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I was watching ML 115 which is a blues lesson in Em. Brian does a great job explaining the introductory riffs on string one and two but I am not fast enough to understand and see what his right hand is doing. The tab shows exactly what notes to play, but I am kind of lost on pick direction when the triplets occur. I get excited to try the lessons because they’re great but I too often am stopped cold when those pesky triplets pop up. I get the left hand stuff right away but very often I’m unable to grasp what the pick direction and right hand method. I am strictly a down up boom chuck chord thumper and triplets are beyond me. Any one else understand my problem? This is hanging me up. Until I know exactly what to do, it’s hard to work on and drill licks. I’m afraid I’ll learn them wrong and just waste time. I guess my question is how to play triplets with a pick and keep time. Is there a theory lesson that can straighten me out? Over and over this problem with keeping time hangs me up. The left hand is the lesson but I’m lost with my right hand.
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Hi Steve,
I tried slowing the “slow playthrough” to 0.5 speed.
I believe Brian hits the pick up note in the bar before the triplets with a down pick (d) and thend u d
u d u
d d u
dd-hammer on and the an up in the next barI’m not sure I would play it exactly that way. You have to find what works for you. I do often like to use economy picking ie. picking in the same direction over adjacent strings and reverse picking direction over the last note of the sequence where the direction of the strings changes. For example, I might have started the triplets ddu .
Hope that helps.
As far as timing goes, I found it invaluable in my early days to tap my foot to the beat. A good exercise is to set a metronome or a drum loop (many available on YouTube at any tempo) and practice switching between quarter notes, eighth notes, triplets and sixteenth notes with each bar.
John -
If you don’t have a metronome, Sound Brenner makes a great app for your phone. IF you do haver a metronome, then set is pretty slow, 50 or 60 bpm. play along with the beat, one note per click. Then play 2 notes per click. Then play 3 notes per click and think or say the word “triplet” Tri-pl-et as you play and play one note per syllable. Then play 4 notes per beat. Once your comfortable playing at 60, bump it up to 63, then 65, and so on until you’re comfortable playing at what ever BPM you want to play at. If you only practice what you’re good at, you will never get good at what your bad at. If you practice what you’re bad at, eventually you’ll become good at it. Being a good, well rounded guitarist takes a LOT of practice. One last thing. I find when playing triplets, that the first time might be a Down, Up, Down, (DUD), and the second is a UDU if you’re using alternate picking
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