Speed wall...

[GodOfRhythm]

Re: Speed wall...

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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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Hmm I must look into that. I've always been playing with green dunlop tortex 0.88 picks, and when I saw Rusty make jokes about 'extra thick picks for da uberspeed', I always laughed at it. But now I'm going to get me a batch of thicker ones.

[tmdiamond]

Re: Speed wall...

Everyone has some really good advice. I don't concentrate on speed exercises as much as I used to and I think that's what helped me out. I started when I was 10 (I'm 37 now) and it took me a LONG time, probably 4 years, before I could do anything that could have been called lead playing. Then the early 80's came along and I just played exercise after exercise. I'm with Pete on the age thing. I play faster and cleaner now than I did when I was in the middle of the shred era. I found that going to a heavier pick was a big help; I use Dunlop .96mm Gators religiously but I'm considering switching to a thicker but smaller jazz pick. But the biggest change I made was calming down when I played. Once I stopped concentrating so much, it all fell into place. I still use a metronome to warm up, I still do my Yngwie exercises (arpeggios), but I consider myself a very dynamic player, that is to say that I am constantly changing how I hold the pick and strike the string to get different tones out of the individual notes. The way the pick is held, how tight, what angle you strike the string, how much pick is hanging out, etc. When I'm doing a fast run using alternate picking, barely any pick is exposed and I slice the strings at an angle. It helps the pick to go thru the string. I also use as much economy picking as I can, especially when string skipping.
But above all, I worked and continue to work on my legato technique. Try doing ascending and descending runs without a pick. Play the various linear shapes over and over until your endurance and finger strength is really built up. Then I'll maybe hammer on or pull of one string, pick the notes on the next string, etc. Or, to give say, an ascending run a cool vibe, start the run with fast picked, staccato notes gradually moving up the run and gradually change to legato. I love the attitude of a run played like that. All of these things helped me to build up speed.

[PowerTube]

Re: Speed wall...

On the pick question, I use the Dunlop Big Stubby in 2mm. It's not only very stiff and responsive, but it's also very pointy and recessed in the center for a better grip. The edges going down to the tip are rounded for a quick release.

[kmanick]

Re: Speed wall...

Tmdiamond, hits the nail on the head,try to calm down and work on your legato technique. I also play much cleaner and faster now than I did during the the big "shred" era. You know working along with paul Gilberts 1rst Video is a geat one to help you get some good alternate picking patterns to pratice up and down the neck, but I will spend a good 1/2 hour everytime I practice just doing legato runs without using my pick hand at all. It helps you learn how to really "grab" notes with every finger on your left hand. the other thing I see missing in a lot of younger guitarists today is that nobody seems to know how to grab a note and bend the sh*t out of it. Everyone palm mutes fast ascending patterns but they have no vibrato. That is a vital element to great playing, listen to the early EVH stuff, he could grab the sh*t out of a note, Beck,Trower,Clapton,Hendrix they all had it, alot of the kids I see playing in GC and Daddies can't bend a note to save their life, but they can sweep like crazy.

[pagemalicious]

Re: Speed wall...

I had a speed block too. I used to use Dunlop Tortex 1.4mm They seemed cool after a while but i always thought they were holding me back. So i switched to using the black Dunlop Jazz III picks. Their smaller than the tortex picks but they gave me that extra speed and gave me alot more control over my playing [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[rodrigo_echeverri]

Re: Speed wall...

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Get the amazing slow downer and use it to practice along with. It's free

http://www.ronimusic.com/

[/ QUOTE ]

Is there a free full version one?... I really liked this but it only lets me play the first 1/3 of the song.

[shredmonster]

Re: Speed wall...

I agree with a lot of good points by people on this post.

Thick picks will definitely improve your speed.

Legato - excellent point - I practice that all of the time. Strengthen the fingers and especially hit those hammer ons hard. This will improve your arpeggios also.

Bending - yep - none of the "new guys" out now bend very well. Listen to Michael Schenker - probably the best vibrato technique ever - better than Yngwie. Schenker is so expressive due to bending.

Grabbing the notes - excellent point. These are "secrets" for lack of a better term that not too many people develop because it takes literally years of practice.

[kmanick]

Re: Speed wall...

it's funny, when I first started gigging seriously back in the "day" I could fly. speed wise. I played a gig at Jumping Jack Flash outside of Kenmore Squre in Boston, and a guitarist in the audience (who has turned out to be a lifetime friend)comes up to me after our set and says "whow you can shred, that was impressive , but your Feel sucks. I didn't really understand what he meant by feel until he sat down with me and showed me how to really grab notes. It completely changed the way I play. Now I can't play as fast as I used to (no time to practice with a wife and a 2 yr. old) but I've still got my "feel". It took me a while to develop it, but when people see me play now , one of the first things they always comment on is how I grab and bend notes. I never lost that and hopefully never will, young kids learning how to play really need to learn this skill.

[rakh1]

Re: Speed wall...

This 'feel' everyone is talking about and 'grabbing' notes - anyone got an mp3 or something which shows these compared to a lack of them?

R

[kmanick]

Re: Speed wall...

I'm at work so I can't post anything, but a good example of grabbing notes in a lead (just off the top of my head) Out of Love on Van halen II the lead in that song has some serious "grabbing", actually anything on the first 2 VH albums are good examples. back then Eddie had great feel. anything by Robin Trower (exterminator blues is a good one) He made playing slow difficult to emulate. Jeff Beck "Lead Boots" off of Wired. His feel on the solos in that song is great. Anything by Stevie Ray Vaughn. He grabbed notes like nobody else could.
examples of guitarists with no feel.
1 Anything C.C. Deville plays. I'm sorry but this guy is horrible.
2. this one may piss some of you off but Kirk Hammett. I think his vibrato sucks and half the time I don't think he knows what mode he should be playing in. (just my opinion now)
I can' think of any other "bad feel" players off of the top of my head right now
Anybody else with good examples please chime in.

[shredmonster]

Re: Speed wall...

A lot of new shredders with 4 finger techniques lack bending developent. One reason is because they are so young still.

I think you can only work on so much at one time.
I think they stress speed over their other developmental issues.

All this stuff can be argued as being objective but most of the really really fast shredders don't bend all that well from what I have noticed.

Listen to Rusty Cooley or Franceso Ferrari. Both really fast players.

Then listen to Michael Schenker or Uli Jon Roth or Yngwie.

There are a lot of guys with great feel and vibrato but these three come to mind right away.

I think it really comes down to what you want to stress in your playing and how much time you have to practice everything.

[kmanick]

Re: Speed wall...

Add George Bellas to the group of Cooley and Ferrari. another who sweeps like crazy but never bends notes.

[thetroy]

Re: Speed wall...

I've only been playing guitar (or any instrument) since June, but have not hit any sort of "speed wall" yet. Not that I'm all that fast or anything. For right now I practice the 7 3-note-per-string scale patterns in whatever key I feel like as my main speed exercise. I can alternate pick those patterns at like 12-notes-per-second as a sustained thing, or about 15nps in quick bursts. Sweeping I haven't practiced nearly as much, I can do maybe 10nps in bursts. What these guys are saying about legato is very true, I just "discovered" this on my own no more than a week ago. Being able to clearly sound all of the notes without picking makes it very easy to pick cleanly because you can concentrate on it more.

As far as playing with speed vs. "feel"... Obviously feel is a very subjective thing to begin with, but if we talk only about bending we can sort of talk objectively. I think that quality is more important than quantity with bends. I can slow down a bit and bend every single note all over the place, but half of the bends will be out of key. Part of the problem is practicing. It is a lot easier IMO to practice and quantify speed, while bends are harder to figure out. I guess you could make an exercise where you just go through scales bending each note up to the next note in the scale, then release and start again on the note you just bent to and keep going all day. I don't know about you guys, but to me it's more fun to practice speed than do that...

[GodOfRhythm]

Re: Speed wall...

You want the perfect combination of speed and feel?

John Petrucci! The guy is the ultimate guitargod.

[kmanick]

Re: Speed wall...

and there you have it , you've kind of explained it to yourself. The guys with "feel" can bend notes like crazy all over the neck and not bend them out of key , or sharp or flat. knowing how far to bend a note in context is what feel is all about, and ya it's a lot harder to practice that than it is to practice playing fast. I think you have to learn it before you can practice it. It's hard to explain but the seasoned players will know what I mean. and ya Petrucci is a good example of having both skills! he kills! don't even listen to him with DH, Find some live tape of him jamming, the stuff he did while on G3 was incredible