gaining speed

[wiechfreak]

I'm wondering how I should spend my practice time. I mean I dont wanna brag, but i sound great when i improvise and play solos...that arent too fast. If i had speed i think i d be really good. For example, with fade to black, it too kme a month of working on almost nothing but the 1 little fast riff from it that was giving me a problem in the solo. And it seems I could be spending my time much better, and it seems im not making much progress. Right now my practice schedual is pretty much

1 hour-work on kansas dust in the wind after warming up with some songs
1 hour: do some speed exercises
2 hours: work on tough riff from sweet child o mine solo , thats too fast for me.

and although i stil lenjoy this, it seems as though maybe theres something i could be doing to gaiun speed easier, rather than work on little riffs that give me trouble.

[Youngshredder]

man. Trouble with Sweet Child O' mine? okay.

just bustin' your chops.

Anyway, you should just keep praciticing. Learn fast solos slow and clean, then gradually speed them up and add distortion as you go along. Eventually you will be as fast as you desire.

[wiechfreak]

no i know its quite sad hehe. I am just worried that i am wasting my time by working on 1 section of a solo for 2 hours a day ya know?

[Youngshredder]

well then, start off with something like 'Iron Man', or maybe 'I wanna rock and roll all night'.

[Apprentice]

I've spent a whole week mastering just a fragment of notes to a piece once, but now I can play that piece. It'll just take time is all. I think you should spend time improvising aswell, since I don't see it in your schedule.

To the original question. What are you speed exercises like? I would suggest tremolo picking each string for about 10 seconds as fast as you can and then playing through some 3NPS scale patterns.

[wiechfreak]

I've spent a whole week mastering just a fragment of notes to a piece once, but now I can play that piece. It'll just take time is all. I think you should spend time improvising aswell, since I don't see it in your schedule.

To the original question. What are you speed exercises like? I would suggest tremolo picking each string for about 10 seconds as fast as you can and then playing through some 3NPS scale patterns.
actually thats exactly what i do for the speed exercises.

[wiechfreak]

oh and u say uve spent a week on a fragment of notes, I spent 2 and a half weeks on fade t oblack! I think th4e problem is in my left habd. I can pick the master of puppets intro with al ldownpicks VERY easily. And I can now tremolo pick (thanks to some good suggestions on ibreathe) but i dont know, ill be able to pick something full speed but ill hjave to work for weeks to get my left hand part down.

[Apprentice]

Alright, more tips.. When tremolo picking, try to keep your wrist still(NOT stiff) as possible and make the smallest possible motion. Also do string skipping, that'll help you speed up travelling from one string to the next. One more thing I can think of right now is using hammer-ons and pull-offs to play all the notes instead of picking. That'll build up your left hand.

lol, my "fragment of notes" was about 8 notes. Though, the problem may be that you are learning another artists song. Some people, myself included, cant learn songs easy as other people. Which is why I hardly ever look up tab or use all my instructionals I bought awhile ago. Though, if someone where to show me something I could play it easily.

[wiechfreak]

Alright, more tips.. When tremolo picking, try to keep your wrist still(NOT stiff) as possible and make the smallest possible motion. Also do string skipping, that'll help you speed up travelling from one string to the next. One more thing I can think of right now is using hammer-ons and pull-offs to play all the notes instead of picking. That'll build up your left hand.

lol, my "fragment of notes" was about 8 notes. Though, the problem may be that you are learning another artists song. Some people, myself included, cant learn songs easy as other people. Which is why I hardly ever look up tab or use all my instructionals I bought awhile ago. Though, if someone where to show me something I could play it easily.
yeah it takes me quite awhile to l earn other people's solos

[Youngshredder]

dude, trust me that you are not wasting your time by learning solos. Im still trying to learn Spanish Fly, and I started last month (those stretches are a pain). Just keep at it, and in the long run it will pay off.

But if you really want to build speed, try some metallica songs. Songs from like, Kill em' all, and use only downstrokes.

[Sir Speedy]

Seek and Destroy and Enter Sandman are great for rhythm speed picking.
Fight Fire w Fire off Lightning , was the first one i ever learned , that's alot of picking on that Rhythm , all out play till your hand falls off type stuff.
Tallica is awsome , Puppets is a little too technical for my taste , Justice was way too tech for me . Kill em and lightning are perfect .
The rhythm picking , scince it's speedy , is applicable to your lead coordination , and dexterity . It's like soup , nothing bad.:cool:

[Bizarro]

That GnR solo has a couple difficult licks in there. I guarantee that EVERYONE will know if you don't play it just right. ;)

Use a metronome to work on your chops and build speed gradually. Read the articles here on technique. Lastly, if you want to play fast, you have to work on playing fast songs. You can't play BB King licks all day and expect to pull off a Steve Vai solo... :)

[wiechfreak]

lol yea, thats why im working my way up speed wise. I'm thinkin maybe eruption in a few months

[Nolly]

The key to getting some speed going is down to having good technique , cuz at slow speeds u can cover up any technical faults but when u up the pace is becomes impossible. speeding up is a hurdle every lead player hits at a certain stage, and unfortunately there's no easy way through it, thankfully ibreathe has some pretty good articles on speed playing... For some reason i find that Eric V writes articles that are nicely graduated ie they progress in difficulty thru the article quite smoothly and its relatively easy to advance as a result. For picking practice, i found his Paul Gilbert article (www.ibreathemusic.com/article/55/1) really helpful when my picking needed some serious practice... He's written some great articles on legato and tapping as well so just browse around and find something that focusses on your weakness. Oh and if u dont already, practice with a metronome! Seriously, i know it sucks but it helps big time!