Guitar techniques you can't do?

i can kinda sweep pick a few things, but i can't sweep pick arpeggios. I never practiced that coming up. I also can't do that 2 hand tapping shit that tim henson is getting hailed for doing these days. i can't do that chet atkins playing the bass on the top strings and melody on the treble strings finger picking thing either. that'd be cool to impress the old ladies.

i can play the riffs in master of puppets with all downstrokes, like its nothing tho :rock:
 
Chicken pickin. I can do it kind of, but it's not smooth. I don't quite get that rolling thing going when I'm trying to finger pick while also using a pick. It's better if I am finger and thumb picking but still not super smooth sounding like zw or Brent hinds.
 
I can't do that EVH tapping thing very well.
There's probably a number of things I can or can't do. I never learned stuff as specific techniques. I just did my thing the way it worked best for me and played.
 
On electric, it's the right hand tapping stuff. It's never been interesting enough for me to want to work at it.

On classical guitar, it's tremolo picking. Thumb and three fingers hammering the same note, or thumb playing an arpeggiated line while three fingers tremolo another line.
 
Chicken pickin’ and sweep picking. Can’t chicken pick for shit and I can sweep one shape half the time I go for it. Sweeping I’m not too interested in at this point, the extent of use I’d get out of it isn’t worth the effort. The only time I dig it is when it’s used as a crescendo in a solo and not a feature, Petrucci’s “Scarred” solo is a perfect example. Chicken pickin’ I’d LOVE to invest some time into.

I’m gonna make a vid soon about pinch harmonics, I get them 2 different ways and interchange them frequently depending on what I’m playing. There’s the traditional side-of-thumb method, but how I started was accidental; cupping the whammy bar like Gilmour I’d unintentionally brush my ring finger knuckle against the string and hit a pinch harmonic, I ended up working it into my overall technique and it’s fool-proof 99% of the time on any sting. In 28 years I’ve only heard of a bass player doing something similar where they’d pull up on the string with the forefinger/thumb and use their ring finger knuckle to hit harmonics.

The EVH tapping harmonics were one of the first ‘tricks’ I learned as a young guitarist, I had my uncle show me after seeing Live Without A Net or Right Here Right Now, While accuracy in hitting that octave node helps, if your finger is fairly flat and coming at the board from a 45 degree angle, you can get a good amount of fingermeat on that string over that octave node and it’ll still ring. Smackin’ it with the right amount of pressure, getting in and out cleanly goes a long way. I used to just practice 2-note per string pentatonic scales back and forth doing it. That’s a good couch exercise while watching TV, especially unplugged because you can really hear when the harmonics are popping out and when they aren’t, but sitting back on the couch and hiking the guitar up puts you at a great angle for it.
 
Keeping the bass string going with thumb over while playing the melody on top. I can do some Travis picking on acoustic with no pick…but that bloozy thing where you keep the bass going through out the progression with thumb over the top and picking that and play shit on top with fingers (right and left hands). It ain’t pretty when I do it.
 
Anything involving the right hand articulating notes/harmonics ON the fretboard. I respect and like it when others do it, but it's just one of those things I have no desire to develop myself.
 
I can't do alot of stuff. Most of the 80s techniques mentioned I'm not interested in.
The one that pisses me off, that every 12 year old in GC has mastered.........is chugging the A string while playing chords in between. like Ozzy's I Don't Know or Crazy Train. Brad Gillis , Jake E Lee. They do it so well. Randy Rhoads of course.
Fast alternate picking. Yup, that's never gonna happen either.
 
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