Help improving speed and accuracy

[Cliff]

Hey Anders - looking forward to seeing your next video. I bought that Satch book many years ago. I've dipped into it a few times, but I prefer Stetina's as a more structured approach.

I'm still working on my left-hand exercises, feeling like I'm getting somewhere. More strength and independence, a little bit more accuracy in finger placement.

[RR2772]

That is very great to hear Cliff! You even got that Satch book.

If you can't do the mechanics of lead playing then the Satch book or any other will not do very much. They go hand in hand and must be followed.

Apply the mechanics ex 1-5 to the Satch book like october '89 is interesting.

As for the next video I am going to re shoot it. It was to dark in general like the last one besides me having not practised standing up before the shoot of the video and other small details. I will properly have it uploaded by sunday.

[RR2772]

Right on the next video is currently uploading.

77% at the time of writing.

Ex 1-5 legato at 125, 140 and 160 bpm. That makes it a bit long.

I have changed a bit around from the last 2 videos. At 16 pm the day life turns dark during the winter months december and january. Therefore I had to move myself into the only light available but it keeps me from the amp so I can follow the low sounds from the Boss metronome better and have a slightly higher amp volume. Also I do keep talking down and get through the ex as planned.

All just to make it a better presential video. Any other ideas and tips would be welcome anytime.

I hope you enjoy it!

[Cliff]

Hey Anders - thanks for posting. Very nice work. However, I'd encourage you not to try to go any faster with these exercises than 120bpm until they're sounding better. Read again the instructions just before the exercises in Stetina's book. There's a bit in italics: "the key is accuracy and control, not speed!". He also talks about how you should have your thumb at the back of the neck, not hanging over, and how you should keep your fingers close to the strings at all times. There's also a mention of not hesitating or rushing notes. When I hear you play these, I can here an uneven rhythm caused by this. The good news is that exercise 4, the hardest to play I think, sounds like your best one. In all cases the articulation isn't so great higher up the fretboard, I guess because you have quite high action. By the time you speed up to 160bpm, exercises 1 and 5 don't sound so good - I can only properly distinguish 3 out of the 4 notes; it almost sounds like you're playing triplets. I think this is a consequence of not having things properly nailed down at the slower speed.

So, I really recommend listening back to what you played, with your eyes closed and an open mind. Then re-read Stetina's notes about the exercises, and practice them slowly until you're happy with the results. Speed is not the goal here.

[RR2772]

Thank you for the comment Cliff.

Ex 4 was not sounding good at 160 some 5 days or so ago. I then slowed it down to 125 and built up to 135. I did then try 160 and it helped. Ex 5 does not sound good and needs to be practised more which I have not done so much of the 5 in total.

I think that going down from 6 to 1 string is not bad but the pull offs going back up to 6 string is the trouble area which I am now going all the way down to the 80 - 120 bom to correct. As for finger movement I have read that bit in SM but I will see if I can get adjusted to it. I am used to fret the low E with my thumb sometimes depending on what I am playing.

The action is not that high the neck is just Clapton V style and standing up takes practise which I haven't done too much of with the amp going.

I am not just going for speed either but I challenged my left hand to see if it could play at 160 for example and how it would sound.

How is it going with you?

[RR2772]

I have 2 main problems with my left hand position when playing SM ex. Since we are basically at 1-5 it is still early enough to correct this. I googled left hand position and got Pebber Brown. I watched 2 of the videos one was the proper classical style of fretting and the other the thumb behind the neck.

So the thumb I am know aware off and the other is my pinkie flying to much. I will look into this besides the ex.

[outlawten5]

Cool thread. Just ordered Troy's book.

[Cliff]

Awesome! It's a great book - I'm sure you'll get a lot out of it.

Anders, I'm actually a member of Pebber Brown's forum also. His approach is extremely methodical. If you have the time, commitment and patience, you'll get a lot out of it, but the expectation will be that you put a *lot* of energy into these sort of exercises. I'd suggest you browse the forum and see what the other folk there are doing:

http://521251.xobor.com/f2-PB-Guitarstudio-FORUMS.html

I think it's quite natural for the pull-offs to be more difficult than the hammer-ons. As you know, I'm by no means an expert, so please take what I saw with a grain of salt. But what I found helped me a lot was to really curve my fingers over at the last knuckle. I found that when pulling off, the finger finger I was pulling to was just as important as the finger doing the pulling. So if you do a pull-off from pinky to third finger, it's much easier if the third finger has a good curl in it at that last knuckle, giving a good solid base to pivot against. If you do this, you'll find you don't need to press so hard with the third finger, and you don't need to make very much motion with the pinky to sound the note either. I'd suggest practicing this slowly, really concentrating on using as little pressure as possible and using as little motion as possible.

As for playing standing up, I must confess I mostly play sitting down. A piece advice I got from Pebber's forum is to sit down with your guitar in the most comfortable position, and then adjust your strap so that when you stand up the guitar is in more or less the same position. If you do this, you don't look very cool, but rather like a member of the Beatles or a Jazz-Fusion guy. But it does mean you can play just as easily standing up as sitting down. Watching your video back, it's pretty clear you're not physically comfortable while playing, and that's not going to help.

As for myself, I'm still practicing exercises 1-5 and trills. It feels like it's improving slowly, though I still struggle to get fast trills with my pinky. I've been pushing my picking speed, and I think I've broken the 8-notes-a-second barrier that I seemed to have been up against for a good while. I'm still not sure I'm happy with the clarity of the notes here, so I have to work on it a bit before I'm prepared to record and post a video. Hopefully in the next few days.

[RR2772]

Yes I have noticed Pebbers forum and your postings too. As he says it takes the time and effort. I do agree with that and his owerall material just on the free upfront side is pretty much quite a lot of useful information.

As it is I am sticking with SM only for this and might ad Yngwie or Satriani stuff as I go along. To much to study at once contradicts the effort on the one lesson/ex you must learn. Also it fits in with my current lifestyle and goals.

The main factors for me is to slow it down. I am at 120 bpm and will stay there for a while and getting used to my thumb position being straight and behind the second finger. That is were I was not comfortable before so going up the neck would be a little troublesome sometimes. My strap position is always the same.

Great to hear that the feeling of improving is comming. You see it is all about new habits and your left hand is getting new ones as you are focused on doing what it takes. Quality concerns? The importance of knowing your stuff before showing it of applies greatly I think.

As always I look forward to your next video Cliff and by the way welcome to outlaw! Are you ready to join us?

[outlawten5]

Just waiting on the book. I am getting back to playing after a 20 yr hiatus. Been at it for about 6 mos now and I have a good practice regimen but want to address some problem areas

[Cliff]

No new technique vid from me, but I've just posted a vid in the mp3 section where I'm trying to string some of these ideas together into a solo. Let me know what you think.

[RR2772]

Not bad Cliff!

It flows nicely and the choice of notes fit. Of course the left hand needs to be more fluent but comming from you compared to everything else you put up over time there are less to cringe about even the mistakes.

Then we have the fine art of playing and structure a 4 minute solo to make it stand on its own and just a tad more bottom end in the sound would be good.

So a lot of practise on the left hand will do us good! Keep some normal music on hand so it does not get to boring and see the ex as a challenge.

[Cliff]

Thanks Anders. Yeah, 4 minutes is a long time. I reckon if I could somehow distill all that down into 30 seconds or so, it'd sound pretty cool .

[outlawten5]

What Iron Maiden song sounds like exc.25?

[Nightbat]

Wasted years



On a related note:
Thank you gentlemen for making me put my attention more towards techinique, still got a long way to go, but even I can't ignore that I've improved over the past few months