"Twister" Help

NerdDiamond

Howdy,
I've been practicing "Twister" for about a month now, and things are coming along nicely. The part I'm having the most trouble with is the little ii - IV lick Jim talks about in the lesson. I was proud of myself when I was able to get the fingering and play it with making good contact on each fret. The frustrating part is doing it at the speed which Jim does. I feel like my fingers are far to posed above the fretboard to hit each note properly, and when I try keeping them a bit lower, the licks sound like a jumbled mess. Make sense? I figured with a lot more practice this might remedy itself, but it might be worth asking for some tips from the community who were in the trenches once themselves. I really want to nail this one as fast as possible since I'm dying to play it live. Thanks in advance.

JimCampilongo

That's a tough one. Aside from "practice it", try playing 4,3,2,1-1 from string 1, descending on each string to string 6. You will probably be isolating the difficult part of the passage.

NerdDiamond

I'll give it a go. Thank you. I saw some pictures on the news of the Lower East Side, and things are looking pretty grim in some spots in New York City. I hope you folks are ok.

AdamG

I had trouble with that one too. I found what really helped was to include the previous diagram in the run. It's the pickup so I found that it helped determine the down beat and once I did that, the run was way easier. Now, I can only do it if I include the pickup...

NerdDiamond

@AdamG - Thanks for chiming in. I do include the pickup when I isolate those licks. This is kind of unremarkable but worth mentioning anyway I think. When I passed by the music store yesterday, I decided to give those tiny jazz picks a try, and when I began practicing right away I noticed a difference. My speed improved all around, and I'm guessing it has to do with the drag from the bulkier picks, maybe. For those who haven't given them a try, I say go for it! I'm really astounded by what I thought was insignificant, is proving to make a difference. Thanks again.