Help improving speed and accuracy

[Cliff]

No offense taken - it really is funny. I now have four high-end guitars, and none of them have improved my playing ability .

I tried the Malmsteen single-string lick. It's very similar to another I know, so it's a bit of work to switch to playing the new, very similar pattern and not fall back into the old one, but I can get it up to a reasonable speed. Which is to say, the speed I feel I've been stuck at for a long time now.

The webcam can be a pretty good way of seeing where you're going wrong and right - it's cool that you got it working. Any chance of you posting a vid?

[RR2772]

No video yet. Cliff your left hand is weak indeed. Stick with SM 1-4 only for the next few weeks and practise higher bpms than 120. It seems you are stuck at that level.

[Cliff]

Show me a vid of you doing those exercises at 120bpm+ and I'll be convinced .

[RR2772]

Still some amp connection trouble and my good old trusty metronome has stopped working right. My left hand is faster than 120bpm so no trouble there.

Content: SM 1-12 and a little bit xtra bonus/impro kind of stuff

I hope you enjoy it!

[Cliff]

Thanks for posting Anders. I've taken your advice to heart, and am now working on exercises 1-5 myself.

I hope you don't mind me saying so, but I think in the video you're trying to play too fast. Stetina mentions that your fingers should never be further than half an inch from the fretboard, but yours seem to fly away much further than that. Also, the articulation isn't so good, particularly with the pull-offs, where the individual notes don't sound clearly at all. If I were you I'd try slowing down until you fix both these problems. Some advice I received recently said to never increase the speed on an exercise until you can play it cleanly without mistakes for two minutes solid. If you like I can post a vid at the weekend of where I'm at with these exercises (which isn't as fast as you're trying to play here).

[RR2772]

Double post

[RR2772]

Thank you Cliff.

To my defence I will say you are right but I feel comfortable enough playing fast when I want but without a metronome going it does not sound as tight as it should be. This will be corrected for the next videos. Exercise 4 is one I need to slow down on and the rest needs tightning up.

Otherwise it is working for me and the Yngwie stuff is just easier to do. With both hands developed to the speed of the tune it is the right thing to do in order to synchronize to the right beat without the struggle it takes otherwise.

I do think that to many guitarists hang to much weight on their former results and stick to long to the same bpm, exercise etc. Let them go and move forward!

I am happy that you see how important your lefthand is to develop first. Your righthand will find it a lot more easy to connect and as far as holding the pick you will find it natural to develop.

Yes I would love to see where you are currently at with 1-5.

[Cliff]

Okay, here's my attempt. These are all at 72bpm. One thing I noticed immediately is it's much harder to do with a metronome. I'm not really happy with the timing/articulation here. I could probably speed up a couple of exercises, but some of the others already feel to fast at this speed:

One thing I'm not sure I get about all this left-hand up to speed business. Seems to me that, at any given speed, playing clean legato requires a lot more effort than fretting while picking. So it stands to reason that it should be possible to pick a phrase faster than it is to play it with hammer-ons and pull-offs. What am I missing?

[ginsambo]

One thing I'm not sure I get about all this left-hand up to speed business. Seems to me that, at any given speed, playing clean legato requires a lot more effort than fretting while picking. So it stands to reason that it should be possible to pick a phrase faster than it is to play it with hammer-ons and pull-offs. What am I missing?

Actually with that chromatic warm up, I actually CAN play it faster, alot faster when descending and picking everything. Although I can do 1-2-3-4 fingering legato riffs fast, I find the descending legato cans a bit cluttered without picking. But the picking sounds good Cliff accents are good and note even of volume and clear. Don't be swayed by the dark side and try to go too fast too quick and when it comes it'll be ace.

Actually these videos have opened my eyes a bit:

Particularly the E----10-9-10-7---9-7-9-5....etc. Is that how it is done going down a scale or with two strings? I would play it on a single string. Damn I am so slow at that. I've been trying to figure out every way to get my muscle memory around it so I can play it fast, by approaching it with a different accent or within a different phrase, part of a longer phrase maybe, so I can pick the part out that it is. But it is seriously eluding me. Grrrr.

It's nuts because I can play:

E---10-9-10-9-7-------7-9-10-9-7------10-7-9-10-----10-7-9-7-----etc. supersonic but pulling off to your second finger and then to your first is a really unnatural finger movement for me and, unlike all the other stuff on here I cannot get it down fast at all.

Do you guys find that exercise especially hard? What exercise is that one called? Cliff have do you get on with that one - as you kind of are coming from where I am too, having been actually able to play a bunch of stuff but going back to basic to better yourself.

Also. In another post talking about this guy, Matt Raines. Look him up he is an inspiration for shredding stuff and jazzy stuff. He relies on repeated legato scale patterns and licks, repeated down the octaves for the lightspeed metally stuff, relatively straight forward but his jazzy and other soloing is off the scale. He always ends with a punchy snap or a rest, which is actually a good way to teach your brain control and how to learn to play rhymically also, rather than being fast but out of control.

Also. Thinking about the actually Vai version of the Paganni solo in crossroads film, basically that just uses the conventional Malmsteen types descending scales patterns and arpegios kind of outlined above and is actually fairly straightforward to play fast.

But damn...10-9-10-7. I feel like I am playing in ice water. What is with that? Did I have a mini stroke in my sleep or something I am unaware of?

[RR2772]

Okay, here's my attempt. These are all at 72bpm. One thing I noticed immediately is it's much harder to do with a metronome. I'm not really happy with the timing/articulation here. I could probably speed up a couple of exercises, but some of the others already feel to fast at this speed:

One thing I'm not sure I get about all this left-hand up to speed business. Seems to me that, at any given speed, playing clean legato requires a lot more effort than fretting while picking. So it stands to reason that it should be possible to pick a phrase faster than it is to play it with hammer-ons and pull-offs. What am I missing?

Welcome to your first atempt into expanding your lefthand and yes it does take its pain or however you look at it. Your worry here is that your totally green and scared to even think to put the speed up higher. Your goal should to be keep doing 1-5 finding the comfortable bpm and then speeding it up to 120+ bpm. Once you get there we will know how you then feel.

If your hands ain't working together when picking a phrase you put a lot more effort into it that you do not have to. When you go back to Flight you will notice the difference if you stick with these exercises only and make up your mind that you will actually do so.

[Cliff]

Thanks Ginsambo. I think the exercise you mean is number 7 in Stetina's book. A series of trills between first, second and fourth, or first, third and fourth. You're right - it's on a single string, and just moving up and down the harmonic minor scale. I was playing Am, but I've just checked the book and the original exercise is on the B string. I don't often play this one, and I find it difficult too. One challenge seems to be if there's too much tension in your hand, it's hard to make the position shifts cleanly and quickly.

I'd recommend doing lots of trill exercises, but try every combination: 1 and 2, 1 and 3, 1 and 4, 2 and 3, 2 and 4, 3 and 4. Spend most time on the harder ones, a couple of minutes at a time on each. A secondary goal is to keep the unused fingers close to the fretboard too, which should help when you want to try more complex patterns.

Anders - I've actually practiced all these before, starting two years ago when I first got Stetina's book. I see from my notes I thought I could play them at 110bpm. I don't think so now. My ears and standards have gotten better, and I'm not prepared to advance the speed until I'm sure all notes are sounding cleanly and my technique is comfortable. I'm certainly not scared to put the speed in; I just don't want to waste my time by learning to play badly but quickly.

I saw the Raines - thread. Very cool stuff. I've never heard of him before. Believe it or not, I actually tried to learn the Vai Crossroads thing many years ago. While it's true I've been playing for a long while, I was *really* bad back then, but with lots of ambition .

So today my left-hand is aching a bit. I haven't had this for a long time, despite practicing for hours. So I think I've got too much tension when I play legato. i think, for me, relaxation is the key.

[RR2772]

I agree with you Cliff on staying relaxed and playing cleanly, accurate before speeding up but as I have pointed out before you need to grow and thinking you can't even reach 110 bpm 2 years later is not going to help but defeat your skills! I just watched some of Troy's At a glance video and he does point out you should push yourself and the metronome slowly upwards just thinking only of getting better! Let go of your former results. They are long gone. Create new ones from where you are. So your lefthand is aching. Relax and get back on it when it is allright to play it again. Your lefthand is not used to that sort of playing and there you have the root of the weakness besides your thinking of your skills.

[RR2772]

I just want to give an update here.

I am currently going over 1-5 and 6-8 slowing a bit down but also up. I do notice that standing up takes a little more going through without to much articulation and I am now trying to zone in on those and get rid of them. Playing my Stratocaster can be tricky in terms of hitting the notes correctly as it is way more clear when I don't hit them right. I got no really speed problems other than the notes not been hit right sometimes as you can see/hear in video 2.

Currently I play unplugged to a youtube video with 120 bpm-170 bpm until I can get a metronome on friday. Exercise 4 is in progress as well.

It works really well with doing this intense legato workout as when ever I try to do alternative picking like SM 33, 47, 26 or 35 I can go through them rather well as my left hand is not slowing it down. I am going to keep doing these 1-24 until I feel I am ready to move forward. I also practise a hell of a lot more at least 1 hour a day I would say.

How is going with you?

[Cliff]

Not bad. I've got to say thanks for encouraging me to go back to the left-hand exercises. I've been working on 1-5, plus some trills, and I can definitely feel an improvement when I switch to alternate picking stuff. Not very much faster, but definitely more cleanly executed. I'm not pushing the speed on 1-5, since I'm focussing on clarity and using as little finger motion as possible. For the trills, though, I am trying to speed up as much as possible. I've always struggled to do these very fast, and I think that's going to help me with some of the Yngwie licks (eg #33). For the picking stuff, I'm working on playing both clean and distorted, to be sure I can keep all the other strings properly damped and have a nice tone.

[RR2772]

You wanted help and that is what I am trying to do. At the same time I got to improve as well and as you can see and hear in video 1 that I did where I was at the time of the recording of it. For the last decade or so I have not really been playing in a band situation as what I wanted to play got out of the system after the band ended. From playing along to Metallica etc. in the '90s to Danish basic rock'n'roll and then forming a Hendrix cover band was so far the most cool musical thing for me to have done. Then again the more challenging SM book would be the more interesting thing to get down as it takes time, effort and practise. Put a lot in and you will get a lot back.

So it does sound like I am pretty green with this level of playing and I have yet to establish a good video presentation guitar wise allthough I work on it.

As for speeding up I do it to challenge myself just to see if I can do it. Like ok 160 bpm and the 170 link? Why not? However if its not happening to well I go back later to retry it. The notes have to be quality though and for me I just have to zone in on the areas and practise those as I just have to that for some time to its in my sub conscious mind as being right as it can't reject. Kind of sounds like wizard of shread here but his got a point with his babble and I can se where he comes from. Being a true believer of his teaching stuff I stick with SM as that is what I need right now to master and it will work.

Lastly I focus more on playing cleanly executed as my hand movement will adjust with the added speed. I find that to be the case for me pretty well and I have watched other videos of other fast players like Yngwie where the left hand 4 finger moves back a lot. I don't think it is to much of a problem right now.