Help improving speed and accuracy

[BenoA]

@Twitch cool tune and solo. I liked it.

@Cliff how is going today?

Maxed #25 at 143 bpm today, Rondo still at 100 bpm. Will record it when I'll reach 120 bpm. Worked on the mechanics, 3 notes per string scales and the chromatic exercises.

[Twitch]

Thanks BenoA. You guys have piqued my curiosity about this book or dvd, whatever it is. Ive always learned on my own with really no direction. I know Im a hack, I could use some direction with new techniques, or a bag of tricks if you will. Every solo, with a few exceptions, follows the same pattern. Ascend a scale starting at the root note of the key on the A string, shake it, pull #25 without the opens all over the neck, then bend and shake it one last time or clumsily descend back down a scale. Dead Man Walking is probably my crowning achievement for breaking that trend, but it still has a lot of elements of #25 and is stupid simple, but for me, its out in left field. My mind and fingers seem to be stuck in the "box" the majority of the time. Ive found it helps to watch concert DVDs before practices and shows, I tend to get in tune(no pun intended) with whoever it is Im watching, but the end result is still not me, just me in someone elses mind set.

Its the little formal direction Ive had in the past, OCD and comfort that seem to keep me in the "box". I was shown a scale, it fits EVERY song I play. I can rip a scale up, but theres no heart or soul in that. If I had never been taught those damn scales, Id be free to do whatever I please. My ears know what fits and sounds right, but the scales.....the scales dictate what is proper technically speaking, add that with OCD and its a recipe for f'n boring and rudimentary.

Rhythms on the other hand, Ive got a huge bag of tricks and a great sense for odd timing to keep things interesting in that area. Ive only been a "lead guitarist" for going on 4 years out of 12 years playing. If I can eventually be as good of a lead guitarist as I can be as a rhythm guitarist, Ill be tickled pink, just hope it doesnt take 8 more years.

[Cliff]

Benoa: That's excellent - I look forward to seeing the clip. Not going so well for me tonight - can't even get in the groove at 120bpm for exercise 25. Let's face it, I wasn't in the groove at 145bpm for the video I posted yesterday. There's a world of difference between what I was playing and that guy that Len found on youtube. I'm beginning to think I need to back the speed way down and just concentrate on playing in time. Other than playing with the metronome - which is beginning to sound more and more like some sort of aural electronic Chinese-Water-Torture device - I don't really know how to do this.
Over the weekend I went back to exercise 1 for a bit, and started faltering around 110bpm. I had a go at the five mechanics (whether or not I'm allowed to depends on whether you consider my 145bpm exercise a pass or a fail), but only tried at 60 to get my fingers used to the patterns. If you don't mind me asking, how 'solid' do you feel your version of 25 is?
Twitch: I know exactly what you mean about the tyranny of the scale. This book has a section at the end about creative soloing, which I've read a couple of times but not tried out myself. It seems like really good advice - singing the notes of the scale and understanding the musical value of the notes, knowing where you want to go in your head first, that kind of thing. One bit I particularly like is the idea of making a skeleton of your solo first. He points out that notes that have a longer time value, or notes that fall on the accented beats, are going to be more important to the listener, so figure out your melodic ideas on those first, and then use fills, runs etc to join the dots. I don't know if he or others have better books available for this sort of thing, but this seems like a good section to me. Also, in the early parts of the book, there are a lots and lots of cool licks and variations on scale runs that will come in useful. I'm not sure the scale knowledge is a bad thing in itself. When I think through a lot of my favourite solos that I've tried to learn, many of them are pretty much in one scale. I'm really getting into Santana in my old age - it really moves me, yet the scalar ideas are usually quite simple, it's all in the phrasing - so if you've got good rhythmic ideas, you're winning there.
(This kind of reminds me of many years ago when I decided I wanted to be a writer. One of my favourite novels was Catcher In The Rye by JD Salinger. I don't know if you've read it, but it has a deceptively simple style that sounds like it's written by a teenager. Pretty soon I realised it took complete mastery by Salinger to write like that, so I read more and more widely, getting more and more interested in far-out stylists. My idea was that I'd learn all the theory, then somehow forget it consciously and draw on it as I wrote directly from intuition informed by all this clever stuff I'd digested. I never did get that far, but I did teach myself to write well enough to get a job as a journo. And this is a bit like the Matisse thread that Endrik started a little while ago too.)

[TKEblue]

Are you saying you more less keep your hand at a fixed position and just rotate at the wrist to get to different strings? I'd be worried that this might make it difficult to pick fast when the wrist is at rotated at the extremes. I've been trying to work by using my elbow and shoulder to move my hand across the strings, so the pick angle stays constant with the strings. In theory, a side benefit will be I'm picking closer to the neck on the top E and closer to the bridge at the bottom E, which is how I'd like the tone to be. This works fine at 80-100bpm or so, but I'm not sure how it's going to work out once I try and go faster. I'm also not sure if it's practical if I'm skipping between strings with only one or two notes on each.

You anchor the corner of your palm very lightly on the edge of the bridge, then you just work on the angle of the pick with your fingers. It might take a little bit to get used to, but I find it better then anchoring with my pinky on the pickup ring all the time. I do however anchor with my pinky at the e when playing on the 5th and 6th strings.

As for picking close to the neck, you're kinda fighting yourself. If you're trying to pick fast its much easier near the bridge, the strings wont slop around as much.

Also, check out Dave Nassie on youtube. Imo he has some great alternate picking lessons and excercises.

[BenoA]

Benoa: That's excellent - I look forward to seeing the clip. Not going so well for me tonight - can't even get in the groove at 120bpm for exercise 25. Let's face it, I wasn't in the groove at 145bpm for the video I posted yesterday. There's a world of difference between what I was playing and that guy that Len found on youtube. I'm beginning to think I need to back the speed way down and just concentrate on playing in time.

Since the beginning of this thread, I've been posting my progression (keeps me motivated) and You've may have noticed that I have my good evenings and my bad ones.

As you said, concentrate on the playing, on the movement of your hands and back the metronome to a slower speed. Make sure you play it tight on time and that everything sounds clear.

Over the weekend I went back to exercise 1 for a bit, and started faltering around 110bpm. I had a go at the five mechanics (whether or not I'm allowed to depends on whether you consider my 145bpm exercise a pass or a fail), but only tried at 60 to get my fingers used to the patterns. If you don't mind me asking, how 'solid' do you feel your version of 25 is?

For #25, I would say I'm solid around 130-135 than depending on the evening I must work and concentrate more to get over 140. My maxed was 147 but I was really into it on that evening. I've noticed (since I started doing this) that my picking hand/movement/holding the pick has changed.

As for the 5 mechanics, I can play the first 3 confortably around 100-110 but the last 2, I have to get the metronome lower to 65-70. Makes me want to throw everything out the window and start playing golf when you consider all the years I've played that 6 string thing!

As for the Mozart tune. I managed one evening to play it around 105 but these days, I'm more at 90. But it's getting like more and more easy to play. So eventualy, I bet I'll be able to put the metronome faster.

More follow-up here (I hope it doesn't bug anyone that I post my progression, it really makes me wanna keep doing this).

[Cliff]

"As for picking close to the neck, you're kinda fighting yourself. If you're trying to pick fast its much easier near the bridge, the strings wont slop around as much." - very good point. I hadn't thought of that. Thanks for the pointer.
Benoa - yes please, keep up with the progress postings.

[Twitch]

The only problem with picking the higher strings close to the bridge is that the tone will be more tinny. You can counteract that by using your neck pickup to an extent. In the song I posted, I play the second half of the solo picking over the neck pickup. It can be done, and efficiently, it just takes a little extra picking hand discipline and lighten your attack. Since the string will move easier closer to the neck, lighten your hand, raise it up slightly higher than you normally would have it and it will feel no different then chugging along on the low E. If you dig in too hard and too deep, the string tends to get stuck on one side of the pick causing missed notes and dead spots in the solo. Ultimately, theres nothing wrong with picking closer to the bridge, but closer to the neck can be done too, and just as precise.

[TKEblue]

I started by picking close to the bridge till I could actually pick fast then moved it out to in the middle, maybe a little closer to the bridge pickup because that's where I've found most "sweet spots" are for pinch harmonics and I use them as frequently as I can hehe.

Anyway, I found that to be easier for me, everyones different tho.

Also tho, when I got my first guitar my dad put 8s on it for me, he said "8s are the best" and I didn't know any better. But that may have been partially why this was easier for me.

[danolikestoscoot]

"As for picking close to the neck, you're kinda fighting yourself. If you're trying to pick fast its much easier near the bridge, the strings wont slop around as much." - very good point. I hadn't thought of that. Thanks for the pointer.
Benoa - yes please, keep up with the progress postings.

this is the truth

[Trem]

Been working on example 29. Well but i am short on concentration so i tend to just take the idea and go with it.
Came up with this exercise, very similar yngweedle type thing. Kind of a finger twister.
I dropped to 100bpm and holding till it becomes effortless then i'll push it.
[Bracketed to make it easier to look at...was hard just to write out X_x]
Enjoy.

E-[19-22-20-19]-[17-20-19-17]-[15-19-17-15]-[14-17-15-14]-[12-15-14-12]-[11-14-12-11]-[14-17-15-14]-[12-15-14-12]-[14-17-16-14]
-[16-19-17-16]-[17-20-19-17]-[19-22-20-19]-[17-20-19-17]-[15-19-17-15]-[14-17-15-14]-[12-15-14-12]-[11-14-12-11-12] ect...

[BenoA]

So so evening tonite

#25 reached 138 bpm
Mechanics were also difficult

But weird thing... I blasted up to 118 bpm for that Mozart's Rondo

[tomanyjacksons]

After reading this thread end to end it's made me realise that I need to get back to practicing on a regular basis. I don't really know any scales I did it the hard way of just finding notes that sounded good. My style is very wild and all over the place. With what I do for a living now my speed has decreased a lot, I hope practice brings some of it back. Thanks for posting this thread and I wish you all the best.

[Cliff]

All the best to you too! I can definitely add my recommendation to Javert's about the Speed Mechanics book.
I've dropped my speed right down in favour of trying to get a solid and even rhythm. Seems to be working, though with the more tricky exercises I have to be vigilant about the timing, or I fall into a mode of just trying to squeeze four notes inside the beat, rather than placing them where they belong. So I've been playing all these, starting at 80bpm the other day and now up to 84: #1, #25, #35 and the 5 mechanics (51-55). I've also been trying the yngweedles - - cause they just sound great, even slowly.

[BenoA]

I've also been trying the yngweedles - - cause they just sound great, even slowly.

What pages or numbers?

[BenoA]

I've also been trying the yngweedles - - cause they just sound great, even slowly.

What pages or numbers?