Hello everybody, I am probably beating a dead horse because of this but I need the help. I mean I LOVE fast shit but I can't pick it fast enough ESPECIALLY ON DOWN PICKING. I try to use the advice of use only your wrist, but if I try anything over 150bpm then my arm turns stiff as a wrench and I lose controll. And then I have the urge to put my foot through a wall.

For my four years of playing, that has been my top priority though maybe I haven't practiced as much as I should. Anyway does anybody have any type of routine or daily excersies that can help me out?



Jonmansley's advice to someone else looks good to follow but what should I do during those 10 minutes? Any songs suggested? Would the main riff to Whiplash work?

And I also read from a John Petrucci to use a metronome and play the same thing 10 times slow and increase the tempo. Thats where I thought of using Whiplash. But does that method only work for leads?

Anyway, anytype of suggestions for SOME sort of routine would be VERY helpful.

Thanks everyone
Dave

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beat off at a rapid pace. It worked for me, and just playing a shitload.

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They tell you to practice only 10 minutes a day? Fuck that, its gotta be atleast 30 if you wanna improve quickly. Im geussing by what he meant by "most songs" means non-solo songs w/out to much technicallity.

Agreed. You need to practice more like 30-60 minutes aday or more if your a maniac. For down picking, just get a metronome. For tremelo picking, just sit there and pick as fast as you can for as long as you can with about a 2 minute break inbetween. Theres a certain muscle that needs to be built up to sustain accuracy, speed, and consistancy. Every day after your speed practicing routine, pick out a song that you normally can't keep up with and in no time you'll watch yourself develop into a speed machine.

Consistancy in your practice routine is the key. Make a song that uses alot of speed and downpicking to force yourself to get use to it.

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One, do you mean as FAST AS I CAN, or as fast as I can WITHOUT bringing my arm into it and losing control?



For Downpicking, would a song like Master of Puppets do the trick?



I wish you wern't joking about the beating off because I beat off every day.

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Then beat off two...no....5 times a day! And ignore the burning skin, you know no pain, no gain!

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oil that shit up and you'll be fine... keep crankin tremelo takes uh...practice

and to practice tremelo i've been using some cradle of filth stuff. seems decent for beginner to intermediate trem picking (i came from the doom school of metal so when i started playing other stuff i was like trem what?)

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dude do this everyday..record urself playing one note with just downstrokes as fast as you can for one minute..do this everday when you first start to practice, i bet that this will increase ur speed a bit. ur arm will cramp like a bitch but dont be a pussy keep at it...and of course beat off.

I ain't worried about any post practice cramping, I am worried about my wrist and elbow turning into a steel bar while I play because I try to hard to play fast and I lose control. If you just mentioned that part because it will happen then disregard this message. And thanks for the advice, yours and EVERYONE ELSES is GREATLY APPRECIATED.

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How is this for an excersise? I do constant alternate picking for a minute using a metronome. Then I take a two minute break and repeat. I do this for an hour. And I do it an hour a day.

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They say if you want to be a guitarist, you will have to practise 3+ hours a day.

Then I'll devot one hour of that time to doing this and the rest for songs and other shit.

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Exactly. Plan it out ahead. Don't set a schedule for exactly when you are going to play every day though. It will make it seem more like a chore than fun. Play when you feel inspired, or just plain bored. Don't give up time with friends to play guitar if you have nothing to do later on in the day.

Here is a chromatic excersize Becker_Rules posted a couple years ago

Attached Files

chromaticexcersize.zip (928 Bytes, 218 views)

When I said, "10 minutes practise" I meant 10 minutes of just practising downpicking speed using chromatic exercises and the like. Any more than that and you might get bored with playing just chromatic exercises alone. I suggest using chromatic exercises because they will also help with your finger dexterity.

After 10 minutes of doing this you can then play some songs with a lot of downpicking just to mix it up a bit. Slayer use a lot of downpicking so they will be a good place to start. So in total, I'd say devote 30 mins to downpicking (chromatic exercises + songs) so that you still have time to practise other techniques.

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I don't have the software to open the excersise and view it? What do I need to download? Powertab?

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Notepad

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for those who dont have metronomes

also you can slow down and speed up depending on your ability to follow, just select the first note and press the music note = thing and change to whatever tempo you want

Attached Files

apickchro.ptb (12.1 KB, 283 views)

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I agree, you need to just practice a shit load. I know for sure im not a big solo person. I cant shred like other people. But I only cant do it cuz I dont work on it hard enough. Plus i figured if im playing other peoples solos i dont want to mimic there style later. I like doing slow melodic solos, but if i could fucking shred well enough i'd fucking do it.

I find chromatic exercises to be virtually useless.

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i disagree w/ that mostly, because there are songs that use pieces of chromatic scales ect. and if your used to skipping frets through other scales than your fingers may devlope bad muscular memory when you have to play things in 1/2 steps.

All of this advice is very good.

Damn, i havent beat off in like a month, lmao

chromatic excersizes aren't used to help you in a situation where there are chromatics (though it would). They excersize every one of your fingers, developing speed in every single one, just by doing a simple excersizes. Once you get into the harder patterns where it isn't just 1-2-3-4, then you are also practising coordination.

thats also very true...

any exercise can be useless if you don't focus on what's important about it. for chromatics, keep your fingertips at most 1/2 an inch off the fretboard. don't let your pinky go flying away. that builds finger independence, which obviously is key to playing anything difficult.

to practice downpicking, get something simple. isolate downpicking. do something like:
10-0-0-0-9-0-0-0-8-0-0-0-7-0-0-0-6-0-0-0-5-0-0-0-4-0-0-0-3-0-0-0-2-0-0-0-1-0-0-0-0-0-0-0 and return back up or something similar. do it with a metronome, and don't speed up until you've got it perfect! if it's not 100%, going faster, while it may feel better to you because you're improving, will not help! get it completely perfect before going any faster. that's the way to improve.

I agree, also you can introduce intervals into the 'chromatic' exercises to increase stretching ability in each finger, for example:

|-1-2-4-5-| (very useful if you like the diminished and augmented scales)

|-1-3-4-5-|

|-1-2-3-5-|

|-1-3-5-6-|

|-1-2-4-6-|

|-1-3-4-6-|

|-1-3-5-7-|

Just play these patterns up and down the strings and you'll feel a big difference in so many aspects of your playing. The variations (and combinations) for the exercise are almost endless - you can palm mute it, downpick it, tremelo pick it, alternate pick it, pinch pick it, etc... Like I said, just a couple of exercises can give you a work out in numerous techniques

The last pattern is very difficult, but it will improve stretching, dexterity and accuracy. You may want to try it at the 7th fret to begin with and then move further back up towards the nut as you can feel your fingers becoming more flexible.

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how fast can you people do your chromatic 16th notes on a metrenome? I'm just talking the 1234 pattern but feel free to post what you like.

And john, thanks a lot, I love chromatics, great great warmup.

You're welcome, Shred! Just think up any pattern you like and practise with it - then think of a new one. It keeps your fingers on their toes, haha!

Anyway, speed-wise, I play the following exercise in around 5 seconds (give or take 0.2 of a second). That translates to around 19 notes per second. Here it is:

|---------------------------------------------------------------------|
|---------------------------------------------------------------------|
|----------------------------------------------------1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-|
|-----------------------------------1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8------------------|
|------------------1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-----------------------------------|
|-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 ---------------------------------------------------|

|------------------1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1------------------|
|-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-----------------------------------8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-|
|---------------------------------------------------------------------|
|---------------------------------------------------------------------|
|---------------------------------------------------------------------|
|---------------------------------------------------------------------|

|---------------------------------------------------------------------|
|---------------------------------------------------------------------|
|-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1----------------------------------------------------|
|------------------8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-----------------------------------|
|-----------------------------------8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1------------------|
|----------------------------------------------------8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-|

This is an exercise that I would recommend to everyone - but it's important that you start slowly and only increase your speed when you're comfortable playing it. Try it without distortion - it'll be easier to hear when you're not hitting the notes cleanly.

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Very impressive. I've seen that excersize before, but nonetheless, a good excersize. Everybody should start chromatics.

But 5 seconds man is insane. The fastest on a metrenome I can get to is around 220 doing 16th notes, but that is only the 1234 up and down.

I can do it in 5 seconds after I've warmed up and then after I've ran through about 7 or 8 Nile songs so my arm is pretty loose and raring to go!

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also, any scales/modes are great for building up speed. chromatics are good, but scales have nice variations that help keep your fingers on your toes as you say. ascend on 2 strings, 3 strings, 1 string, go up 3 notes, down 2, up 3, down 2, or play 3 notes over and over while moving the 3rd note down diatonically with each repetition, etc.. so many combinations. and you'll probably use those more than chromatics

I like to do the attached exercise.

I can get up to 250BPM doing 8th notes. This really helped with my coordination.

Attached Files

Exercise.ptb (1.1 KB, 192 views)

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^^^

That's looks like a really good one, I'll try it out later today.

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btw, 10-15 minutes of solid down picking practice a day is plenty. you don't have to spend 60 minutes a day on something that boring. work it out for somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes, do something else on the guitar for a few minutes, then work it out again. you can have a life and be good at guitar at the same time . 5 hours is good, but if you focus, you don't really need it.

not that you guys who play for 5+ hours a day don't focus.. but the rest of us can accomplish quite a bit in 1-2 hours a day if we pick the right things to focus on.


i highly recommend "speed mechanics for lead guitar" by troy stetina. all of his other books are good, too. his heavy metal rhythm book series would be what you're looking for.

As I said before, I now spend an hour a day doing minute run constant sixteenths with two minute breaks between each minute. It is not that boring and the hour goes by pretty fast. Anyway, I try doing it standing up and soon my arm goes with the wrist. Any advice to prevent that? Should I lower the tempo. Should I just do it sitting down and it will come to me standing up later?

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One thing that may or may not help.

Make sure you are palm muting.

Stick your palm (for me, the fat meaty part under the pinky) on the strings just before the bridge (that's what I do at least) and don't move it. With your palm 'stuck' in that position (or wherever you like it), you shouldn't be able to use your arm or it would be sliding up and down creating a choppy palm mute. Since your hand is 'stuck', the axis of rotation is the point of where your palm is on the strings. I have minimal movement when I pick rapidly. Strive for minimal picking distance IE: don't pick any farther than you have to and don't be so tight! You'll create rapid fatigue if you're really tight with your picking hand.

Hope this helps.

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i play guitar about an hour a day, but there are some days in which theres is absolutely nothing to do just sit around and play guitar, and it can be up to like 3 hours if im REALLY bored...

So if I feel things are tightning should I try to relax it while I am playing?

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Well, the tightness will relieve itself after you become accustomed to this type of picking. It's just a quick wrist flick for me. Like the way you "shoo, fly, shoo" with the back of your hand pushing a fly away from your face. Nothing too crazy. My arm still moves because that's the way body mechanics work but not because I'm using it to aid in the picking.

You never know though. Some guitars are good for tremelo picking and some are better. I have two electrics and the guitar with a higher bridge I seem to have an easier time picking fast on it. My hand is not as close to the body. Try out some different guitars at some shops and see if it makes a difference. Of course, the type of pick you use makes a significant difference. I, along with many, use a small fat pick (3mm). It's uncomfortable at first but it really makes a difference for speed.

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I play a Gibson Flying V 67 reissue and I use ernie-ball thumbpicks. What do you make of that?

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When i palm-mute fast my pick begins to turn, the "pointy part" starts moving in some direction usually against the neck. This is really disturbing, should the picks pointy part always be directly downards to the string or can it be a little tilted?

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Yeah, that's a bad habit to get into, the pick should always remain straight. It is easier to angle it, but don't take the easy way out. There are occasional situations where it is called for but you should be able to do it without angling the pick.

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That's right.

I try not to angle the pick too much. The straighter it is, the better pick attack that is performed. This type of pick attack is especially important when tremelo picking palm muted two string power chords. I occasionally perform this to give me a heavier, chunkier, palm mute. It's much tougher to do rapidly but can be overcomed with practice.

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I play at fast speeds by using my arm rather than my wrist or fingers when I'm playing stuff like Phobophile by Cryptopsy. As for stuff that uses a lot of string changes, I use a combination of my wrist and arm. To keep stability, I play with my bottom 3 fingers anchored on the guitar.

it's okay and sometimes very preferable to angle the pick certain ways. always (unless sweeping) keep the pick perpendicular to the body.. the top of the pick shouldn't lean towards the bass or treble strings. the front/back side of the pick can be angled, though. that is, the pick doesn't have to be exactly lined up in the way that the neck and strings are. the heaviest chug sounds will come from it being in a straight line with the strings, but you can smooth out the sound and often go a little faster if it's slightly angled. depending on the sound you want, it can be a good thing to angle it this way.

Just dont try to TILT the pick in a certain direction.