How Do I Develop Speed on the Guitar?

[BillyC]

Just have a guitar in your hand all the time, whenever possible.

[Jazzyteach65]

I know I am not who you were refering to, but the Rolling Stone top 100 is a popularity contest. Rock guys can be really good at their thing, but it is a fairly small box compared to a competent jazz guy. Me, I am trying to be both.

Amen. I will back this sentiment till I die. Relying on Rolling Stone for "top 100" guitarists is like going to Walmart to buy the most superb wine I want, or like reading People magazine for the top 100 atheletes.

Take for example Jimmy Page-I'm sure he's voted like 1 or 2, biut he was sloppy as hell, repeated his licks and rhyhtms too much, and primarily played in open keys.

[larry graves]

Isn't there anywhere we can hide from that nasty stuff [rock], I thought this forum was a safe-haven, obviously not; surely there must be a forum
catering for it? Chops, who needs those kind of chops to play a sophisticated music like jazz, we dont need mind-stunting speed to cover up a feeble infrastructure. Before the death threats, let me say this, it is just my opinion, based [albeit] on 56 years of playing most styles of guitar music.

[Jazzyteach65]

also remember, SPEED DOES NOT MAKE THE PLAYER!

Speed is just another tool to help you articulate ideas, but personally, when somebody is phrasing fast, it's like someone speaking too fast. I would rather hear an eloquent slow speaker make sense than one who is trying too hard to impress others with big words fast.

I personally don't care for speed b/c I am naturally not fast, and I am also recovering from a rotator tear. I will probably never be a speed whiz, but you know what? It doesn't bother me one bit!

Now, don't confuse quickness (being able to adjust to the musical situations, key and temp changes ect quickly, playing at fast tempos) with speed (firing on all cylinders)

[Reg]

What I notice is that players who have problems with speed usually have bad or weak areas in their technique, both hands. Take a few lessons with a teacher who can back up what he preaches about the burnin dept... It's not a yes or no thing or it might hurt my ability to play in the pocket or groove... it's required to play in most pockets. Being technically proficient on your instrument is one of many standard requirements of being a musician. It's not rocket science... put together a program with goals and check points and the last time I checked it doesn't happen by thinking about it...put in the time. I'm sure you have more than the required talent to get your chops up... Get after it...Reg

[gravitas]

Why don't we all go and ask Chris Potter how important chops are.


...Oh yeah, really important.

What I notice is that players who have problems with speed usually have bad or weak areas in their technique, both hands. Take a few lessons with a teacher who can back up what he preaches about the burnin dept... It's not a yes or no thing or it might hurt my ability to play in the pocket or groove... it's required to play in most pockets. Being technically proficient on your instrument is one of many standard requirements of being a musician. It's not rocket science... put together a program with goals and check points and the last time I checked it doesn't happen by thinking about it...put in the time. I'm sure you have more than the required talent to get your chops up... Get after it...Reg

Agreed.

[TommyD]

Playing fast is cool, but I like playing slow the most.

""Without a song, the day would never end
Without a song, the road would never have been"

That's "Without a song, the road would never bend"

Best, tommy/

[C.A.JO.]

No shortcuts in my experience and, more importantly, people I have spoken or studied with who have the outstanding technique. Hard work. Period.

I couldn't agree more. Being able to play fast, clean, and smooth comes from practicing the right way, putting in the necessary time, and having patience and persistence.

I also agree on your above written statement about the "one note-beauty-thing" being boring. Really, how many would like to hear one note for 12 bars? Is that even musical? Some swear that this is true emotion, real feeling, etc. I find it very hard to look at this way. Often looking at blues players I notice uneven vibrato, and intermediate craft. It can be musical, but I prefer listening to people who have a well developed craft, smooth and even tone, AND being musical. But as mentioned above it's about personal taste. So if someone likes it, fine by me. I just don't find a one-note solo musical or emotional.

Developing speed:
Find a thing in which you want to increase speed. Establish an initial max tempo/bpm at which you can play the thing clean. Find a goal tempo, the end goal.

Go back to 30% of the initial max tempo, and practice at this tempo for a week: Don't try to play it faster!!! When playing this slow, you should analyze what's wrong.

Ask yourself these questions:
- Is my neck, face, and forehead relaxed?
- Is my left shoulder relaxed?
- Is my right shoulder relaxed?
- Are my left hand fingers close to the fretboard?
- Am I using excessive tension in the left hand?
- Is my right hand picking movements efficient?
- Are my upstrokes and downstrokes even?
- Is my back tense or relaxed?

Lack of speed often correlates to excessive tension, and lack of synchronization between the hands. Remember excessive tension doesn't mean no tension! Fret a note , lift your left arm, and there will be some degree of tension! The point is to not use more than what's needed!

Spend a week at 30% of your max tempo, and use the time to analyze your technique. Once you've located flaws, correct them. In week 2 you go to 50% max speed, and continue to analyze. In week 3 you go 75% for 3-4 days, then 85% for 3-4 days. In week 4 you go to 95% max tempo. After 4 weeks, do a new speed test. If you've continued to analyze and correct week after week at these slow tempi, your speed will be faster than the initial speed-test. After this 4th week, you start a rotating cycle every week:

Day 1. 60% max, then 100% for a couple of minutes.
Day 2. 80& max, and then 100% for a couple of minutes at the end.
Day 3. 95% max, and the 100%... get the point!
Days 4-6 is the same as days 1-3.
Day 7. New speed test, adjust, and continue the cycle week after week 'till you reach your desired speed.

This process (or something similar) is created/published by the virtuoso guitarist Tom Hess. He's not into jazz, but look at his technique, and you get the point. He knows what he's talking about. You can find the exact process he recommends at his website. I've used it/something similar with great success.

[TommyD]

One thing that slows down players is lifting fingers too high (true on most instruments), and the cure is sloooow playing, while controlling finger lifts. If they still lift too high, play slower. And guess what? You have to continue the practice until it's unconscious, otherwise it won't get into your subconscious brain where it will be automatic.
Miles said it; "Learn it then forget it!"
Tommy/

[MarkRhodes]

"Cracking the Code" looks interesting.

[nick11link]

To add my two cents, you should also focus on finding the most efficient way to finger the phrases you want to play. The less you have to move your left hand, the better (in my opinion)

[BillyC]

Watch Andreas Oberg.

Very short, fast, but relaxed right hand movement.

[Bailz]

i find that playing cells/digital patterns is very useful for speed. The problem is getting away from a fast scale sound and getting into a more musical sound like the be-bop heads. thats a good point about playing bop heads. Ive heard a few great players say that they learnt loads of bop heads. i think getting a lot of bop heads under you belt is great for so many reasons.

[MarkRhodes]

I agree that learning bop heads helps one's playing (plus they're a thrill to play well and fast once you get them down!).

[Andregu]

Are there any books i should get to really develope my speed for soloing and chord playing. I feel i'm lacking in the speed department. My speed is'nt awful but not what it should be for jazz.
thanks
Ken

Hi Ken

Attached are 1 file[treble/tab] containing 3 scales to practise .[Have also diagrams but they would not attach]---

Common a minor pentatonic 2 notes per string 1/8th notes
A diminished scale 3 notes per string quaver triplets
A chromatic scale 4 notes per string 1/16ths

Once familiar with fingering and picking directions use a metronome to gradually increase speed start slow eg 60 bpm speed up eg 10 bpm daily with jazz improvisation you may need to get the 1/8th`s up to 350 bpm eg the faster Charlie Parker tempo`s.Short bursts of triplets and semiquavers could be dispersed betwwen the quavers-tricks like hammer on`s ,pulloff`s,sweeps for arpeggios etc

Once mastered and sick of these scales just substitue others ,transpose to other keys etc Ones with stretches will be more difficult.The trick is to arrange usually the same number of notes per string to achieve fast runs etc.Trying playing one after the other without stopping to practise at shifting between 1/8ths, triplet 1/8ths and 16ths

If you give me some feedback I`ll send more of these type of files.

Andregu

[fep]

Here's a question/observation for you advanced players... (CAJO, REG etc.)

When I practice speed technique I go to 16th notes at 120bpm, that's basically where I've been stuck for a while. If I do the math that's 480 npm.

I just ran up the metronome playing 16th notes on one note, a tremelo if you will. I got to 16th notes at 165bpm or 680 npm, with a good relaxed right hand. To me that seems plenty fast enough to play bebop.

If a play a scale with my right hand without picking I can also get 16th notes to 165bpm, a bit sloopy though, but pretty close.

What a huge gap between the 480npm and the 680npm!

So I've diagnosed my problem as I just need to get the hands to work together better. I think each hand is fast enough, they're just not fast enough together.

Any advice...

[princeplanet]

Any advice...

Yeah, practice with 2 hands

[larry graves]

Play tunes-with a drum machine, slow at first then as you improve wind it up. Playing scales and learning the grammar is a must, but it's tunes we play and improvise over, learn theory alongside your ear training [doodling-scat on the guitar] it's ability after that..LG..

[fep]

Yeah, practice with 2 hands

Wow, thanks for your incredible insight.

[larry graves]

Yeah, practice with 2 hands

Did'nt Django have three hands,sorry two fingers..LG..

[C.A.JO.]

Here's a question/observation for you advanced players... (CAJO, REG etc.)

When I practice speed technique I go to 16th notes at 120bpm, that's basically where I've been stuck for a while. If I do the math that's 480 npm.

I just ran up the metronome playing 16th notes on one note, a tremelo if you will. I got to 16th notes at 165bpm or 680 npm, with a good relaxed right hand. To me that seems plenty fast enough to play bebop.

If a play a scale with my right hand without picking I can also get 16th notes to 165bpm, a bit sloopy though, but pretty close.

What a huge gap between the 480npm and the 680npm!

So I've diagnosed my problem as I just need to get the hands to work together better. I think each hand is fast enough, they're just not fast enough together.

Any advice...

Great observation you did! You knew the symptom (no 16th notes faster than 120), and you've discovered the problem (lack of synchronization). With these two factors we can now fix the problem! (Let me add that speed difficulties almost every time is because of lack of synchronization. Not because each hand in itself is not fast enough).

Two-hand synchronization is not about just practicing with "2 hands" how obvious that may sound. What you should do now is to play small exercises on either 1 string or 2 strings at a slow tempo. The reason why 1 string and/or 2 strings are great for this is because your right hand make more strokes. Also, try to make it uneven. This is not exactly musical, but the more "odd" the exercise seems the better (for this purpose), because you then force your hands to work really hard together. Also, string skipping exercises are great for building better synchronization. Another side effect is better finger independence for the left hand.

I've added a little sync exercise from my teaching archive. It works as an illustration. I mind you that it's not musical, and that's the point! There's no order or logic in this sequence, and therefor it forces your hands to work together. Left hand fingers are indicated, but not strokes for the right hand. For the right hand you should use what you normally use (economy, strict alternate picking, fingerpicking, etc). The most important thing is to pick every note! Memorize a the sequence slowly, and then try to build up speed. Narrow in on the shifts, fingerings that are most difficult to you.
The 100 bpm are not the start nor is it the end. It's just a tempo. You'll find it's difficult to play fast, but working on this and similar exercises will train your two hand sync. Try to create some similar exercise. Don't practice these for longer than 10 min. per session! Another advice would be to make a new one every 2 weeks. For instance if you discover your sync when using the 3rd finger on the left hand (which is often the case) is worse than the rest of the fingers, then create an exercise that include muck work for the 3rd finger!

Let me know if you have any questions!

P.S:
16th notes at 160 bpm is a very advanced tempo. It's rare you get to play these note values at this tempo, but it's a good goal to have. Most likely you'll then almost never run into any speed issues.

[fep]

Thanks C.A.JO.

That's a well thought out reply. I'm going to take your advice and am trying your excercise right now. I'm going to add these type of excercises to my practice routine.

[Reg]

Hey Fep...how goes, cool stuff from CAJO and insightful, he's seems to know his shit... I'm not what I call a good private teacher but I do have chops and and understand music pretty well. I use to do arpeggio like studies years ago to get my picking chops together, pretty basic...
All position playing to start, no stretches, start any position. Ex. start at 3rd. position and move up the neck one fret at a time up to 8th position.
I would single pick each note to start, then double etc...

fingers; 1234 strings; 6543
" 1234 " 5432
" 1234 " 4321
" 1234 " 4321
" 1234 " 5432
" 1234 " 6543
Then move up one fret etc... You probable know the patterns;
You also reverse the string patterns, 1234, 2345, 3456
Each finger pattern is 1 study, so 24, plus another 24 when you reverse string pattern.

Fingers; 1234 2341 3412 4123..........
1342 2413 3124 4231
1423 2134 3241 4312
1243 2134 3421 4132
1324 2314 3142 4213
1432 2431 3241 4321
I always keep my left hand fingers tight and close to the neck, very little movement, same with my right hand and no arm movement. I would start my practices with Three drills etc..
I don't use those exercises much anymore, don't have a lot of practice time. My warm ups are two oct. arpeggio style licks that I like, usually in MM. You'll find your own set of studies you like or help clean up problem areas in your technique. Good luck Reg

[dcmey]

i think the best path to speed is to practice just the opposite: slow and precise. playing things slow and "perfect" builds muscle memory, which in turn makes it easier to "turn it up a notch." practice slow and precise and increase speed (via metronome or drum track) over time.

I firmly believe this to.

[fep]

Hi Reg, I'm doing well. I hope you're doing well (I know your playin' well).

When you said:

fingers; 1234 string; 6543

Assume starting on the 3rd fret, did you mean the 1st measure or the 3rd measure.


Thanks for your help. I'm going to have to subscribe to this thread. Lot's of good information.

P.S. I started the little jazz composition assignment we talked about, a bouncy little riff based number a la Barney Kessell.