, if you could call it that, is focused on a lighter touch, and EJ runs are good for that, it seems. I posted a few times on the forum and it was suggested that I do what I did in this clip to figure out how to improve my picking when it comes to USX and the like. The licks in this cover what was said I should over, so hopefully it's a good starting point. My biggest issue is 2nps, specifically ascending. Descending is decent and I can tell that I can improve on that, but ascending I can't seem to get any faster than I do in this clip. I'll be posting another short clip right after this one that is a tremolo at 200bpm where I DSX and adjust my hand in the middle of it for USX. That's the fastest I can USX but I don't like the motion I'm using. The one that's the most comfortable is the one in this clip, but I top out at about 180 (8th triplets) when I'm well warmed up. At my fastest, I'm almost doing a MAB position but I can't travel the strings at all with it. Anyways, so glad I found this place. Had this knowledge been around when I was coming up... Let's not get in to that... lol