Help improving speed and accuracy

[Cliff]

200? Wow!
And way to go BenoA!
I had another go at exercise 25 last night, after having given it a break the previous evening while I concentrated on my left hand. Well, I could barely do 150bpm. I took a break, then came back, and I was struggling at 140. Took another break, found myself struggling at 130. Went to bed feeling very pissed off. I'm beginning to wonder if I wasn't listening properly when I thought I'd reached 165...

[MetalDaze]

Going to bed sometimes works for me! This might be total hogwash, but when I'm burned out practicing something and leave it alone for a day, I come back at it better than before. It's almost like my brain processes what I was trying to do offline and gets a little better at it while I'm resting.

[javert]

Yeah, sometimes it's better just to relax and put the guitar away. That said, I'm not good at actually doing it. Sometimes I get hell bent on making something work and keep going, yet it seems that it only gets worse It becomes a mind game at that point...

[BenoA]

Tonite, I struggle to reach 136 bpm for exercise #25 but I made it. I'm keeping track of all of this on paper.

And also started working further to page 24 for exercises 51-55 as javert suggested. Anyway, according to Stetina I could move forward as I had reached over 132 bpm for ex #25 (see bottom of page 19 in his book).

Anyway, ex #51-55 made me feel like I was re-learning the instrument. I mainly concentrated on 51 to 53 for tonite. Very slowly and will move up from there.

I also noticed that the way I hold the pick has changed and makes me have a better control of it. I think someone mentionned it earlier in this thread but now I hold the pick the same way no matter playing slow or faster (I think it is a good thing).

I have to add that I traded my regular picks for Jazz III (did that a couple of weeks ago, see another thread I had started in this forum).

That thread has stimulated me. I'll be trying putting around 1h30 every day in the coming weeks only on those plain exercises. Anyway, I kicked the singer out of our band and we're looking for a new front man, so until then, I'll put my guitar time into my technique.

Thanks Cliff for starting this thread!

[Twitch]

Wow, a lot of work can go down the drain after even the slightest nerve injury. I hit my elbow real hard about a month ago in the joint and my arm was numb feeling for days. Didnt think much of it until now a month later and I still cant down pick as fast and as long as I used to be able to do before the incident. At this point, I hope its a matter of rehab and not permanent. It SUPER frustrating, knowing you could do it before and you cant now. Its really making the studio work a real drag. After so many tries of certain songs, my arm goes out and I have to settle for the more moderately paced tracks to do. The real pisser is that it has affected my alternate picking NONE WHATSOEVER. WTF??

To better explain my issue, its like a fatigue that comes on that cant be overcome like normal fatigue can. I send the impulses to my hand and some of them just get ignored by the nerve no matter how hard I try to make my hand do its thing. Once it starts, thats end game for the night. Again, its really irritating and it scares the hell out of me. I used to take a little pride in my down picking ability, now theres a chance it will never be what it was.

[javert]

When I was practicing technique a lot, it would turn into these 3 hour sessions, and while I was able to keep it up a while, it was too much long term and I ended up wearing myself out. I'll definitely get cracking on the exercises again at some point. At the moment, I'm having too much fun with the band! It took me years to finally find somebody to play with after being out of the game for many years.

[BenoA]

Forgot to report last evening practice... Exercice #25 was still difficult, managed to reach 140 bpm but had to try a lot.

I also added Mozard Ronda Alla Turca in my session. I remember trying it out a long time ago but had never finished it. This time, I'll be keeping it and it covers a lot technique: alternate, inside/outside, long 16th notes sequence.

So how the others are doing?

[Trem]

I got this book so i could see what it is you guys are talking about
A lot of this stuff is things i did practice a lot when i was younger, I know the basics here, but this does kind of help to put it into some structure for a productive practice routine.

The book i first bought and pretty much learned from was the metal method tape, anyone remember that? lol. Wonder how many of us bought that Bought mine in what 1985, lol. Heck i've met guys who were ripping guitar players in fairly big bands that said that was what they first learned from.

Anyway, so i had to check out this #25.
Once i saw it i was like oh ok, i knew i could play that kind of thing fairly fast.
So without thinking i tried it at 220bpm - and yeah realized 220bpm is ludicrous, lol.
But i can do it at 200 - which still is ridiculous really - i don't think i'd use that lick much at that tempo. 160 - 180 is still pretty fast and your doing pretty good at that speed.

For those wondering it's the open string gary moore or iron maiden somewhere in time type motif.

Anyway i skipped along till #29 as it's one thing that always gave me trouble. Single string ascending/descending. I have always avoided it. I practiced it till i was blue in the face when i was a kid till i just said "aw fuckit, i hate that lick anyway"
Will be praaacticing it again,...for as long as i can stand it.

[Cliff]

I'm beginning to think I hate #25. Tuesday and Wednesday night I just couldn't get anywhere with it, not past 120. Last night was looking similar, so I practiced the chromatic scale up and down a single string (can't remember if it's #29, and I don't have the book to hand). I thought: well, playing an open string very fast is one thing, but I want to play scales too, so I may as well put more effort into that one. I think I got up to around 115 or so before deciding to give it a rest. I can tell I'm going to struggle to get much faster here. Then I played through the Yngwie-style licks on a single string, but at a fairly slow pace. I really like the way these sound, so I hope I can get those up to speed (funny how many rock licks don't really work slowly but sound awesome fast). Just before turning in for the night, I had another go at #25 and got up to 160, kind of.
According to my margin notes, I'd reached 170 previously, whereas the 160 last night felt very flaky - I had to try several times on each string before getting it right (in fact, anything above 120 still feels flaky). I think it's not so much a speed issue for me as a playing in time thing. When I was on top of this, I could listen to the metronome and immediately subdivide the beat into fours and get going - something I couldn't do before. Now I'm back at the place where it takes me a while to synch my right hand up to the beat. I think maybe it's something to do with listening to the guitar rather than the beat, and/or relaxing into the beat. I think too much. Also, I find to play at this sort of speed the pick has to be very lightly touching the strings, which means I sometimes miss notes, or the slightest change in resistance means the notes I'm playing waver in and out of time, so it just doesn't feel solid. Maybe I was just being too easy on myself before and now I'm getting more discerning.
I'm going to keep at it for the time being, though - maybe try recording myself and playing back over the weekend so I've got a better idea of what it actually sounds like.

[Jack Napalm]

Give yourself a day or two rest from those exercises. Work on something totally different. Let your muscles relax a bit from that work. Its not unlike working out.

[Cliff]

Okay, thanks - I'll give that a try. I was worried that if I stopped, I'd lose whatever magical skill I'd developed that let me do it in the first place. It's like it's too fast to think about, so you have to trust your body to do it. Me and my body don't have a very strong relationship.
One other thing I noticed: #25 is designed to develop the right hand, so the left is as simple as could be: just fret the first out of every four notes. I noticed that even with it that simple, as I moved down the fretboard towards the headstock, I'd start going out of time. It's almost like the simple act of thinking to move my left hand was enough to put my right hand off.

[javert]

I second what Jack Napalm said, leave it alone for a while, work on something else. There is such a thing as practicing something too much. And those chromatic runs are quite difficult to do cleanly, I recall.

I remember that when I was wokring on #25, it was sometimes a struggle to duplicate the performance from the day before, but once I was able to do 150-160 consistently, going from there to 200 was actually pretty smooth as the basic movement and everything was pretty much down at that point.

[Cliff]

Awesome - that's encouraging to know. Where your earlier experiences anything like mine? BenoA, how about you - do you know what in particular you need to work on at the moment? And is the Ronda Alla Turca the bit that the Karate Kid plays at the end of Crossroads? I remember trying to play that back in the 80s. You can imagine how that worked out for me
Trem - I never heard of the metal method. Wish I had, cause it might have saved me a lot of trouble now. Then again, even though I had loads of free time back then, I was even lazier .

[len]

And is the Ronda Alla Turca the bit that the Karate Kid plays

don't know who this kid is but i do know
1)he is playing his axe backwards
2)he is way better than me
3)he has great taste in guitars


Cliff
keep practitsing

[BenoA]

The book i first bought and pretty much learned from was the metal method tape, anyone remember that? lol. Wonder how many of us bought that Bought mine in what 1985, lol. Heck i've met guys who were ripping guitar players in fairly big bands that said that was what they first learned from.

I had something from them... Don't remember if ever I tried to learn something out of it. It was only a bunch of licks, a small booklet and a tape cassette.

Anyway, so i had to check out this #25.
Once i saw it i was like oh ok, i knew i could play that kind of thing fairly fast.
So without thinking i tried it at 220bpm - and yeah realized 220bpm is ludicrous, lol.
But i can do it at 200 - which still is ridiculous really - i don't think i'd use that lick much at that tempo. 160 - 180 is still pretty fast and your doing pretty good at that speed.

I reached 147 bpm tonite. You have a good right hand Trem.

Anyway i skipped along till #29 as it's one thing that always gave me trouble. Single string ascending/descending. I have always avoided it. I practiced it till i was blue in the face when i was a kid till i just said "aw fuckit, i hate that lick anyway"
Will be praaacticing it again,...for as long as i can stand it.

Me too, I'm having a lot of difficulties with these.

I remember that when I was wokring on #25, it was sometimes a struggle to duplicate the performance from the day before, but once I was able to do 150-160 consistently, going from there to 200 was actually pretty smooth as the basic movement and everything was pretty much down at that point.

Thanks Javert!!! I'll keep practicing... I'm not too far.

BenoA, how about you - do you know what in particular you need to work on at the moment?

This book makes me feel like I should re-learn everything! Stupid thing is that I had the book for like over 20 years but never really spent much time with it. Just a few times here and there... It's a matter of discipline buddy! And I'm a lazy dude!

As said above, I reached 147 BPM quite confortably for #25. Worked also on the mechanics #51-55. And did 3 notes per string scale all over the neck.

And is the Ronda Alla Turca the bit that the Karate Kid plays at the end of Crossroads?

I think Len gave you the answer! It's not from the Crossroad movie, in that it's some thing from Paganini if I recall well.

The kid in that clip is way better than I am (facepalm) but he modifies the melody. The Rondo is a piano tune and I try to stay to the original! I'm going to keep practicing.

[len]

Benoa ,you know that kid ?

[javert]

This book makes me feel like I should re-learn everything! Stupid thing is that I had the book for like over 20 years but never really spent much time with it. Just a few times here and there... It's a matter of discipline buddy! And I'm a lazy dude!

Right on! When I started playing again after a long hiatus, I found that I was way more systematic and disciplined than I had ever been as a kid or teenager.

[BenoA]

Benoa ,you know that kid ?

Nope don't know the kid

[Trem]

Here is a well written article on a way to look at and execute your practice in general.
It includes some of the things that people have related in this thread already by experience.

http://www.guitarworld.com/cerebral-...-practice-time

[len]

is this guy really playing exersize 25 ?
i just downloaded his books via means i would would rather not discuss,i have a trip to columbus georgia for work comin up this week and i am going to join Cliff's club sans his wife's insperational help