Speed Exercises For Guitar

[michaelgrace]

Hello everyone!
Not sure if this is the best place to post this thread, but here goes:

I feel my improvisation is severely handicapped by my lack of techquine (e.g. speed). I can hear the ideas but I most definately can't play them at the speed I would want to. (at least without the notes sounding extremely clumsy)

So, I felt like coming here to this lovely forum and asking you guys what do you do to practice speed, or what exercises do you suggest?

Thanks for your attention

Cheers!
-MG

[docbop]

Perfect practice makes for perfect play. I forget who said that but all too true.

Practice slowly and perfectly so as your speed develops you only know the right way to play things. Speed comes on its own, if you try to push it too much you're making mistakes that require even more practice to dilute out our your playing. Remember the brain only knows data it doesn't know that bad major scale from the good one. If you only play it right it doesn't know how to do it wrong.

[michaelgrace]

Yes I agree with that

Currently I practice chromatic exercises, covering the entire scale of my guitar, and several major scales patterns, and minor melodic ones too. I always practice my technique with a metronome, and I increase 1 bpm per day. I play Peerless Monarch, and the sound of each note, has to be perfect (otherwise I don't find it good enough to increase a bpm the next day).

Any other exercises I might be missing?

Cheers

[FatJeff]

I'm not going to advocate that you embark on this crazy-ass program, but I've been doing the Howard Roberts "SuperChops" program for 15 weeks now and have noticed a marked increase in my speed.

TGP Collective Super Chops Thread (Course Started 02/01/2010) - The Gear Page

[monk]

Perfect practice makes for perfect play. I forget who said that but all too true.

At GIT, Howard Roberts used to say "Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.". I think he may have lifted the saying from some sports guy.

[paynow]

I'm not going to advocate that you embark on this crazy-ass program, but I've been doing the Howard Roberts "SuperChops" program for 15 weeks now and have noticed a marked increase in my speed.

TGP Collective Super Chops Thread (Course Started 02/01/2010) - The Gear Page

Jeff,

Thanks for this link; downloaded the course and am starting to work through it. Question: Do you alter any of the voicings he gives? For example, in the very first lesson, I find some of them very difficult yet I always feel completely lame if I don't do exactly what's written down. I know it says you can use different ones at your discretion.

[mr. beaumont]

You need to practice actual musical situations. Practicing a scale fast means you will be able to play a scale fast, not necessarily make music with it.

Transcribe the licks you're hearing in your head and practice them. Scales are a roadmap, it's important to know where they are, but being able to blaze through one at 300bpm is just a party trick.

[FatJeff]

Jeff,

Thanks for this link; downloaded the course and am starting to work through it. Question: Do you alter any of the voicings he gives? For example, in the very first lesson, I find some of them very difficult yet I always feel completely lame if I don't do exactly what's written down. I know it says you can use different ones at your discretion.

Yes, if you look for my posts in that bug thread, you'll see I've altered the program significantly to suit my own personal preferences. I employ chord voicings that I find fingerable and useable, and I have substituted the chord progressions for standards that I am currently working on.

[paynow]

Yes, if you look for my posts in that bug thread, you'll see I've altered the program significantly to suit my own personal preferences. I employ chord voicings that I find fingerable and useable, and I have substituted the chord progressions for standards that I am currently working on.

Thanks. Some of those my small hands just can't handle.

OK, I'm adding this: I just went back and looked at the thread and apparently, I'm not the only. So many people have questions about the voicings. Thanks again.

[Reg]

You need good technique... post a clip of your playing and I'll gladly check it out.... the great thing about this place... it's free. I've posted a bunch of material on many threads.
It's much quicker to see, rather than explain...( I'll do both)... Reg

[Mojojojo]

I agree with the slow pratice. You've got to build muscle memory. No short cut to this. Every now and then it's good to "test" your development against a metronome speed that's challenging and take note of where your technique begins to fall apart. Say you're able to play cleanly with quarter notes at 80 BPM, but test yourself at 90 BPM. Your fingers will be flying in their attempt to match the tempo and it will be rightfully sloppy. However, back that metronome off to about 86 BPM and you just may find you've found your "new" clean speed. If not, back it off some more. Please don't spend you're whole day doing this! Like Mr. B says, you'll want to spend more time playing actual music. If you're transcribing licks, you can actually build speed and technique, while also learning a useful musical phrase.

[michaelgrace]

You need to practice actual musical situations. Practicing a scale fast means you will be able to play a scale fast, not necessarily make music with it.

Transcribe the licks you're hearing in your head and practice them. Scales are a roadmap, it's important to know where they are, but being able to blaze through one at 300bpm is just a party trick.

Yes, I can see what you mean. Well, time to get to work I guess
Thank you for your advice, Mr.B!
And thanks to everyone that posted on this thread so far aswell

Cheers,
-MG

[MarkRhodes]

You need to practice actual musical situations. Practicing a scale fast means you will be able to play a scale fast, not necessarily make music with it.

There is much wisdom in this but also a possibility for misunderstanding. While it is true that no one pays to see people play scales fast, if you can't whip through a major scale it's none too likely you can whip through anything *else* either. One of the values of scale practice is that you can focus on the accuracy of your fretting and the consistency of your picking. (People who have played for years have already done this but it is important to remember that younger players have to get their technique down so that they can execute whatever ideas come to them.)

Aside from speed licks built on hammer-ons and pull-offs (-and sweep picking arpeggios), your top speed with a major scale is your top speed. Speed isn't everything, but if you have any fast *ideas* and want to play them, you won't be able to play them much (if any) faster than you can play a major scale.

Which doesn't mean you need to play scales hours a day. (Segovia thought one should, but he wasn't playing jazz on an archtop the way most of us do.) But it is a time-honored technique builder.

[JonnyPac]

I need to build raw speed. I have practiced real jazz in real-time with clarity as my focus. I play medium/fast speed runs clears as day now. I hear some faster runs that sweeping and legato moves cannot assist. I feel stuck.

I think I am going to just drill 16ths with a metronome for the next 30 days and see if it sinks into muscle memory. Every kid that plays metal seems to get that relaxed tremolo picking down for shred runs; I need to go back and fill in these skills. Wish me luck.

[MarkRhodes]

I think I am going to just drill 16ths with a metronome for the next 30 days and see if it sinks into muscle memory. Every kid that plays metal seems to get that relaxed tremolo picking down for shred runs; I need to go back and fill in these skills. Wish me luck.

I do wish you luck. As for kids who shred, few swing. Eddie Van Halen is special in that he can play blistering fast lines that are *fluid*, never sounding "mechanical." I've heard too many shred players who seem to be playing as fast as they can, hoping it's in time with the band!

I've been working on some Herb Ellis lines that are long strings of 16th notes. He tends to use them either in a) a slow blues or b) the B section of rhythm changes tunes. The slow blues I can handle, but when playing "Cotton Tail" or "Oleo" and it's time to double one's speed, it ain't easy. (Not for me, anyway.)

Anyway, I've isolated a few phrases that give me trouble and am making exercises of them. It seems to be helping.

[Drumbler]

To learn to improvise faster, practice improvising faster.

It's that simple.

[Mojojojo]

"As for kids who shred, few swing..."

Man, I can think of a ton of jazz players that you could say shred. Shred is not just a metal thing, and it shouldn't imply that shredding is tasteless. In fact it should be a compliment as in "that cat can really shred". All it means is the person has an extremely high command of their instrument. It doesn't mean the kids at Guitar Center trying to see who can play the fastest with their poor technique. They're wannabes. They wish they could shred.

[duds707]

New boy on block butting in here......I am also trying sort out some technique issues. Being a recent convert from rock/blues to jazz, the most obvious thing I am lacking is a workable picking technique. I have given myself a year to try and get hold of this - slowly and surely, beat by beat. I'd agree with most comments re technique can kill the music if overly showcased, but in my case - any technique would be good! The first problem I have is a flyaway pinkie (4th finger of fretting hand)! I struggle to keep it anywhere near the fretboard when enacting say, a chromatic 4 per string run. It's fine now when I'm so slow - but I can see it being a problem as I get faster. Any ideas - short of hacking it off and sewing on another more obedient one?!

[Kojo27]

1, 2

[duds707]

Thanks very much for the advice. If tremelo picking is the same as alternate, we're on the same hymn sheet - excuse my ignorance! I play with a thumb-pick (herco heavy), so am hoping same advice for picking hand applies. Actually I'm more concerned about my fretting hand and the afore-mentioned rogue pinky. Do you have any surgical tips for this? I always assumed that your fingers need to move absolute minimal distance off the fretboard. 1st three fingers behave well, but the 4th feels (and looks) like it's lining up to serve a tennis ball just prior to fretting and has to travel 4 times further to and from the fret than any other finger......

[Kojo27]

Tremolo with a thumb pick ... hmm. It can be done by gripping the thumbpick as if it were a flatpick and proceeding as above. Chet Atkins did this a lot; Tommy Emmanuel does it, too. It works. I've also seen players who have built to a blistering fast tremolo by picking down strokes with the thumbpick and upstrokes with either the index or middle finger. Brent Mason is the guy to check out (he's gotta be on YouTube) for some masterful displays of this way of picking. Brent is a country player -- the least palatable kind of music on the dial, but the guitar parts can be interesting. Very, very hot-lick-oriented, as you probably know.

For taming your left hand pinky (and other fingers!) give this quick video some serious attention. If you'll work at this until it becomes second nature, I guarantee you'll be a far better and happier guitarist. Use this idea for practicing all your scale fingerings, too. Play SUPER SLOW. I used to start with the metronome on 60, playing one note per click, recording myself, then listening back for any clipped note or other imperfection. If you can get this right at a snail's pace, then speed up gradually, you'll nail it.

I read somewhere that it takes about 21 days to build a habit into your autonomic nervous system (muscle memory?), so stick with it and practice your ass off every day. It's hard, but that's why so few people on the planet have good guitar technique: it's hard. And most don't know how. Now you know how, so it's all about practice! Remember: do scales, modes, anything you can think of to keep it somewhat interesting. Soon, it will all be second nature, and your pinky will hover very close to the fingerboard, right there with your other three super-trained fingers. Good luck!

Kojo27

[23skidoo]

duds-

I've got the same problem with the pinky - I actually broke mine when I was a kid and it healed a little wonky, so I'm having to work at it even harder. I'm no expert, but I've gotten real results in a pretty short amount of time. I've been doing the exercise shown in the video posted by Kojo, but with a little twist. I've been doing the top two examples on this page of warm up exercises from Dirk's instructional page

Guitar Technique and Warm Up Exercises with Tabs

The top exercise is basically the same thing the video shows, but you work you way up the fretboard, descending (4 3 2 1) as well as ascending (1 2 3 4), sliding up a fret between each series. The second exercise, focusing on just two notes per string, I've been doing with my ring finger and pinky. I've been working these for five or six weeks and have noticed a pretty drastic improvement, playing lines and chords.

I started out slow, at 60 bpms. This allowed me to really focus on my right hand as well. Also use it as a chance to review the notes on the fretboard (which I've never bothered to internalize), especially when doing the two notes per string.

I do these things first, before running scales and arpeggios. I think it's really helped....

[duds707]

Thanks for the prompt help Kojo. Yes, for tremelo I hold the thumbpick as for a standard pick. The great thing is that you can hold it very lightly and relaxedly without fear of losing it - and play fingerstyle when I need to.
I'll give this exercise a go. Presumably it is designed purely to tame flyway fingers and that once this is achieved, you would revert to 'normal' - or would you keep using the technique anyway. Do you yourself still use the technique for scale runs and if so, how long did it take to get up to a reasonable speed?

[duds707]

23skidoo,
Thanks for that. A combination of these exercises, as you suggest, can only help - though it does serve to remind (certainly me) how much I have got away with over the years with such sloppy technique! Never to late to start again... 'FlightOTBB' on a note per bar at 60 bpm here we come.

[JonnyPac]