To Eric V, about focusing on speed for a period!

[Mike]

First off all: THANKS for this cool forum and all the answers and articles !!!:cool:

My question:

I practice 1-2 hours (almost) everyday, sometimes more.
I practice the following in almost each practice section:

- Warm up

- Technique

- Speed

- Improvisation (learning new licks and runs etc. and use them in my playing, playing in different keys, playing different styles etc.)

- Feeling

- Writing music

I'd Like to develop speed a bit faster than I'm doing now so:

Would it be a good idea, for a period (a week or two or maybe more) to focus on speed and just practice the famous Gilbert picking-lick 'till the fingers bleed? and not playing anything else?

Or is it better, as I do now, to practice speed halv an hour everday and then go on to other techniques, improvisation etc.

Or do you have other ideas?

and yes... I use a metrome.

Thanks!;)

[EricV]

Well, of course it depends. ( Gee, I am saying that a lot lately... ) It´s true. What might work for me might be a bad idea for you.

But I can tell you already: although there were a few small exercises ( like the PG-lick and the "Steve Morse alternate pick on adjacent strings technique"... ) that helped me the most in developing synchronisation and speed, I always mixed them up.

First of all, if you wanna focus on your picking, it is a good idea to use the PG-lick a lot, but also try different variations, or i.e. small three note per string runs, trying to apply the AP you have worked on to those.
Once you feel comfortable, you could add another segment to your practising session: i.e. a small etude like the "Perpetual MotioN".

And when it comes to the overall content of your practising schedule, you definitely should keep doing what you´re doing... working on different aspects of playing. If you wanna work on technique for like an hour, try to do some picking, some legato etc.
DEPENDING ON WHAT YOU THINK NEEDS WORK !!!

The PG-lick and those other assorted small picking exercises just helped me a lot, cuz I could do them whenever I picked up a guitar, while watchign TV etc. So overall, I used them most of the time. But when I sat down for a practsing session, I sure played lots of different picking-licks.
Check out "Art Of Picking 1-3", "Do Not Disturb" etc. ( articles of mine )...

You might notice that if you OVERDO a lick, you might actually play it worse after a while, cuz your attention span is exhausted. So try to find a balance between FOCUSSING on certain aspects and licks ( like the PG-lick and others ) and MIXING up different things to work on different aspects of playing and keep it interesting.
Hope this answers your questions
Warm regards
Eric

[Mike]

Thanks Eric!

A good answer as usual!

[EricV]

Working on a new article already, dealing with just that kinda stuff... so stay tuned. It´s an extremely busy week though, so it´ll take a while till that one will be online.
But I heard with got some great articles coming up by the other contributors... can´t wait :)
Eric

[icecakes]

I was reading this question on speed and thought to myself, wouldn't it count if you knew good breathing techniques?What I mean to say is: if you knew what you were practicing like Steve's AP technique for ie. without thinking or looking and then u felt tired..what if u focused on your breath and allowed your exhale to take u that extra minute. Doesn't Vai practice breathing techniques? I can speak for myself when I am doing yoga and I feel like Im dying..I go inside and find my breath and listen to it and then I forget that Im holding a triangle pose for 10 breaths..ARGH!
me wondering....

[The Bash]

It's important to make suring 1)you are breathing and 2)it's relaxed as all things stem from breath.
Its very easy to tense up at all them fast notes and not breath.
Stu Ham one said he makes a point to focus on his breathing during fast runs. I do the same as it makes sense and works for me. I mean I don't play a millon miles an hour but still you ain't gotta play at the speed of light to be playing fast or a lotta intense notes.
If you think about it 16th notes at 60bmp is 4 notes per second.
Ok I think this is a very slow temp but what if this were a test and u had just one second to answer 4 questions in.
Not slow as far as everday activites concearned.
Now click that met up to 120bmp now you got 8 notes persecond.
Not the speed of light but this is starting to get fast.

Point is even what appears to be a slow temp can be quite a physical activity for the mind/body. Which is why the subcon mind is so important as we can't physcially think that fast. Its gotta be auto piolet. Which is why we need to go slow (while thinking) and program the information in correctly. (This means every little thing: notes,tech,breathing). So it comes out when we flip the fast lick switch.
We tend to naturally stop breathing were mentaly engaged.
Breathing actually something one should consider when thinking period. You'll think better if u remember to breath.
There's actually medical reasons for this as well.
But that's enough rambling :)

[EricV]

Originally posted by icecakes
I was reading this question on speed and thought to myself, wouldn't it count if you knew good breathing techniques?

Hey there,
well, I use the breathing methods ( like the circular one, can´t spell the name so I won´t try :) ) sometimes before I go on stage for the first song... Usually, there is a certain anxiety,rush of adrenaline, and that can alter your way of playing ( playing more agressively, or playing so hard the notes are out of tune, at least that´s what happens in my case ). So that breath helps me to calm down and focus.
And I think if you sit down and practise a certain lick, like the PG-speed exercises, something like that breath can definitely help. I know cuz I tried it ( didn´t mention it in the articles yet, cuz people think I´m weird already :) )
It helps me to get away from any distractions, so I kinda focus on breathing, while still paying attention to what I am playing. Almost like a meditation ( NOW they think I am REALLY weird :) )

I noticed that one time. I was playing with Perpetuum, and was doing an extended solo break. In the middle, I started to play a long, fast alternate picking passage. And I kinda cramped up a bit, the accuracy went out the window. So I tried to "zone out" and breathed differently. It helped !
Great suggestion !
Eric

[CaptainCarma]

could you guys ( and of course the lady ) please go deeper into details.
I know the importance of breathing, even in the case of music, but I´ve never had the chance to met someone, who could really give me some really insight views concerning this topic.
is there anyone of you, who could offer me some of the things he/she does to "force" correct and helpful breathing?
some exercises or something?

I would deeply appreciate it.

and eric, btw. I don´t wanna know, what people think about me, after all the mystical and philosophical things I wrote about ( my view of ) music, here in the forums. so do me/us the favour to not hold back your thoughts, no matter how strange the might seem to a few...thank you so far.


Marc

[EricV]

Well, in Yoga, there are several different kinds of breathing. Rose knows way more about that than I do, but she taught me some of them, and I still use those to this day, not only when I do Yoga.
That circular breath I mentioned ( maybe Rose can try to explain or describe it... ? ) helps me to focus quiet a bit. When I´m stressed out, or simply can´t focus on anything, I do that breath and FOCUS on that breath, kinda listening to myself breathing. It sure helps to calm down, focus, concentrate.
It helped me with stage anxiety, and it helps me to focus when I practise. It even can help to deal with cramping up or pain ( although I´d be careful with that... you don´t wanna get CTS or hurt your muscles and sinews )

I know that guys like Vai and Eric Johnson meditate on a daily base, and I think it´s something that can change your way of practising and playing, too.
Hopefully, Rose´ll elaborate a bit. She does a great job at teaching these things...
Eric

[Koala]

Hey Rose, yeah we´d love to hear more on breathing thechniques!

[d7th]

To increase speed I don't work only on licks such as PG lick.
For a long time I focused on working on fast solos, licks and it didn't help very much to increase my speed. Of course I was able to play those solos quite fast but there were some easier things I couldn't play fast.
Then I worked on fast riffs such as metallica's and I can say it really helps.

[The Bash]

Hey Captain Carma, I thought u made perfect sense myself.
I'm gonna open a new thread on the breathing thing so we can get into more detail without straying to far off the orginal topic in this post. And so people can actually find it :) cause I think it's important myself.
I'm gonna stick it in Practice and Per. cause I think it pertains to those things. If someone wants to move it that's cool too.

[Music Mania]

What i'm about to say, you might not agree with but, i find for me that sometimes your technique abilitly is restricted by your chord knowledge. For examlpe about 1 month ago i was stuck in a rut of 16th notes at about 126bpm. Then i took time to learn some more chord variations and stuff like that and i found immediately that by 126bpm was perfect and i've used this method ever since. 2 weeks speed and technique work, then some more chords and for me it works! Becuase i've started progressing at about 16 bpm a month now!. it may work 4 everyelse out there, give it a go!

[Mateo150]

Breathing naturally and "in rhythm" is very very important to me. Try playing a slow piece you know very well and breathe with the creshendos and decreshendos of the music, or inhale during one measure, and exhale during the next, inhale, exhale, etc....some people have naturally irregular heartbeats or stuff like that, (so said my piano teacher) and breathing really helps them keep the tempo a bit crisper since their internal tempo isn't trustworthy...

At the end of playing a piece breathing this way, its euphoric.... I mean try Chopins E-Prelude, simple slow piece, but breathe, feels nice afterwords.

I did this a lot when playing piano, not as much now with guitar, I happen to think tapping your foot is more important than breathing with guitar... IMO.

[spookywooky]

It's important to make suring 1)you are breathing and 2)it's relaxed as all things stem from breath.
Its very easy to tense up at all them fast notes and not breath.
Stu Ham one said he makes a point to focus on his breathing during fast runs. I do the same as it makes sense and works for me. I mean I don't play a millon miles an hour but still you ain't gotta play at the speed of light to be playing fast or a lotta intense notes.
If you think about it 16th notes at 60bmp is 4 notes per second.
Ok I think this is a very slow temp but what if this were a test and u had just one second to answer 4 questions in.
Not slow as far as everday activites concearned.
Now click that met up to 120bmp now you got 8 notes persecond.
Not the speed of light but this is starting to get fast.

Point is even what appears to be a slow temp can be quite a physical activity for the mind/body. Which is why the subcon mind is so important as we can't physcially think that fast. Its gotta be auto piolet. Which is why we need to go slow (while thinking) and program the information in correctly. (This means every little thing: notes,tech,breathing). So it comes out when we flip the fast lick switch.
We tend to naturally stop breathing were mentaly engaged.
Breathing actually something one should consider when thinking period. You'll think better if u remember to breath.
There's actually medical reasons for this as well.
But that's enough rambling :)
nice answer, thanks!