speed tips, sweep/tremolo picking etc!

[Gearjoneser]

Re: speed tips, sweep/tremolo picking etc!

Another thing that helps you determine your accuracy in these exercises is to practice them on a clean sound. If you give yourself that handicap, you'll know just where you stand. The thing that grabs me about country players is how accurate their playing is. There's no hiding behind a wall of distortion, sustain, and reverb. Then, when you master it, and turn on the gain, you get to see how much better you're playing it.

 

[BornToShred]

Re: speed tips, sweep/tremolo picking etc!

Another thing that helps you determine your accuracy in these exercises is to practice them on a clean sound.

Yep. Clean sound with the bridge pickup won't hide your mistakes.

Start real slow... Something like (16th notes@) 60 BPM. Practice at a slow rate until you can execute the run perfectly. Increase the tempo in small increments.
And don't push your speed barrier all the time. Go back to a comfortable speed once in a while. This way, you'll pay more attention to precision, instead of just speed. Speed is only a byproduct of precision.

 

[Kent S.]

Re: speed tips, sweep/tremolo picking etc!

Another thing that helps you determine your accuracy in these exercises is to practice them on a clean sound. If you give yourself that handicap, you'll know just where you stand. The thing that grabs me about country players is how accurate their playing is. There's no hiding behind a wall of distortion, sustain, and reverb. Then, when you master it, and turn on the gain, you get to see how much better you're playing it.

Yep, that and just practicing with the amp, that and the good old metronome.

 

[Guitarist]

Re: speed tips, sweep/tremolo picking etc!

If you were to take up sprinting - you'd never be a Ben Johnson.

If you take up speed guitar - it's unlikely you be another John Petrucci.

Some people are born sprinters, and some guitar players are born megga fast. It's a natural talent that all the practice in the world won't give you.

Concentrate on playing something 'tasteful and intelligent'. Speed is plain boring to most people.


Lee

Well, that's not the right attitude. Come on - that's not helping anyone. :grumble:

 

[Ocifer]

Re: speed tips, sweep/tremolo picking etc!

Another thing that helps you determine your accuracy in these exercises is to practice them on a clean sound. If you give yourself that handicap, you'll know just where you stand. The thing that grabs me about country players is how accurate their playing is. There's no hiding behind a wall of distortion, sustain, and reverb. Then, when you master it, and turn on the gain, you get to see how much better you're playing it.

However, some things you will not be able to tell if you're playing them 100% cleanly with a clean setting on. For example, let's say you're practicing sweep picking runs. Mistakes and dissonances sound out much more noticably when you've got the distortion on because your playing turns to mud if you make mistakes. You could an excersise quite sloppily on a clean setting and the mistakes won't stand out until turn up the gain.

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: speed tips, sweep/tremolo picking etc!

However, some things you will not be able to tell if you're playing them 100% cleanly with a clean setting on. For example, let's say you're practicing sweep picking runs. Mistakes and dissonances sound out much more noticably when you've got the distortion on because your playing turns to mud if you make mistakes. You could an excersise quite sloppily on a clean setting and the mistakes won't stand out until turn up the gain.

And, for some techniques, you have to have the gain up. For most accuracy exercises, tho, a clean sound will do. For finger-tapping, pinched harmonics, etc, you need a lot of sustain.

 

[Dime59hum]

Re: speed tips, sweep/tremolo picking etc!

Quite the contrary, but im against playing those Chromatics that were recommended to you. There are TONS of SONGS out there that you can learn that will not only influence you, but they are nonetheless musical. EX: Learn technical Difficulties by Racer X, and you have 3 notes per string down well. Not to mention Legato. Playing Chromatics will help your technique, but its a boring exercise that will influence you, NEGATIVELY. Start playing Chromatics, and you'll be writing solo's like Kerry King(no offense to any slayer fans, but alot of his solos revolve around the chromatic scale). Play something for someone with your "Chromatic" influence and a guitarist would say "He is good, you can tell he locks himself in the room for hours doing finger exercises" OR you can play MUSIC to increase your sense of style and phrasing and they'll say "WOW, were did this guy come from? I wonder who his influences are". Chromatics are not music, plain and simple. How many Classical guitar etudes do you know? I know tons, not to mention many Classical, Romantic, Baroque and Contemporary Etudes. Why Etudes? Because an Etude, as defined by Roger Kamien is "French for study; A piece designed to help a performer master specific technical difficulties" (For those that dont know, Roger Kamien is the author of Music: An Appreciation and is the #1 book used in introductory college courses lasting from 8 to 15 weeks. He was appointed to the Zubin Mehta Chair of Musicology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem). www.raisingthebarre.com is an excellent book written by a friend of mine named Christopher Dahmen that will force you to excel technically while playing the most beautiful of all piece of music. The book is aptly named Raising the Barre. Any guitarist with some sense that read this I hope would do themselves the favor of and visit that link to be at the very least an amazing lead player, with no technical boundaries. A self proclaimed Virtuoso if you must.


Thank you for taking the time to read this,
Gaby Sanchez

 

[Ocifer]

Re: speed tips, sweep/tremolo picking etc!

Yeah, Dime has a point. Practice licks you can't play that are difficult AND muscial, it's better than chromatics. If you're really set on chromatics, a song that's actually good and based around them is "Flight of the Bumblebee"... check out this guy's vid and tab interpretation...it's quite good:

http://luismoreno.com/lessons_adv.htm

It's near the top

 

[nuntius]

Re: speed tips, sweep/tremolo picking etc!

Another thing that helps you determine your accuracy in these exercises is to practice them on a clean sound. If you give yourself that handicap, you'll know just where you stand. The thing that grabs me about country players is how accurate their playing is. There's no hiding behind a wall of distortion, sustain, and reverb. Then, when you master it, and turn on the gain, you get to see how much better you're playing it.

exactly the reason why i practise all my scales on an acoustic guitar - no hiding the mistakes

what i do is play these licks - they stretch your hand also

1-3-5 on each string first pick each note once, then twice, then 3 times, then 4, then 6, then hammer each note

then do the same for 5 - 3 -1

then try 1 - 3 - 6 and 6 - 3 -1

depending on the size of your hand go as far as you can go. at a stretch i can manage 1 - 4 - 7

this strengthens your hand, increases stretch, and picking speed.

when you can do this include string skipping ie

( low E ) 1 3 5
( D ) 1 3 5
( A ) 1 3 5
( G ) 1 3 5

etc

 

[Dime59hum]

Re: speed tips, sweep/tremolo picking etc!

Yes, flight of the is one of the few chromatic pieces I know entirely. Its an awesome piece, check this out: http://www.chopsfromhell.com/guest_de_ros_AGTsampler.html