Practise your pacing!

[Goof]

Hi everybody, I'm a newbie who wants to share a recent practice-expierence. Hopefefully I want annoy you all with "old" info. Please tell me if this is redundant.

During the last bandrehearsel I noticed difficulty in switching gears in speed while soloing. I hadn't been practising any technique for a couple of months and mainly focused on chords, songwriting and singing(badly). This threw me since soloing always seemed "easy". The next day while fondling my guitar I realised what my problem was. I never really practised changing pace while soloing. Quite strangely this never poses a problem playing rythm.

The practice solution I came up with is playing a simple scale, Amin pantatonic (but ofcourse any scale you like will do), against a metronome set at 100 bpm (any speed will do) playing 8thnotes, then change to playing triplets, back to 8thnotes, change to 16thnotes, to triplets etc. This exercise helps me switching pace and I get to feel what happens when you change pace. After only a week of doing this exercise I already feel more comfortable switching pace and come up with new ideas and moods.

Of course this exercise can be taken to whatever you can play at whatever speed you're able to so 32th, 64th sixtuple yourself mad!!!

Hopefully someone will experience the same, let me now if you do.

Guitaristic greets, share your wisdom,

Goof

[EricV]

Hey there,

cool post, great suggestion. This is something John Petrucci is very good at IMO. It will keep you from getting stuck doing only 16ths or whatever.
If you combine this kinda exercise with some work on phrasing and stuff, you´ll definitely profit from it... cuz being able to change pace like that in combination with good phrasing and some imagination will definitely help to play some cool leads... stuff that won´t sound like boring exercises.
Eric

[Koala]

Yep, great post Goof. I have Petruccis Rock Discipline and as Eric pointed out he does this sort of stuff a lot.

I recommend when you go into that exercise to avoid playing up n down the scale only but to look for nice shapes and patterns to mix n match while changing pace as well as going from alternate picking, to legato, to sweeping, to two hand tapping.

Welcome to IBM!

[hol0point]

Great post Goof. I actually think this is something I struggle with though I'm still in the infant stages of learning how to improvise using scales. But I tend to play the same lengh notes throughout the whole solo and it makes the whole thing sound flat and boring. I'll give your suggestion a shot tonight!

Thanks,



hol0

[ash]

yeah, thats a neat idea. i found out i had the same problem with changing speeds when soloing. i actually started doing the same thing a few weeks back and its starting to really improve my playing.

i also have found that trying to play as many notes (perfectly in a row) at just about your max speed has really helped my timing. its hard to describe but i have the metronome going at a certain speed and ill hit the string once, then have about a second break, then two strikes and a break, then three and so on, continuing until i can no longer make each note in time and make it sound perfect.

i also agree alot with erics idea of playing for a bit on something then having a change/break. i tend to now work on single string playing at high speeds for 6 minutes, then move onto scale playing at a much slower speed for 6, then back onto single string playing at higher speeds than the first time for 6 minutes, then back onto scale playing at higher speeds than the first time.
there's lots of different things i do when im playing either single string/or scales that i work on which i wont go into that keeps it interesting.

for me its no longer a speed thing but more of a rythm/timing ability that im trying to improve

[phantom]

Welcome Goof!!!

nice post and suggestion! that's definately something to always remember and practice - timing! there are so many shredders just ruining it all when their timing falls apart. it just sounds unprofessionell.
in my opinion blackmore has a killer timing, rhythm and solowise.
oh yeah and bettencourt (if someone remembers;) ).