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**shredmonster** · 10-08-2004, 01:18 PM

Re: Speed wall...

I wish I knew the answer to that one. I have a friend who believes that you have to develop your twitch muscles at an early age - everybody is born with different amount of twitch muscles of course - but his theory was the more you did this as a kid the faster you would be as an adult.

I have been playing since I was 7 and now I am in my 40's. Speed has been what I first concentrated on. Let me say I much prefer feeling and originality over speed. But I can play as fast as anyone out there - like Michael Angelo or Rusty Cooley.
I have timed myself doing arpeggions at 255 bpm - it was an organ metronome and the organ maxed out at 255.

I started working on speed with both the fret hand and picking hand. Took me a looooong time to get my picking down but now I have developed exercises that work for me.

I worked on it day in and day out. Sloppy at first - took me years to get clean but I didn't give up because for some reason I knew that I had natural speed.

One thing I learned was how to develop my fret hand to where I can hammer on really hard and play notes without picking. And I developed really fast legato - which was tedious work and I hated it. These ideas helped tremendously since my fingers now fly accross the strings sort of bouncing from note to note. I have routine exercises for all of this stuff and I do them every day still.

The hammer on thing with the frethand is like creating a shock with a karate kick lets say - don't think of the projection or contact with the target. Think of how quickly you can develop the pull back. This maximizes the force and speed - it creates shock against whatever you are hitting.

Same thing with your fret hand. You can create shock against the fretboard and hit the string so that your fingers are pulling back and bouncing off the fretboard using the energy to propel them to the next note. But it took me years to learn how to do this.

Make sure you use thick picks! Thin ones bend too much slowing down your attack and recovery. I have heard people on this site claim they play faster with thin picks.
Take it from Yngwie - use thick picks - its one of the tricks to develop speed.
I would recommend getting Chris Impellitterri's Speed Soloing if you can still find it.
Micheal Angelo's DVD is also pretty good. And Rusty Cooley or Fancesco Ferrari are 2 others.
Take 3, 4 and 5 note combinations to start and work the hell out of them. Also string cross and learn hybrid pick techniques. Try using bursts of energy instead of constant speed and see what results you get.

Maybe work with a different picking technique also. soem guys use circular with just their fingers. Others anchor to the body or tailpiece. Others pick with their whole arm and shoulder. Experiment. Try differnt grips and pick angles.

I also read about someone who was developing speed one time. They were maxed out and asking the same question. The response the article gave was that sometimes you max out on your exercises and to just forget about the exercises occasionally - turn the amp, gain and compression up and let your fingers go as fast as they can.

Anyway that has been my experience.

**ApeDosMil** · 10-08-2004, 02:30 PM

Re: Speed wall...

The kid thing is true..

my friend started guitar at 5 years or so.... now he can do crazy arpagios (sp) up and down the fretboard.

I'm jealous [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

**The Chase** · 10-10-2004, 06:19 AM

Re: Speed wall...

Glenn Tipton and KK Downing started at like 18, didn't they?
But I'm not saying they're as fast as Yngwie, though...

**guitarshredder** · 10-30-2004, 06:29 PM

Re: Speed wall...

[ QUOTE ]
Make sure you use thick picks! Take it from Yngwie - use thick picks - its one of the tricks to develop speed.

[/ QUOTE ]

How "thick" is thick???

**jazzman** · 10-30-2004, 09:34 PM

Re: Speed wall...

I'm a bit of a shredder and I use D'Andrea classic 1.21mm picks. Anything that won't bend when you pick is thick enough. As for the speed thing, I used to record a fast lick as fast as I could play it while still being clean (wasn't that fast) Raise the pitch up a half step and practice with that a fret higher. After what seemed like forever, it got a little faster. I was playing for a long time before I had any clean speed. Get the amazing slow downer and use it to practice along with. It's free

http://www.ronimusic.com/

**GodOfRhythm** · 10-31-2004, 01:40 PM

Re: Speed wall...

The reason the 'kid thing' is true, is because those people have been playing for longer.

Rusty started at 15, Petrucci at 15/16 as well. And they aren't exactly bad or slow guitar players.

**Shawn Lutz** · 10-31-2004, 09:46 PM

Re: Speed wall...

speed is over rated ...hehehe

what usually gets me going is working on classical violin runs. Bach, Vivaldi, Paganini etc. Usually there is just so much logic to it and rhythmatic sense that it makes sense to my brain and translates to my fingers. work on patterns on with a metronome too. I just play classical and it helps my technique.

I like playing fast stuff but it there is no melody or logic behind it really is useless imho. Instead of thinking of how fast or the MPH you play, try to incorporate it tastefully around some cooler passages in you solos or songs.

**shredmonster** · 11-01-2004, 09:45 AM

Re: Speed wall...

[ QUOTE ]
speed is over rated ...hehehe

I like playing fast stuff but it there is no melody or logic behind it really is useless imho. Instead of thinking of how fast or the MPH you play, try to incorporate it tastefully around some cooler passages in you solos or songs.

[/ QUOTE ]

Speed is just speed in my opinion. It can be used too much. It can either be melodic or not. It is neither good nor bad. When you need it there is no substitute nor should it be the only technique a person uses because obviously it will become boring to listen to.
It needs to be interspersed with everything else that is important - originality, articulation, feel, tone etc...
It is simply one part of a person's arsonal of techniques.

**rakh1** · 11-01-2004, 10:10 AM

Re: Speed wall...

Well guys, thanks for all your comments. I have gone a bought some thick picks to see if they make any difference for me. I think it is just gonna be a case of practise practise practise.

As for speed vs originality I cannot agree more with the things you guys are saying. Although I would find speed a v usefull tool in my playing I would choose the depth of solos such as Pink Floyd or Clapton over raw speed any day.

Many thanks - Rich

**GodOfRhythm** · 11-01-2004, 05:22 PM

Re: Speed wall...

A little tip I want to let loose on you, which worked miracles for me. Work on your posture and tension!

I play in the classical position when sitting down, for shredding.
And at a certain point I got frustrated, because my playing was NOT evolving. I then started feeling pains in my shoulder, and was like, ****, I need to rest it.

So I started playing relaxed, and really concentrating on not tensing up my shoulder, and low and behold my righthand just seemed to fly over that string with the pick. It was not much later when I applied the same technique to my fretting hand and arm, which was a much harder process, really focusing on making every switch of position and every fingering as relaxed and airy as possible.

**rakh1** · 11-02-2004, 03:43 AM

Re: Speed wall...

Hi all,

Had an interesting thing happen last night. I don't think it is due to the thick pics or anything.

I was practising a little two string rif which I use to try and increase my speed and accuracy when I suddenly just got it and found myself playing it much faster than usual and extra 15 or 20 bpm. However, the moment I tried to concentrate on it I dropped it and went back to being frustrating. However, for that 2 seconds of it working not only did it sound tight and fast but it fealt right......

...anyone else get this when they were evolving their playing....is this what'll happen until one day I'll be able to play that fast and clean at will?

R

**Twisteramps** · 11-02-2004, 09:39 AM

Re: Speed wall...

Practice, and don't worry about how old someone else was when they started playing... that's a cop out. Either you'll be able to devote the time to develop technique or not - the age of someone else starting to play guitar has nothing to do with your abilities or potential. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Pete

**mazhar** · 11-05-2004, 03:56 AM

Re: Speed wall...

this made me shred = 2.0mm dunlop stubbies [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

**rakh1** · 11-05-2004, 04:11 AM

Re: Speed wall...

Yeah - I am starting to think the thicker the better. All my life I have used .88 green dunlop tortex. Am now using the 1.14 Purple ones and I seem to be able to play tighter and faster with no more effort.

R

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