Speed MechaniX practice thread!

[Davey]

Re: Speed MechaniX practice thread!

where to start.

at the beginning i guess hehe.
started working on Technical Difficulties on sunday (searched for tabs, found a power tab transcription) i had no clue of the riffs what-so-ever. fiddled around with it.
monday - makeshift wired up the dinky. started on the song at 60bpm. after the fingers knew basically what to do and were warmed up, i got it to barely 80
tuesday - warmed up, started at 70, got the song to 85 easy
wednesday - same procedure, got it to 96 with some rough spots

initial goal was - get it to 90 in a week (without the solo though. i need to take it apart scale by scale)

now.. the procedure:
i start with the charvel and warm up doing various exercises from the book and elsewhere. then i switch to the jackson and repeat. after this i fiddle around with some riffs and songs. then i do a couple of dry runs of the song on both the charvel and jackson (different scale lenghts, so i got to adjust accordingly .. the jackson is more "me". easier to play too even though the setup is crap). then i start at 70bpm and go through the song on each guitar a couple of times, then i bump the speed 10beats. today i felt adventurous and bumped it to a real rock rythm of 96. woah! i could play it! some stretches are a touch tough still, but i am working on them, with various stretching exercises (if i had a problem with one part, i focused on that one for a while, then went back to the song)

so that is that. the technical part. i found out that i use the pinky more (as i said before) and that i have correct fingering on pretty much all riffs and licks, which was a surprise to me (so the book and practicing more really DOES work... who would've known???? haha)


after all that typing... here's the sweet part... i recorded the last run

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.cfm?bandID=631612&songID=5141473

this is the dinky with a miracle man, wired directly to output. totaly bare bones as is.
you can hear that there are rough spots (not mistakes but parts where my accuracy sux! ) especially on some stretches and string skipping.

[JammerMatt]

Re: Speed MechaniX practice thread!

Davey,

I've been listening to you for a couple of years now, and this is the best I've heard of you so far. Definite noticeable improvement over earlier clips. The long pulloff run towards the beginning sounds tricky, and I definitely would've stumbled there.

Are you recording directly off your Laney?

And when did you pick up a Jackson Dinky?

Nice work, Bro!

[Davey]

Re: Speed MechaniX practice thread!

Davey,

I've been listening to you for a couple of years now, and this is the best I've heard of you so far. Definite noticeable improvement over earlier clips. The long pulloff run towards the beginning sounds tricky, and I definitely would've stumbled there.

that is actually one of the easier parts :P i just had to figure out the easiest fingering for me. 123 for the beginning and 124 for the A and E string.
the tricky parts are these (here's the tab http://www.guitaretab.com/r/racer-x/22918.html )

A|-------3-5-7--|--------------------|
E|-3-5-7--------|--------------------|

and 

e|-17^14^11---------------|
B|------------------------|
G|----------17^14^11------|

Are you recording directly off your Laney?

dinky with miracle man into laney and that's it

And when did you pick up a Jackson Dinky?

https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?t=102882

Nice work, Bro!

thanks

[Robbiedbee]

Re: Speed MechaniX practice thread!

Davey, that's some seriously awesome playing there dude! You put us all to shame.

[Davey]

Re: Speed MechaniX practice thread!

then start crackin!!

i'm not that far ahead. if you ask me, matt is further with the exercises than i am. i just wanted to play this song and play it clean, till i go to london. i'll try to get it close to 110 till then, but i have to work on my picking for that. that is where i turn back to the book.
i pretty much stopped "learning" the book. i use it as a tool, to help me progress through things that i want to learn/play.

if you made even the slightest progress with the exercises, you're doing better than you think

[JammerMatt]

Re: Speed MechaniX practice thread!

https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?t=102882

thanks

Your guitars sleep together? Are you trying to make a Charvette?


And BTW, I'm diggin' that tone, too.

[Davey]

Re: Speed MechaniX practice thread!

hehe, no they aint .. but trying to make one more, free of charge, wont hurt hehehe.

i love the tone too. i have to get all the switches and pots installed, replace the trem and nut then it's going to be even better

[JaeSwift]

Re: Speed MechaniX practice thread!

I love speed mechanics to death, but I do think it's mind numbing. Until you really build speed, the licks aren't exactly the best sounding thing around. There's still quite a few excercises from speed mechanics that I use as a warm up tho, even in some solo's I still do pattern runs similair to what I have learned from that book.

One thing I do wish, is that they got in to 2 notes per string patterns a bit more. Other than that, I really haven't seen a better book than this (I doubt there will be) for learning to shred out there. Biggest plus to this book is the order of techniques it has.

Oh, and the first lick from flight of the bumblebee is a biash to learn if you haven't practiced chromatics a lot like I did >_>

[JammerMatt]

Re: Speed MechaniX practice thread!

I'm still working the MechaniX, evey day. But I'm on a slight detour of sorts. I started doing the Chromatics and the three-note-per-string-strict-alternate picking exercises. It was here that I stumbled into a BAAAD habit that I've been doing forever. Turns out I have never been much of a Strict-Alternate-Picking guy. Basically, my pick hand does whatever it wants to. So, I've had to stop and spend some serious time on this very basic thing. What I'm talking about is alternate picking while changing strings. My hand basically wanted to follow the direction of the string I was changing to, instead of strict alternate up-down-up-down. When you break it down, it is really quite tough, but I'm thinking that it will pay off in the end. But, it's starting to happen, so I will re-engage the chromatics when I get this to a respectable level. I don't remember which exercises, but they come right after the Chromatics.

I'm a slowwwww learner.

[JaeSwift]

Re: Speed MechaniX practice thread!

I had the same thing, what I recommend (tho it seems your already sorting the problem) is to just play every riff you know alternate picking. Lamb of God-Laid to Rest is a nice example of this. If you really want to drive yourself crazy, try Racer-X:Technical Difficulties (or metal dog, its the same).

And yes, the chromatics there are probably the most important and boring excercise ever. Thing is, I STILL can't do them, mostly because I have neglected it, and am now heavily regretting it, even tho my 3 note per string and 2 note per string runs are near perfect, anymore than that and I start sodding off. Chromatics=controll.

[JammerMatt]

Re: Speed MechaniX practice thread!

I would agree with that. Chromatics are boring to practice, and pretty much boring to listen to. But, arguably they are great for honing finger independence. So, I'll need to get back onto that once I can do 8th note triplets across the neck at about 180 bpm CLEANLY - that's the goal at least. That should be smokin' fast enough for anything.

I must add, that since switching over to the Splawn, the difficulty is cranked up a notch over the old Line 6. The Splawn being a tighter amp. The Splawn will not cover mistakes.

[Davey]

Re: Speed MechaniX practice thread!

you guys still practicing?

i took a break from technical difficulties, to practice stretches and picking
while neither are perfect, i am getting to where i am satisfied with them.

now that i can play any stretch on its own cleanly.. it is time to practice the transitions.. which is what ****s me up every time =/

back to work then

oh.. technical difficulties is up to 105bpm

[SoCalSteve]

Re: Speed MechaniX practice thread!

I've gotta hand it to you guys also for working through SM. Bores me to death. I prefer the Lead Guitar books and using the exercises leading up to the solos and the solos themselves as my technical practice. His solos aren't that easy for me!

Keep it up!

[JammerMatt]

Re: Speed MechaniX practice thread!

Yeah bros, I'm still practicing.

I am working diligently on the 3-note per string, strict alternate picking while changing strings. Working up to playing those 3-note per string scales. Looking at exercises 39 through 50. I'm not really doing them per se, but I'm working out the movements I need to do to finally tackle them.

This part has really got me in the dumps actually. Unfortunately, I have never concentrated on strict alternate picking ever. I sort of always did a hybrid kind of thing where my hand would always move in the direction of the string change (if that makes any sense). I figured it was more efficient. It probably is when you go from one string to the next to the next etc, but it is not if you are jumping between two strings and not all six. So, I can see why Mr. Stetina teaches it this way and I agree with it. The only problem is that I am battling years of playing wrong - and well it's just tough to break through. I was stuck for seemingly weeks at the about 140-bpm mark (going between 2 strings). I just could not break through and it was getting me down. So I tried one of his techniques where you bump up one or two bpms, keep doing it doing it. By the end of the session I was past 150 so I figured that as progress. Funny how you forget these little tricks when you get all focused up in something.

But anyway, long and short, I'm still doing it - and like I promised myself - I will do this for an entire year or I will quit playing in the process

God did not grant me incredible skills, but He did grant me a ton of patience and a ton of drive, so I have to go with that.

So Cal: I've heard good things about those books also, and after this year is up I plan on picking one up - after I take a couple of months off to just play tunes again.

[JustWendell]

Re: Speed MechaniX practice thread!

i've sorta been taking a half break for me to finnaly start to learn how to record. i've had both my pod xtl and cubase se for a while and never really used it that much. trying to work on timing too....playing back recordings reaveal that i'm white and have no sense of rhythm.