How much time do you spend on speed?

[Mateo150]

I want to increase my speed a bit, nothing insanely fast, but I want some fast passages such as 16th notes at 140bpm (picking) to be fairly comfortable. my left hand fingers tend to be slow, but I can make up for this with hammers and pulls, main problem is my picking loses precision and control at about 16th notes at 120bpm. How much time do you spend on speed, I don't like doing it, so I'm thinking maybe 30 min a day playing an etude and just pushing it that way. Think thats enough? Have other suggestions?

[UKRuss]

I gave up speed the same time as the dope...

No seriously. I just cannot bear to sit with a metronome and do that stuff. Patience and time are two things I'm generally short of.

I remember reading on Jason Stolarik's website I think, he used to practice with a digital metronome on his PC and have it increase 5 bpm every 6 minutes over 2 hours.

Over that he would play the scale or passage he wanted to increase speed on.

To make the time pass by? He used to put a DVD on at the same time LOL!

I caught him this year at Jemfest and I have to say it obviously paid off, but the question remains do you have the time and energy to do a similar thing day in day out?

Thats' what it takes I guess but you just have to decide where you can get with the resources you have and aim for small incremements at a time.

[Arpetude]

i have waited long and hard for a thread like this.

i am SPEED FREAK. i believe developing HIGH SPEED is important(for my style). i spend (or spent) MANY hours that spanned days,weeks and eventually months untill i could alternate pick FAST.

so spend as much time as you feel on speed. maybe you can do 16th at 160 in a few months time...maybe that is all you need to develop for your style of music..if so then you have developed enough speed.

exercise?

Chromcatics. 12-13-14-15. both ascending THEN descending, through all of the strings. when you are ascending you will be working on 'inside' of the string.descending = 'outside'.

i always use a metronome, so keep a note of your tempo at night then the next day try to beat that tempo untill goal tempo is reached, i spent most of last summer doing this .

sorry my mic is just not working at the moment.

i have posted clips of me playing but not alt. pick . only sweep picking. i'll see if i get a good audio in a few days for the thread.

[DemonSorcerer]

Don't search for speed...look instead for TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENT...once you have your technique down, controlled, and tamed, you can easily call up spped...i mean...i prefer working on my technique...left hand position, the way i pick, the way my fingers fret the notes, the way i pick the notes, the way i hold the pick, etc, etc...than recklessly look for speed...i mean, i'm not too fast by any means...i can play Petrucci's chromatic exercise at 186 BPM pretty cleanly (I'm sure there are guys here that can take it a few clicks further...) but i've practiced my technique...i've honed it...stick with your slow tempo on the metronome and G R A D U A L L Y I N C R E A S E T H E S P E E D.....*sighs*

David

[satch_master]

i am quite fast, have gotten faster recently, dont use a metronome, dont know how fast i can play, for me speed is a tool to play the music i need to play with its high velocity guitar work. melodies and notes come first however. i just keep learning malmsteen songs and its payed off. im pretty happy with my speed, i dont wanna be no cooley!

[Arpetude]

i dont wanna be no cooley!

.....cooley is FAST, why would you not want to be cooley .

what yngwie songs can you play.i only play one .

[satch_master]

what i mean is wanna be fast, but no so fast where my solos are almost inaudiible to the human hear, not that extremely fast.
i can play heaps man...
trilogy suite
rising force
blackstar
blitzreig
arpeggies from hell

to name a few

[silent-storm]

I have no interest in playing scales or licks fast. In fact I don't even know if I remember all the positions of my melodic minor scales...I know all my melodic minor scales and can use them during improvs, but how often do you play a scale from bottom to top? or top to bottom?...never.

The only time I practice speed is when I decide to push my limits during up tempo songs. There's a difference between being able to play 16th notes at 200 and being able to make music at 200. Of course I could be faster, but if you play enough, speed slowly just comes to you without even trying.

You can usually tell if a guy has spent a lot of time working on speed. There's a certain rawness to speed that gets developed by just playing a lot and I've always been attracted to that kind of sound.

But that's just me and all I ever do is improvise.

[Arpetude]

what i mean is wanna be fast, but no so fast where my solos are almost inaudiible to the human hear, not that extremely fast.
i can play heaps man...
trilogy suite
rising force
blackstar
blitzreig
arpeggies from hell

to name a few

man. thats cool. i always focus on the instrumentals, i play trilogy suite(first movement). do you learn the 'solos' as well. i remember learnig blitzreig to a point. i spent a month or two learning everything but the 'solo' .all the fast main themes were down(well- the whole song is fast, yngwie never slows down on this one). black star is amazing, i hope to learn that sometime this year

do you have any audio of you ripping out these malmsteen masterpieces?

i play 2 virtuoso pieces (and soon 3) . and you named 3 there that i would consider hard/virtuosoistic(sp?). how long did it take you to learn....say blitzreig for example?

[DemonSorcerer]

Yngwie's songs are fun to learn...from time to time...once you nail a few, it becames a little boring...i used to play lots of Yngwie songs and the solos too...note for note...see, i had no life...no friends, no girlfriends, no NOTHING!! !! I can still remember some of the tunes note for note...

Crying
Black Star
Far beyond the Sun
I am a Viking
Blitzkrieg
Trilogy Suite (all of it - ny personal fav)

Those are TOMH...i can't remember of any other...

David

[Arpetude]

Yngwie's songs are fun to learn...from time to time...once you nail a few, it becames a little boring...i used to play lots of Yngwie songs and the solos too...note for note...see, i had no life...no friends, no girlfriends, no NOTHING!! !! I can still remember some of the tunes note for note...

Crying
Black Star
Far beyond the Sun
I am a Viking
Blitzkrieg
Trilogy Suite (all of it - ny personal fav)

Those are TOMH...i can't remember of any other...

David

i am like a younger version of you.lol. how does it feel to be able to finally play all those masterpieces. was it worth the sacrifice.do people that hear you play guitar go...'wow! WTF!' . i get that when i solo...but i still can't play full malmsteen note-for-note long hard piece like Far Beyond the Sun.

i hope to learn either 'Far beyond the sun' or 'no boundries' by MAB over the summer. no friends, no girlfriends, but when we pick up the guitar...and play malmsteen......it is worth it!....no?

[DemonSorcerer]

i am like a younger version of you.lol. how does it feel to be able to finally play all those masterpieces. was it worth the sacrifice.do people that hear you play guitar go...'wow! WTF!' . i get that when i solo...but i still can't play full malmsteen note-for-note long hard piece like Far Beyond the Sun.

i hope to learn either 'Far beyond the sun' or 'no boundries' by MAB over the summer. no friends, no girlfriends, but when we pick up the guitar...and play malmsteen......it is worth it!....no?

It doesn't feel any different...i mean...i don't play guitar to impress anyone or blow anyone away...i just took guitar because...well, i couldn't skateboard anymore for this horrible accident that i had...So i started playing gutiar...and i usually like to challenge myself...see, i think that we human beings are capable of doing anything if we put our efforts on it...I just learned difficult pieces just to push my limitsand to prove myself...not to scare the **** out of people with my playing or technical ability...

Just to put an end to this Yngwie conversation...there are harder things than Yngwie songs...I'd suggest you...that if you like Yngwie...chech out N. Paganini's stuff...wanna impress someone?? wanna learn a really hard song?? well...try N. Paganini's 11th Caprice note for note...that's a hellish piece...it has some near-impossible runs...feel free to private message me if you need the scores.

Oh, by the way...no friends, no girlfriends...that was when i was around my 19's...now i'm 25 and i already have a life...and i'm skateboarding again...LIFE IS GOOD...

David

[Dommy]

I almost never concentrate on speed. I could care less about playing 16th at 200 bpm. I try working on my technique and my musicality first, speed last.

Personally, I'd like to hear a lot of you guys that do concentrate on speed a lot play Donna Lee at 240. Thats a chopbuilder.

[DemonSorcerer]

I almost never concentrate on speed. I could care less about playing 16th at 200 bpm. I try working on my technique and my musicality first, speed last.

I agree!! speed comes along with technical development....

David

[Arpetude]

thanks DemonSorcerer
you have inspired me to hold back on the excessive practicing, i'm gonna cut down on mindless trilling and cut down on theory as well. possibly get out more. as for paganini....i'll leave that one in your hands.

i didn't mean to impress people. i play in my style for repesct of myself, not other people, if i did what the majority of people do then i would be playing green day on guitar and apprently 'having a life' at the same time.

thanks again. this has helped me realise that i WILL get there...and if i push too much i will go insane but acheive the goal in a shorter amount of time. but after reading your post, i can imagine me being 25 or so and being able to play all of it without doing excessive practicing ALL the time.