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the trick to playing fast it to play slow. SERIOUSLY. Don't ever use the metronome to try to gradually bump up your tempo artificially over time. Practice long lines (like the martino line I posted) VERY SLOWLY and VERY EVENLY. Don't tolerate mistakes and be EXTREMELY critical of how accurate you are. Learn to use the bare minimum of pressure from the left hand too. I sometimes practice and play lines with the left hand thumb barely touching the neck. This is what benson does too btw...
Also, work on all picking combinations.- All downstrokes
- all upstrokes
- alternate starting on up
- alternate starting on down
- directional/economy
- rest strokes
- free strokes
- slurs
- pulloffs
Work on music, not finger exercises. Don't waste time running finger patterns in an unmusical way.
Isolate passages and repeat them for 5-10 minutes at a time until you are really working the muscles. Part of playing guitar is athletics and you need to treat it as such. However, remember that the muscles and tendons you are dealing with are VERY SMALL and VERY FRAGILE so don't use hand exercisers or balls or anything like that.
The building of technique on guitar requires LONG HOURS of repetition over MANY MONTHS (if not years). Your progress needs to be measured in 3-6 month periods, not days or weeks.
[edit]
Several folks have asked me about this and I wanted to clarify. I allow my right hand ring finger to graze against the pickguard when I play. I play from the wrist with an assist from my elbow. I developed the elbow technique during my studies in the '70s with Dennis Sandole. Later on, I switched back to the wrist when studying with Pat Martino and I believe playing from the wrist allows for a looser swing feel. However, after my spinal surgery about 6-7 years ago, I suffered permanent nerve damage to my right arm and find that picking from the elbow is easier for me in some cases. However, I would not advise students starting out to pick from the elbow but it's a balance. If you're reasonably proficient from the elbow, I wouldn't advocate changing. Basically, the feel and groove is the most important thing. If you've got that, don't worry about the other stuff. Also, the music will dictate the technique. Work on the music you want to play and your technique will adapt to it.Last edited by jzucker; 05-10-2011 at 10:04 AM.
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05-08-2011 02:12 PM
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Good points!
I always found this very inspiring(and a little bit scary..) as an example of playing music even when you play scales. It's probably been posted before but it's still worth a look.
Even if it is not an example of practicing slow, he is starting slow(ish) and speeding up, and everything is delivered perfect.
JensLast edited by JensL; 05-08-2011 at 03:16 PM.
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love that metheny vid
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Originally Posted by jzucker
Nice to see confirmation of many of the ways I have been taught to practice--although, you forgot, interestingly enough, practicing using directional-economy picking.
I do start out with music non specific fretboard exercises,however, because I have certain technical issues which required special remedial attention-- those involving 4 fret sequences and left-right hand coordination.
Another music non specific exercise (actually, since it involves chromatic scales, you can say it is music related
) but fretboard related (fretboard studies?) I have been assigned and practice are a series of exercises designed exactly to develop left finger independence--to be able to play a note with any finger--but this involves not just thinking of "four continuous fret sequences" but also the fret above and the fret above--ie, stretching when necessary.
It is interesting to measure progress in years and months--I have been told that basic fingerboard mastery will be a 3-4 year endeavor alone. But I have also internalized the following--practicing mistakes and poor form means one's muscles are internalizing mistakes. Thus, even the simplest passage is practiced such that I try to perfect the smallest incremental block (note to note) before attempting the next increment.
Randalljazz here or on AAJ had this nice story about practicing with a bag of pebbles --every time you practiced something correct, take one pebble out of the bag. Make a mistake? Put em all back in.
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Excellent, thanks! Originally Posted by jzucker
the trick to playing fast it to play slow. SERIOUSLY. Don't ever use the metronome to try to gradually bump up your tempo artificially over time. Practice long lines (like the martino line I posted) VERY SLOWLY and VERY EVENLY. Don't tolerate mistakes and be EXTREMELY critical of how accurate you are. Learn to use the bare minimum of pressure from the left hand too. I sometimes practice and play lines with the left hand thumb barely touching the neck. This is what benson does too btw...
Also, work on all picking combinations.- All downstrokes
- all upstrokes
- alternate starting on up
- alternate starting on down
- rest strokes
- free strokes
- slurs
- pulloffs
Work on music, not finger exercises. Don't waste time running finger patterns in an unmusical way.
Isolate passages and repeat them for 5-10 minutes at a time until you are really working the muscles. Part of playing guitar is athletics and you need to treat it as such. However, remember that the muscles and tendons you are dealing with are VERY SMALL and VERY FRAGILE so don't use hand exercisers or balls or anything like that.
The building of technique on guitar requires LONG HOURS of repetition over MANY MONTHS (if not years). Your progress needs to be measured in 3-6 month periods, not days or weeks.
Also , beware of random advice from folks who don't have great chops.
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My first time seeing that Metheny vid'. Thanks, Jens!
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Great advice!
Do you think that chops are more than just speed? Don't we need special pointy guitars to play fast?
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yes, chops is more than just speed and no, you don't need any particular kind of fingers. Originally Posted by Stackabones
Great advice!
Do you think that chops are more than just speed? Don't we need special pointy guitars to play fast?
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Great thread! And speaking of Benson, I have lately been marveling at how he can attain such speed, control, and clarity with his unorthodox grip on the pick. Other guitarists with speed, such as Andreas Oberg, use a grip I've seen among rock guitarists with chops. And yes, it does make sense not to practice non-musical exercises. Unfortunately this dictum is not adhered to in other musical idioms when practicing one's technique...
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that's the 'painful' truth... Originally Posted by jzucker
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inspiring and scary... Originally Posted by JensL
it's great to see/hear what's possible when someone is deeply in the music...
i'm halfway through with transcribing this (from the point after the interpreter stops talking)...
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Ha! Beautiful. Originally Posted by Stackabones
Don't we need special pointy guitars to play fast?
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that metheny clip just gets me every time. what a serious motherfucker. Pat has a new solo guitar album out this summer, maybe next month? I can't wait for that one to come out.
great tips Jack.
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Thanks Jake. I want to pick up some of your stuff too. Originally Posted by Jake Hanlon
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Originally Posted by NSJ
Randalljazz here or on AAJ had this nice story about practicing with a bag of pebbles --every time you practiced something correct, take one pebble out of the bag. Make a mistake? Put em all back in.
i'm touched, nav.
it was the legendary barrios (greatest player of the first half of the 20th C, and, arguably, the most significant guitarist-composer ever) who practiced the 100 pebble method. he applied it to entire pieces!
pardon the hi-jack, jack.Last edited by randalljazz; 05-10-2011 at 08:15 AM. Reason: kain't spel
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I read an interesting quote from Fareed Haque recently, wherein he states that his chops (specifically, his speed) increased dramatically when he started working on rhythms, and using a shaker to play along with CDs. I'm intrigued by this - has anyone else had this experience? Seems counter-intuitive, since you're not actually playing the guitar.
http://www.fareed.com/lessons_natural.html
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Several folks have asked me about this and I wanted to clarify. I allow my right hand ring finger to graze against the pickguard when I play. I play from the wrist with an assist from my elbow. I developed the elbow technique during my studies in the '70s with Dennis Sandole. Later on, I switched back to the wrist when studying with Pat Martino and I believe playing from the wrist allows for a looser swing feel. However, after my spinal surgery about 6-7 years ago, I suffered permanent nerve damage to my right arm and find that picking from the elbow is easier for me in some cases. However, I would not advise students starting out to pick from the elbow but it's a balance. If you're reasonably proficient from the elbow, I wouldn't advocate changing. Basically, the feel and groove is the most important thing. If you've got that, don't worry about the other stuff. Also, the music will dictate the technique. Work on the music you want to play and your technique will adapt to it.
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I'd like to hear more about how he did that, before I really make an opinion, but there's all sorts of things I've worked on that seem counterintuitive/productive to the end results I got... Originally Posted by FatJeff
For example, I've often said here that the year or so I basically took off of practicing lead playing and spent really focusing on comping and arranging chord melodies (I still played leads, I just didn't actively practice working on scales or technique etc.) was actually the best thing I ever did for my lead playing...knowing chords ALL over the neck really opened up the fretboard...
Now I split my practice time up more evenly, but the rewards are still there from that year of obsession!
And then, as Jack says here, practicing slow to play fast--that's another "works in it's own reverse" idea...but it's true.
Certainly, getting more "kinesthetic" with rhythms and such is a good idea--I'd just like to pick Fareed's brain and get an idea as to how he makes the direct connection...
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Well, I'll just have to see for myself if it works. I'm out of school for the summer, and I've decided that since I have a lot of other stuff going on in my life, that guitar is taking something of a back-seat until the fall. So, just about 60 minutes of daily maintenance practice for me through the summer, coupled with some interval singing and the shaker thing during my commute.
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I've been studying your book sheets of sound, how do you suggest to keep these excercises musical and not play them as excercises?
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Originally Posted by mastodonovan
- try integrating them into ii v type progressions.
- Learn to connect them with other patterns in 8th notes.
- Learn to come into the pattern from other lines
- learn to come out of the pattern into other lines
- Analyze the patterns and learn to apply them over different type of chords.
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Pat... wow. Great vid, Thanks. I notice tiny results in about 6 weeks in my own practice time; slow and painful... Someday... sigh.
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