Help improving speed and accuracy

[RR2772]

No not yet though I am working towards it. Since Lefty has the answers and the teaching experience I do agree he must post some videos too so we can see how it is done. Can you do this Lefty?

Anyway I am now back to SM starting from exercise 1 with my left hand. Playing along Yngwie shows my left hand is not up to speed but my right hand might. I have written down where my bmp were but none of those are at 160 bpm rather at 130's level which means I struggle playing faster left hand stuff such as Far beyond the sun.

I am thinking of trying to master just one SM exercise a day up to speed 160 bpm +. So I got the next 198 or so days filled with something new to learn and apply. Some maybe tedious and easy as I allready got through them at some point but I still got 95% left to do of SM in total. I will still do the Yngwie stuff on the side.

What are your practise plan so you can improve with time?

[leftykingv2]

I teach 54 hours a week so maybe a web cam would be a good investment. Getting one won't be the problem. Finding someone to show me how to use it will be! I really suck on the computer!

[RR2772]

You have a digital camera?

Get a web camera. Connect it to pc and follow the install program.

If it is a labtop it might allready have one built in

[leftykingv2]

I don't have a digital camera but my laptop is fairly new so maybe the program is already on it.

[leftykingv2]

I know for a fact the laptop itself doesn't have a camera.

[Cliff]

Hey Lefty - installing a webcam is easier than learning how to sweep pick . If you have new-ish laptop, it should be just a matter of plugging in a USB webcam, then the computer will detect it and ask if you want to download the driver (maybe - it might already be on the computer). You just click okay and that's about it. After that you can sign up for a free skype account and you're good to go for doing remote guitar lessons.

[leftykingv2]

I guess all that's left to do is just find a decent webcam. I'll hit radio shack or best buy up sometime this week. The skype idea sounds cool and very useful as well. Do you guys have skype accounts?

[RR2772]

Skype yes. My video is done with a digital camera Canon Ixus 80 IS. Uploaded to hard drive (pc finds it when I plug it in) and then youtube (takes time). Otherwise my Asus EEE pc laptop has a webcam built in. There is a little eye in the top center and it works when I use Skype. Last I can also use my Sony Ericsson Xperia mini 10 cell phone to shoot a video clip with.

[Cliff]

Yep, I have Skype too.

Anders, my practice routine is basically the same as the video I posted a couple of pages back, though I haven't been following it for the last three or four days. This weekend I tried instead to get my Black Star licks a little better and see if I could play them all one after another. Here's my current progress (played at half speed):

[RR2772]

Sounds better than the last few videos owerall Cliff. No big mistakes or noise to my ears. Blackstar is one of the few slow songs with some fast licks/phrases in it. Keep at it and develop left hand + right hand.

I am now following SM and are on exercise 2 today. I can play 1-2 now at 160 bpm. I am also looking into exercise 4-5 which I am not used to.

How are you doing with these execises 1-5 in SM?

[Cliff]

Thanks! I was quite pleased with this, until my wife and kids heard it and started pulling faces at all the out-of-tune bends. I think I really need to work on those. Once I have those down, and the faster licks feel comfortable, I'll start increasing the speed. That's really good news about exercises 1 and 2. Are you playing at 4 notes per beat? That's very fast. I don't practice these any more, but I certainly didn't get up to that speed. For left-hand strength, I've been concentrating on trills. For two-finger trills, I practice each of the possible six finger combinations: 1 and 2, 1 and 3, 1 and 4, 2 and 3 etc. Another good exercise is something called 'ladders', which really helps with keeping the left-hand close to the fretboard. Search for 'pebber brown ladders' on youtube to see a description of the exercises.

[RR2772]

Yes the string bending could use some work out but do not let your family or anything else get to you! It is were you were and you can only improve.

Exercise 1, 2 and 3 in SM are pretty much down and so is 6, 7 and 8 at the 160 bpm. I do them a lot and since I have started to use the metronome nearly all the time totally set on getting it down the results comes out positive. Besides getting used to it owerall. Playing with a cleaner tone and my strat standing up with an amp that I am not that crazy about sound wise. Eric Clapton used one like it in the mid '80s. It is all about new habits of playing.

Yes all 4 fingers too for exercise 1, 2, 3 and all. I always used my pinky from day 1. It was there so use it. The down pick on the beat is what I go fo as I have yet to find that red cassette that came with SM to hear it correctly. I did find the tape for heavy metal lead guitar volume 2 also Troy Stetina the other day. Now where is the book? Any way it will be presented in the next video I guess.

It sounds like you are doing a version of exercise 8 in SM? I will look into Pebber Brown.

Now having tons of guitar material is all well and good but I stick with SM and the Yngwie stuff for right now. One exercise at the time to get down then I can take stock of where I am.

[Cliff]

Now having tons of guitar material is all well and good but I stick with SM and the Yngwie stuff for right now. One exercise at the time to get down then I can take stock of where I am.

Totally agree. I mention the Pebber Brown trill exercises because they're a much more intense version of exercise 8 in SM. I don't think there's an equivalent of the ladder exercise in SM, and I've found it useful in the past. What I meant by 4 notes per beat is, are you actually hammering four notes for every beat of the metronome: something like 11 notes per second? I tried my 3-notes per string picking exercises last night, and at first struggled to play at any sort of speed. I gave it a rest, practiced exercise 1 and a bit of legato, then went back to the picking exercise. This time around I noticed my left hand was sticking much closer to the fretboard and I had lots more success. I need to figure out the most efficient way to warm up so I can get to that point - it seems that when I start playing in the evening the left hand is always moving too much.

[RR2772]

I really don't warm up but grab the guitar, turn on the metronome and play the exercises one more time. The thing I used to do in the '90s was to use a gripmaster for 5 minutes various ways to warm up the fingers.

Yes all 4 notes in exercise 1 SM hammer on. First note is a down stroke but I do not count how many notes I hit just listen to the click and making sure I keep up with it.

So this little intense work out of the first 2 pages 10-11 of SM pays of for me in that the Yngwie licks come of better and exercise 33 goes close to the 160 bmp too. No I am not kidding here. Owerall my chops maybe comming back. (What chops for playing faster stuff? They were never there)

For exercise 1 I have the tempos written down 120, 132, 144 and now 160 but also 168 as I just tried to see if I could.

I do not get hung up on the hand movement to much. As for the 64 note Yngwie lick I can defend it and I have found that my hand position needs to change to play it which makes smaller finger movement. It was too clumsy and not up to speed. The first time I learned it did feel akward to even play it but I stick with it getting better all the time.

[RR2772]

So the ideal practise rutine with the owerall goal is to improve where you are when it comes down playing guitar would be?

1: Have the guitar nearby along with the metronome and the sheet music of choice.
2: Decide what you would like to accomplish and believe, expect you will get it with some time.
3: Always ad one new thing to learn each day and master it.
4: Always work on your weak spots the most or the areas that needs to be looked at.
5: Focus on one thing at the time. There are tons of material to learn but master just one at the time.
6: By daily goals your playing improves greatly within short time.

Do we agree or have something to ad?