Speed MechaniX practice thread!

[Pink Unicorn Horsey]

Re: Speed MechaniX practice thread!

We're following the Troy Stetina books.

[JammerMatt]

Re: Speed MechaniX practice thread!

Dudes, I was doin' great tonight. Then... the two large Crown and Waters caught up to me... amazing what a little alcohol will do to your timing ptthhhthththth!!!

[Davey]

Re: Speed MechaniX practice thread!

looks like i wont have the power supply till at least friday =/


soo.. why dont you guys post at what BPM you can fly through the exercises? i know my timing sucks BIGTIME.. and i mean literaly.. i practicaly have no concept of triplets, sextuplets, quarter/eight notes bla bla.. (i mean playing vise.. i know what they mean :P )

[JammerMatt]

Re: Speed MechaniX practice thread!

looks like i wont have the power supply till at least friday =/


soo.. why dont you guys post at what BPM you can fly through the exercises? i know my timing sucks BIGTIME.. and i mean literaly.. i practicaly have no concept of triplets, sextuplets, quarter/eight notes bla bla.. (i mean playing vise.. i know what they mean :P )

I'll get my stats up. Maybe try to record something - it'll suck, but it's all in the family, right?

[Davey]

Re: Speed MechaniX practice thread!

I'll get my stats up. Maybe try to record something - it'll suck, but it's all in the family, right?

yea, lets 'keep it in the family tree'

[Davey]

Re: Speed MechaniX practice thread!

got everything hooked up yesterday..

conclusion..


i suck!

i had to start with the chromatic runs @ 75bpm, if i wanted to keep the timing without ANY mistakes. so basically.. everything i done in the past few weeks was for naught. SUCKAGE!!!!

oh well.. gotta keep at it. was able to bump them 10 - 25 bpm in a while though, as fast as i got used to the timing.. it's hella boring, but at least it goes somewhat.
bad thing is, i got to start from square effin one

[JammerMatt]

Re: Speed MechaniX practice thread!

Not to fear. My chromatics SUCK. Suck so bad that I haven't even tried it with a metronome - still trying just to get my fingers to work on the Chromatics. Spent most of my time with the trilling, ho/po and the alternate picking exercises since they suit my style better. But hey, a few more days and I get to move onto the next couple a pages - alternate picking while changing strings - yeah! I'll probably stick with the HO/PO and trilling exercises for a few more weeks though, since I'm still not happy with how those are going for me.

Last night took a break from practicing, since I was already three drinks along by the time I got home and no way could've played with the metronome. I learned two new tunes instead: Runnin with the Devil, and Panama since I picked up the book a few weeks ago. Not the solos, but just the tunes. Through the Splawn in 1st Gear it sounds killer (though I do not.) That amp was just made for that kind of play.

[Davey]

Re: Speed MechaniX practice thread!

i'm gonna keep at it for a few days. the chromatics and the thrill exercises. gotta run with the metronome with the ho/po exercises cos my timing sucks bad.. especially on those.


edit:
upon further review of the book, and spending time with rythm notations, i see where i did "wrong" .. AND that i am doing better than i though.. cos i thought i'm just playing quarter notes :P (like i said.. i had no concept of this before, due to my limited actual playing experience)

trying to play sixteenth notes right off the bat @ 135bpm is a touch hard to do
i got most of the chromatics up to 110 though (16th notes) just the frickin 4th exercise is giving me a headache and doesnt want to move from 90bpm.

#12 i got to 120bpm (16th notes)
#15 is a little bit of a pain, cos triplets give me a headache.. they feel kinda unnatural, so i gotta work on it
#25 i got to.. 135bpm .. or thereabouts.. need to kick it up a notch and get it to 160 (all 16th notes .. am i crazy? you betcha )

the rest move around 90-110 bpm (yes.. also 16th notes :P lol)

[Davey]

Re: Speed MechaniX practice thread!

ben gave me a KILLER exercise yesterday. it's for finger speed, control and stamina. do this when your hands are well warmed up, cos it strains the wrist and finger muscles like no other exercise i have tried till now.

e|---------------------1-2-3-2----------------------------
B|-----------------1-2---------3-2------------------------
G|-------------1-2-----------------3-2--------------------
D|---------1-2-------------------------3-2----------------
A|-----1-2---------------------------------3-2------------
E|-1-2-----------------------------------------3-2--------

the kicker is, you work on it with pairs (fingers of course) index/middle, middle/ring, ring/pinky
when you go up and then down the neck, start with string skipping E->D; A->G; etc etc
when you are done with that and your hand hasnt fallen off yet, do it diagonaly, each string move up one fret. starting on the 1st fret E string, you should end up on the 11th fret E string, after the final pull off. then start on the 12th fret e string and go the other way

enjoy

[JammerMatt]

Re: Speed MechaniX practice thread!

ben gave me a KILLER exercise yesterday. it's for finger speed, control and stamina. do this when your hands are well warmed up, cos it strains the wrist and finger muscles like no other exercise i have tried till now.

e|---------------------1-2-3-2----------------------------
B|-----------------1-2---------3-2------------------------
G|-------------1-2-----------------3-2--------------------
D|---------1-2-------------------------3-2----------------
A|-----1-2---------------------------------3-2------------
E|-1-2-----------------------------------------3-2--------

the kicker is, you work on it with pairs (fingers of course) index/middle, middle/ring, ring/pinky
when you go up and then down the neck, start with string skipping E->D; A->G; etc etc
when you are done with that and your hand hasnt fallen off yet, do it diagonaly, each string move up one fret. starting on the 1st fret E string, you should end up on the 11th fret E string, after the final pull off. then start on the 12th fret e string and go the other way

enjoy

Davey, are those HO/POs?

[Davey]

Re: Speed MechaniX practice thread!

yes.. it would be too easy to be picked.. sorry i havent tabbed it out or mentioned it.
you can do it either way, but ho/po is WAY harder, especially on the ring/pinky combo hehehe.

i busted my left wrist at work today so i dont think i'll be able to practice much in the next few days =/ tried to do exercises, but the muscles start to hurt immediately.

[kjrocks]

Re: Speed MechaniX practice thread!

I know I've jumped in here before but I've got to ask, will I be way over my head with this? I'm a long time player and noodler but its time for some discipline and improvement and accuracy.

[JammerMatt]

Re: Speed MechaniX practice thread!

yes.. it would be too easy to be picked.. sorry i havent tabbed it out or mentioned it.
you can do it either way, but ho/po is WAY harder, especially on the ring/pinky combo hehehe.

i busted my left wrist at work today so i dont think i'll be able to practice much in the next few days =/ tried to do exercises, but the muscles start to hurt immediately.

Dude, you ARE on the train of consequences. Man, that stinks.

[JammerMatt]

Re: Speed MechaniX practice thread!

I know I've jumped in here before but I've got to ask, will I be way over my head with this? I'm a long time player and noodler but its time for some discipline and improvement and accuracy.

No, I don't think so at all. As long as you start slow, you should start to see some improvement. I started slow on all the exercises but was able to increase speed by at least 50% on everything (example: Starting at 80 bpm, and ultimately moving up to 120). The only problem I could see is if you have not ever used your pinky finger. I played some classical guitar for awhile, and so at that point developed some pinky strength. You will use it all the time with these exercises. If you haven't developed it, well it's a good time to start unless you're one of those dudes who gets by fine without it. Otherwise, go at your own pace, your mileage may vary.

My goal is to eventually get together with some solid dudes my age and crank out the old 80s tunes. But, I decided my lead Skillz were not good enough, and decided to do something about it. That's how this started for me at least. I'll give it a solid year and see how it goes.

[JammerMatt]

Re: Speed MechaniX practice thread!

Speed MechaniX, phase one - and moving onward.

So, I decided it's time to move on to the next series of exercises. I spent about a month and a half on the following pieces, and this is how it went. I don't post this as any sort of self-gradiosing, but someone asked about my progress and I submit it as just as an example of the results of one person playing about an hour-a-day, pretty much every other day on average:

Exercises 1 through 17 are HO/PO type exercises, a definite weak area: I plan to continue for another couple of weeks. The others are in the rear-view!

Ex 1: I do as a warmup - no tempo practice.
Ex 6: Start 80 bpm, finish 140.
Ex 7: Start 80 bpm, finish 144.
Ex 8: Skipped. I should probably go back to it at some time. I'm a puss. It's a ***** of an exercise.
Ex 9 through 13: Start 80 bpm, finish 120. For this one I try to climb the neck using each sequence, so I made it harder than it is.
Ex 14: Skipped - too much stress on my wrists.
Ex 15: Start 80, finish 140
Ex 16 and 17: No tempo, just played how I felt that day.

Exercises 25 through 33 focus on alternate picking and coordination. I spent the most effort on these as they're dayamn tuff:

Ex 25: Start 80, finish 160 (one time high of 180 I was on fire that day and could never repeat it) - Goal was 150.
Ex 26: No tempo - this is my warmup and I'll continue with it.
Ex 27: The RR triplet exercise. Start 120, finish 180. Goal was 160.
Ex 28: Start 64, finish 100. Goal was 100.
Ex 29: Start 60, finish 114. Goal was 120. I think I maxed my abilities on that one.
Ex 30: Start 60, finish 116. Goal was 120.
Ex 31: Start 60, finish 104. Goal was 120.
Ex 32: Start 60, finish 104. Goal was 120.
Ex 33: Start 60, finish 96. Goal was 100.

So, not a bad 1st effort. I'll try to whip up some clips if I can. With two young boys in the house, stringing together 5 solid minutes is a toughie.

Next phase I continue with exercises 1 through 17 cause they're still weak, and will alternate with exercises #34 through #41. Alternate picking while changing strings - should be fun.

-Matt