Help improving speed and accuracy

[Cliff]

I'm going to keep an eye on craigslist and see if something suitable shows up.

[ginsambo]

I had to maintain water features and lay stone and wet point patios this week with the Siberian winds up my arse. The water was superchilled. Feck that. My whole right hand is swollen up with chillblains and my right shoulder was permanently seized.

I hate that, your hands get so cold you can't go inside because of the pain, so you have to defrost outside for an hour or so first.

I'd say inside if you can help it. It's just far too dangerous out there.

Do you not play along to records or CD's as they call them these days Cliff? It will spare you getting therapy with agrophobia and your quadrophenic tendencies


I listen to them so much that I could pitch perfectly recite any solo or riff from 'Out of the Cellar' or 'Invasion of your Privacy' all to the nano second timing. It's handy because I break it down in my head days or weeks afterwards and work solo parts out. Listening is the ticket. Or brainwashing as I call it. Of course, like Javert says, you can't beat trying to hold an out of time drummer and a wasted Bass player together with no room for surrender, but it is the next best thing. My mum used to sing alot. You say to her, give me an E or a B and she can spot on everytime. Also her timing is spot on too to the Carpenters and Seekers tunes she does. It's almost robotic or like a human tape recorder it is so accurate. It's just brainwashing though and what your brain can hear your fingers will follow. It is very difficult trying to learn the other way around with your fingers teaching yor brain. Once you are brainwashed, even if you can't grasp the exact notes of a solo, you feel the pulse and the way the notes play against each other and get 80% of them to make it feel right and it sounds good.

If you really can't get a band together, just try and play rhythmically, stand up and play and tap you foot and play around with rhythms and fills, rather than this stop start exercise stuff, and practice slow if it's not working out.

I have a tendency to try and squeeze in too many notes and this foortapping, standing up and remembering the bars method helps me tone stuff down and land on the beat and cut out the musical waffle. As for technique it is really just practicing again and again in time. Most important that your brain remembers the phrasing and pulse of it first though.

[Cliff]

I hate that, your hands get so cold you can't go inside because of the pain, so you have to defrost outside for an hour or so first.

You're almost making me miss England .
Playing along with records? Yeah, I should do more of that...

[ginsambo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvGZn1bR95s

Hey Cliff, found this by accident, he is your guri isn't he? Halfway through he is basically reiterating what I said about prefering to practice scales by breaking them up into patterns, or sequences as he calls them. I suggest practicing this way as it will give you the feel of the timing and pulse of bunches of notes together, in equal groups, where as a straight scale can be kind of non sensical.

[javert]

New video it seems...

[ginsambo]

Is it? I hoped Cliff might listen to it as it's Stetina. He says the exact same thing as I did ot tryed to earlier on, but Cliff tends to ignore me.

[javert]

I always read your posts with great anticipation, Ginsambo. They usually hold great entertainment value!

[Cliff]

Me too!
Ginsambo - apologies if it's seemed that way - I read carefully everything you write. Sometimes there are just too many points to respond to .
Yep, I'd seen that video before. He mentions the same thing in the book of his I have. And I am practicing some sequences now and then, but maybe not as much as the simpler picking exercises. FWIW, in the book these sequence ideas come after the basic picking stuff, so I've been focusing on that first.

[Cliff]

Hey all,

Not sure if there's any interest, but I thought I'd report in on my progress. Against my better judgement, I haven't sold all my gear and taken up stamp collecting. Instead, I've been practicing away. Here's a quick vid showing my nightly workout.

First I practice inside and outside picking. The original motivation was to improve my ability to switch strings, and it seems to have helped, but the bigger challenge seems to be to keep my left and right hands in sync. I spend about 45 minutes on this set of exercises.

After that there's a little bit of legato. This accounts for another 20 minutes. If I was doing it right, you'd be able to hear every sixth note accented, and the rest would be super smooth with no string noise. I also practice this in groups of 3, 4 and 5 notes.

Finally, a bit of sweep picking. This is probably me trying to run before I can walk, but I couldn't resist. Trying to keep the notes from ringing into each other, keep the timing clean, while gradually pushing the speed.

I'd be interested to know if you guys think I've improved or not over the intervening months.

[leftykingv2]

Repetition, Repetition, Repetition. That's all there is to speed and accuracy.

[dimobag]

For me, best thing ever was Michael Angelo Batios Speed Kills video lessons. You should try that, he is giving you the keys for LAMBOGINI...

[leftykingv2]

Cliff try moving your picking hand back onto the bridge and anchoring it there instead of leaving it float over the middle off the strings. This should help you with the ringing out of the other strings that was going on in the video. It will also help when it comes to trying to pick clean and fast and it should add stability and accuracy when it comes to playing legato runs.

[RR2772]

+1 to what leftykingv2 is saying. If you get used to anchor your right pam on the bridge you can control your picking much easier whatever you pick be it down up or just down strokes. I always did this but I was trying to play Metallica stuff back then.

It has been a while since I posted and I have been doing some practise giving it the time it needs to be which has improved a lot since I do use my old metronome to really zoom in on where it needs to be better.

I am not a speed freak but just want to be better and more free to play whatever I want.

Currently I am trying to learn Far beyond the sun by Yngwie Malmsteen. It is a song I have always liked and played a tiny bit of pretty often but as usual never gotten down at all right. I find with the number of tab books I have I would be a monster of a player if I get them all down. It is going slowly forward and the metronome helps me isolate the patterns I need to work on extra.

I have also gotten into Fight a bit from SM and 132 bpm for the first 2 pages. How is going for you? Do you still play the SM stuff? I do a little like 35 to get use to it also 26 to keep the picking chops up.

Anyway I am getting into it and I like the challenge playing the patterns clean enough up to speed. Usually I learn the pattern and then start at 80 bpm to get comfortable with it. The next day I can find the speed which fit and then it just a matter of improving from there.

[Cliff]

Thanks for the tips guys. I do have my hand on the bridge for damping normally, but I keep forgetting to do this when doing the descending legato because I'm not picking at this point. Do you mean to actually anchor the hand and rotate the wrist to switch strings? Because I've not being doing that, instead moving my hand across the strings.

Funny you should mention Yngwie. I never used to be a fan, but I've been getting into him recently. I'm trying to play Black Star - at half speed at the moment. I'm learning a lot of cool patterns in the process.

RR2772 - I haven't really looked at the Stetina book for a while. Last time I tried to play flight it was pretty abysmal. I occasionally try 33, but still haven't gotten the speed up much past 120bpm, and I can only reach this if I've warmed up. It'd be cool to hear a video of your version of flight if you have the time to record and post.

[leftykingv2]

+1 to what leftykingv2 is saying. If you get used to anchor your right pam on the bridge you can control your picking much easier whatever you pick be it down up or just down strokes. I always did this but I was trying to play Metallica stuff back then.

It has been a while since I posted and I have been doing some practise giving it the time it needs to be which has improved a lot since I do use my old metronome to really zoom in on where it needs to be better.

I am not a speed freak but just want to be better and more free to play whatever I want.

Currently I am trying to learn Far beyond the sun by Yngwie Malmsteen. It is a song I have always liked and played a tiny bit of pretty often but as usual never gotten down at all right. I find with the number of tab books I have I would be a monster of a player if I get them all down. It is going slowly forward and the metronome helps me isolate the patterns I need to work on extra.

I have also gotten into Fight a bit from SM and 132 bpm for the first 2 pages. How is going for you? Do you still play the SM stuff? I do a little like 35 to get use to it also 26 to keep the picking chops up.

Anyway I am getting into it and I like the challenge playing the patterns clean enough up to speed. Usually I learn the pattern and then start at 80 bpm to get comfortable with it. The next day I can find the speed which fit and then it just a matter of improving from there.

I will send you my email address as I can play that whole song pretty much and most of the album. I will send it to you as well Cliff.