technique.. what and how to practice?

[trigmachine]

hey guys,
iv'e been playing for about 4 years or so know and have a pretty good grasp at the guitar and excellent theory/scale knowledge. but with regards to technique like alt picked runs and legato/ randy rhoades style stuff im at a loss at what to practice and how. for the last 6 months ive been doing the chromatic thing and single string runs but aside from that and scales im lost. ive been using the slow steady method and the push yourself method, i can see the advantages of both but am not seeing any results. ive been using these ideas from the speed mechanics book by troy stetina, but like all of these books it doesnt give you any structure to work to..... i mean do i practice a one particular lick each night for 30 mins or do 10 licks for an hour each day for a month til i get it up to 120 bps then learn another....... i know these technique threas always come up and they always will but if you could help me out id be most greatful im not after a quick fix just a little guidence

cheers:confused:

[Crossroads]

I would have recommended exactly what you are doing. That is - work through all the exercises in Speed Mechanics.

The difference with people who succeed at that, vs. those that don't, is simply how much truly applied work/practice they put in from that book.

If you practice those exercises enough, then you will end up being able to play them all with the same speed and accuracy that Stetina does.

Alternatively, if you can't play them all as he does (and not many people can), then it means quite simply that you have not put in enough serious practice time.

Here's the catch - most players have absolutely no conception of how much work is required to play as well as that. So they think there must be something wrong!

Well there is something wrong. But it's only that their idea of the work required was vastly short of the blunt truth.

So ... back to the book. Back the first 30 or 40 exercises...work on those constantly to gain the speed, accuracy and control of your picking and legato. Then, on to the other 160 exercises, until eventually you hit the finishing tape.

Bad news is ... that stuff is only 1% of what most people here regard as being a complete and well rounded musician.

Ian.

ps:- you probably need at least 3 hours a day from that book.

[Jed]

iv'e been playing for about 4 years or so know and have a pretty good grasp at the guitar and excellent theory/scale knowledge.
You may want to modify this statement . . .

RED FLAG ALERT
excellent theory/scale knowledge. /RED FLAG ALERT

Because of the part above. While you may in fact have excellent theory/scale knowledge, saying so will only invite some people (certainly not me) to prove you wrong. ;)

Back to your question: I'm not a big fan of running scales to develop speed. But working on arpeggios in all variations (all chord types, all positions, all inversions, etc) has really opened up my hands. You may want to give it a try.

cheers,

[trigmachine]

You may want to modify this statement . . .

RED FLAG ALERT
/RED FLAG ALERT

Because of the part above. While you may in fact have excellent theory/scale knowledge, saying so will only invite some people (certainly not me) to prove you wrong. ;)

Back to your question: I'm not a big fan of running scales to develop speed. But working on arpeggios in all variations (all chord types, all positions, all inversions, etc) has really opened up my hands. You may want to give it a try.

cheers,

cheers for the heads up but im happy with my statement, i think have a pretty good grasp at the guitar i have a decent repatiore and good understanding at quite a few styles, none of it is close to being perfect but its getting better for the most part.

[V72]

If you're into technique I'm assuming you want to get fast. If I'm right, I share this goal, I'm not as fast as I want to be, but I'm faster then some of my guitar teachers.

Anyways, for metal at least, I recommend picking the string hard and loud. It sounds much better (IMO). To pick loud and fast I use extremely small picks. About the size of jazz picks. Very thick. Standard picks seem to restrict movement and position of my fingers, the jazz picks give let me grasp them however I want.

Use a metronome. Speed picking is good if that's what you're going for, but learning how to pick each not individually can really help you for awesome riffs. I actually have a video with some metronome exercises if you'd like.

Be consistent, just because you can nail triplets at 180 bpm for a day doesn't mean you're ready to move on. Try it for another few days to make sure you've got a firm hold.

Hope that helps