Help improving speed and accuracy

[Cliff]

Awesome news - glad to hear it.

[Cliff]

So, here's my latest progress. I've been spending most of my time playing slowly and cleanly, so speeding up for this (to around 100bpm for most of it) was quite a struggle. I'm a bit disappointed, to be honest:

[Twitch]

Pretty good man! Dont feel bad about it being rough doing the three step forward two steps backward three more steps forward stuff. If Im not hauling ass in one direction or another only, I cant play nearly as fast at all if I dont start the run with my index finger. I like the patterns youre doing there. I may have to look into getting that book. That would be the easy part. Finding the time would be the pain in the ass.

[Cliff]

Thanks Twitch! Appreciate the feedback, as always. I can't recommend the book highly enough. As well as being great from an instructional point of view, there are so many good licks to learn. I'm sure sooner or later I'll be able to put them together into a meaningful piece of music . I totally understand what you mean about lack of time, though.

[javert]

His other books Metal Lead Guitar Volumes 1 and 2 are also quite good. They mostly focus on cool licks and exercises leading up to actual solos. The CDs also include some cool backing tracks. There's also a bit of theory in there as well.

[micha]

No need to be disappointed IMO Cliff.
If I compare your later vids to the ones you started out with in this thread:
Your technique looks really relaxed in comparison, your timing is even now and you're way cleaner.
Nice bends and vibrato on some spots as well!

I know things can get frustrating if you spend a lot of time with exercises without noticing any progress.
But for a big part it just depends on your perspective. You probably won't notice the progress if you see and hear yourself playing all the time, but out of my perspective, having a look at your vids every couple of weeks, you really can be proud of what you achieved so far.

If I might give you a tip:
Your efforts in playing slow and cleanly are really paying off, but if you struggle speeding up: don't forget to play something really easy as fast as it gets once in a while.
IMO speed is something you need to be used to. At least all this "just play cleanly, speed will come on its own"-stuff never worked for me.
Maybe try some faster, easy power metal riffing (lots of root-notes in sixteenth) or include these open string exercises again into your training.


But your technique itself looks solid to me.
I'm not masterclass exactly myself, but this looks like it could work at higher speeds as well without any bigger changes beeing needed.
In all honesty, I don't see a reason you should be disappointed.

[Cliff]

Hey Micha,
Thanks so much for the feedback - that makes me feel much better. I was coming to the same conclusion as you mention: you can't learn to play fast just by playing slowly. What I noticed when warming up for what I recorded above, I was comfortable until I hit 90bpm or so, and then it started to feel 'fast'. At that point, the technique starts to slip and the bad habits come back. I think I need to concentrate on slowly building the speed on exercises similar to the above and, exactly as you say, try really speeding up some simple stuff, just to be sure that I remain comfortable with 'fast' (it's all relative, of course). The thing I have to watch out for, I think, is to be sure to keep the good technique going with the simpler stuff at speed. What I absolutely need to avoid is relearning the old habits at the faster speed. But again, thanks for the encouragement: much appreciated!

Javert - I need to check those out too - wish I'd thought about asking for them as Christmas presents

[bratfink]

Massive improvement!

Anyone tried Ex 33 yet???

I've been working on that for a couple of weeks and it's a killer! Really pinkie intensive, I'll play it at slow for a while and get comfortable but as soon as I go over 100bpm I tire out my pinkie really quickly and start dropping notes.

[Cliff]

Thanks a lot!
Yep, ex 33 is one of my favourites. I haven't played it in a while, but it's the first one on the vid below, recorded back when I thought I could play at 120:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtlF_sdDt8o

I can play it smoother and more evenly now, but not so fast . I haven't found the pinkie getting any more tired than the other fingers, but I definitely start screwing up around the 100bpm mark (sometimes considerably slower). On the advice of someone else earlier on this thread, I'm trying to keep the palm of my left hand more or less parallel to the fretboard, which definitely makes stretching less strenuous, and the position shifts easier. I still find the pinky is less controlled than the rest of the fingers, though: it rises higher than I would like when I relax it, and I find it really difficult to play on its tip rather than its flat.
I've also been spending a lot of time on Ex 1-5 and 8, again slowly at 60. I think these have been really beneficial for left-hand technique. I still can't ex 5 smooth, even at 60.

[VitaminG]

I was coming to the same conclusion as you mention: you can't learn to play fast just by playing slowly.

he may not mention it in Speed Mechanics (although I vaguely recall something about it a bit later in the book, in the loop exercises) but Troy has talked elsewhere about practicing "bursts". It's important to play slowly and strictly to develop good technique, but he also espouses playing as fast as you physically can, clams and all. It develops other aspects of your technique. You'll also find after trying to play an exercise way faster than you physically can (or should, by the "get faster by playing slower" ethos), that the speed you were getting stuck at before can seem a bit easier.

[Cliff]

That makes a lot of sense. There's so much good info in that book, it's easy to read it and forget much of it. (I only recently re-read and took notice of the bit right at the beginning about lifting fingers off the fretboard once you move on to the next note, which I now realize helps a lot).
Hopefully I'll be able to report on the success of this approach in the next couple of weeks.

[BK]

Great thread and great tits! This thread has really inspired me to find my copy of Speed Mechanichs again, I haven't really used that book for a couple of years now.

It's also nice to see the improvment you have in your technique and speed Cliff, keep up the good work.

[Cliff]

Glad to hear, BK - and thanks for the compliment(s)! I'll let my wife know .

[Axegrinder87]

I'm a little late to the party, though I did watch the video

Not going to read all 12 pages though, so if this has been mentioned already, eh... my bad.


Anywho, Shawn Lane said he approached speed much differently than most would teach. He would play something as fast as he could, even though it was sloppy. Then after much repetition, the slop would slowly decrease.

[Cliff]

Interesting. I don't think it *has* been mentioned. For me at least, though, it doesn't sound like the right approach. Thinking about it, probably the most important thing I've learnt so far is to listen carefully and be more honest with yourself. Once you do that, you're able to assess any practice technique and see if you're making progress.