Help improving speed and accuracy

[javert]

Haha, awesome!

[tanpsi]

One problem is you have an actual girl there, don't you know only losers with nothing better to do become shredders?

Theres lot's of good advice and while reasonable people can disagree about metronomes (I don't like them) let me try to boil it down:

You are strong on the lower strings and fall apart on the higher, like me. so I'll do the parts of the scales I struggle with until it's as smooth as the rest, then try to get the whole thing faster together

I would also try to start playing with people, or at least along with records, on songs you can handle now, to get the little rewards of enjoying music!

[Cliff]

Thanks for the advice. Interesting what you say about being stronger on the lower strings than higher. I guess the likely cause is poor hand positioning that favours one over the other. Definitely something I'll watch out for.
As it goes, at the moment, I'm not really concentrating on speed. I've slowed right down, though I'm still playing the Stetina exercises, and trying to go for clarity and smoothness. One thing I found when trying to go fast was I just couldn't get rid of the extraneous string noise. I'm trying to re-learn the left hand a little and including some string damping while I do it.

[horns666]

Cliff I left a comment on your Scorpions MP3 you posted. For me, it says it all..

[bratfink]

I looked in on this a while ago to see Cliffs practits... I mean practice but haven't checked in in a while.

Cliff, you are coming on well, Ex 25 can be a bit funny but the real key to it (and any of this stuff) is timing. Forget even playing the instrument if you can't hear or feel or in some way acknowledge the timing.

I am a pretty one track guitarist, when I get into something I literally cannot do anything else. Which is bad, since I can't sing and play, I can't even register something someone is saying to me when I am playing. If anything breaks the cycle in my head of the timing of the music I am stuffed. So playing live can be a pain when people want to change stuff up as we go, I guess I just need to be better.

However, the entire time I am playing I can almost hear a metronome in back of my head, and I pick in time with it. Same goes for solos as well as riffs.

I can't see your feet in the vids so it could be that you are tapping your feet or counting in some way, but it doesn't look like you are. If you aren't try physically counting out the notes of the pattern, at first it will seem funny but after a while you'll just play that way and you will just know when you have played 4 notes no matter how fast they went by.

That version of ex 25 in which you pick in 6's is a giveaway that you weren't keeping count, admittedly moving to 6:4 time is tricky but developing a method of counting in patterns quickly will help you to keep time and count much better.

It will just become second nature.

[Cliff]

Hey thanks!. This is slowly coming to me. As soon as I play something beyond my reach, the timing goes. My foot might keep tapping, but it suddenly starts tapping on the accents that I'm playing rather than the beats. But if I'm reasonably comfortable, then I can keep in time and keep that foot tapping, and I'm starting to be able to 'feel' it better too. Must admit, though, it's my single biggest weakness, far worse than not being able to play fast enough. I haven't actually tried counting the beats in my head as yet, but I'll give it a try, if I can find some spare space to do it in .

[Twitch]

Hows things coming along there Cliff? Got anymore vids you could posT, ITS been a while.

[BenoA]

Good post Twitch! I was also curious on how things are going for Cliff.

On my side, I haven't followed the Stetina book lately but I did noticed some improvements in some area since I joined that Poison tribute band.

CC ain't the best but he can be fast. So learning all those quick licks has forced me to practice, and practice and practice again. And it made it fun as I have a goal: to be ready for the next rehearsal.

[Cliff]

Hey guys. Glad to know you're still interested. I've been really slammed at work (was there all today, and will be there tomorrow too), but things should slacken off after Thursday - I'll see if I can put something together next weekend.

Benoa - that sounds cool. I've noticed a general improvement too. I think Mr Stetina is on to something. I listened to the CD that comes with the book last night, after a long time not listening and just practicing the exercises slowly. Man, it's so damned fast. I thought I was coming along, but that made me realize how far I had to go. On the other hand, I'm listening more carefully to other stuff and realizing how great it can sound without extreme speed.

[Twitch]

Heres some progress Ive been making in speed and accuracy as well as breaking out of my normal groove. I use three scale positions and both ascend up and descend down the neck.

http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=11290809&q=hi

[BenoA]

Good job Twitch!!! Is that the new Line6? Sounds good

[Twitch]

Yeah thats my main rhythm/lead program with delay. Took me 4 days to dial in that sound. It could sound better but Im still left to using the cheapy USB mic to record at home. Thanks.

[Cliff]

Great playing Twitch. The tone sounds great too.

[Twitch]

^^ Thanks man, I admire your dedication. Cant wait to see where youre at now.

[Twitch]

Wow, a lot of work can go down the drain after even the slightest nerve injury. I hit my elbow real hard about a month ago in the joint and my arm was numb feeling for days. Didnt think much of it until now a month later and I still cant down pick as fast and as long as I used to be able to do before the incident. At this point, I hope its a matter of rehab and not permanent. It SUPER frustrating, knowing you could do it before and you cant now. Its really making the studio work a real drag. After so many tries of certain songs, my arm goes out and I have to settle for the more moderately paced tracks to do. The real pisser is that it has affected my alternate picking NONE WHATSOEVER. WTF??

To better explain my issue, its like a fatigue that comes on that cant be overcome like normal fatigue can. I send the impulses to my hand and some of them just get ignored by the nerve no matter how hard I try to make my hand do its thing. Once it starts, thats end game for the night. Again, its really irritating and it scares the hell out of me. I used to take a little pride in my down picking ability, now theres a chance it will never be what it was.

BTW, this issue remedied its self a couple months ago now. It great to be back.