Increase both picking and fretting speed

[calin_the_dream]

I wanted to start this topic, because I couldn't find one (by searching and scrolling around) so, if there is one just excuse my ignorance.

So, my problem, which I think that many will share.

 

I did amazing progresses with Rocksmith, and now I can play close to 100% songs that I would not even dare to dream about one year ago....

 

BUT....

 

I feel that at a point my hands are limited in speed and I have no clue how to properly improve my technique. I'm not interested in going faster than Petrucci ( :P ) but I want to improve a little bit. For example: I can play at 100% difficulty the Iron Maiden pack except the solos where I'm absolutely overwhelmed.

I practice each day as much as I can, but I could use some guidance, and hopefully if one of you which do those amazing play-through videos would be kind to put in some ideas, thoughts and recommendations, many beginners from the RS community will be more than happy.

 

So thanks and I really hope that this thread will help many in becoming better guitar players.

 

Calin

[flyingturtle]

Congrats, man. Good to hear that Rocksmith improved your playing. And, yeah, while it's really good for learning rhythm, for learning solos, I still stick to traditional methods first.

 

Because there are so many notes flying at you during solos in Rocksmith, I'll just find the a good guitar tab for the song and then learn it on my own. Don't always relay on some tab from some freebie guitar site as they often have wrong notes. I'll often buy a tab book, or an instructional DVD, or just buy the song from guitarinstructor.com. They have tabs from Guitar World magazine and Hal Leanard. Professional quality and single songs are cheap, only $1 to $2 (in US dollars).

 

I practice the solo on my own, slowing down the MP3 of the song in a slow down tool, like Transcribe or Amazing Slow Downer on my computer, and looping small parts of the solo so I can remember the notes.  I slow it down to anywhere from 50 to 70 percent speed -- with my main emphasis on playing cleanly and in time. Speed isn't important here in the beginning. As I get better, i'll bump up the speed up, like another 10%, then practice. Repeat until I'm at 80% or higher. Then i'll try doing it in Rocksmith.

 

What's important is that you stay relaxed, so that's why you play slow at first. Most people tense up when they play fast and that leads to sloppy play or worse, tendon damage. I use to also play drums, and the key to playing fast is to stay relaxed and build up your speed that way. I use to just sit in front of TV with a guitar and practice picking fast, palm muting the strings, staying in time with a metronome.

 

To build up your fret hand speed and coordination with your picking hands. I just mainly practice scales and increasing speed with a metronome. Most popular scale is the minor pentatonic scale, used in everything from metal to rock to country, so learn that and play it in all 5 positions on the guitar neck. I also do scale patterns, like play the scale in groups of four:  play the 1st,2nd,3rd,4th of the scale then the 2nd,3rd,4th,5th note, then the 3rd,4th,5th,6th note, then 4th,5th,6th7th, etc. repeat until you run out of notes for that scale position on the neck. Or try different groupings.  Here's a good lesson on practicing scales:

http://www.justinguitar.com/en/SC-102-ScalePractice.php

 

After that you can try learning the major and minor scale, as that will come in handy, as well, but the pentatonic is the one most people learn first. Lots of Iron Maiden's riffs and solos are based off the pentatonic.

 

Later, you can try learning arpeggios (those are the notes from a scale that make up a chord). Once you learn those, you can use them to build your speed by learning sweep picking, which is basically arpeggios, played super fast, by just gliding your pick up or down several strings. This can be a very hard technique to build up though, so it'll take time to do well.

 

Other technique for building speed is learning legato. You play fast by not picking every note, but doing a combination of pull-offs and hammer-ons. Players like Satriani do this a lot, and it'll give a different sound. 

 

Here are some links:

 

You can find some good Iron Maiden tabs at guitarinstructor.com:

http://www.guitarinstructor.com/search/advancedSearch.do?keywords=iron+maiden&x=0&y=0

 

They also have backing tracks there, too, which are helpful. 

 

For speed building, in addition to what I said above, there are a bunch of speed exercises. I like Troy Stetina. I've got some of his DVD and books (that come with CDs).

 

Here's a YouTube sample of his Guitar Shred video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvGZn1bR95s

 

If you like his stuff, he's got video lesson for sale (at reasonable prices) here:

http://www.guitarinstructor.com/product/viewinstructor.do?contributorid=68884

- he goes over practice riffs, arpeggios, alternate picking, sample licks, etc.

 

I also like Frank Gambale speed building lessons. I got one of his early chop building videos from the 80s, and man, it's hliarious. So cheesy looking, but his stuff worked for me. Here a sample of it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GZDqBoSh7c

 

Lick Library has a lot of good speed learning DVDs too, like Andy James has a bunch of metal-based speed learning DVDs. I think he also did a DVD on learning Petrucci's playing style, too.

http://www.licklibrary.com/tutors/andy-james/dvds

 

Here's the link for Transcribe slow down tool. Try the demo for free. Totally worth the $40 (us dollars:

http://www.seventhstring.com/xscribe/download.html

 

A lot of people also like Amazing Slow Downer. It's good too, but I liked the Transcribe demo better.

http://www.ronimusic.com/

 

If this is all overwhelming for you, then I'd recommend checking out http://www.justinguitar.com/

 

There are a ton of lessons from beginner to intermediate there. Stuff from learning basic scales, to arpeggios, playing with songs, etc.  I don't know your skill level, so you may need to learn some basics, like how to bend strings, how to apply proper vibrato, etc.

 

A lot of metal also use techniques like pinch harmonics and tapping. Justin isn't a metal player, but he's got some useful lessons on those. He can explain things pretty clearly. And also try searching on YouTube.

 

I know this is a bit beyond what you asked for, but once you get to the ability to start playing solos of songs, especially metlal stuff,  it takes a lot of skill. At the very least, learning slowly by playing the song at a slow pace will help a lot. But I found also learning scales and doing exercises will help your coordination so you can learn solos quicker in the future.

 

Good luck!

 

Oh hey, I forgot to mention that Lick Library has a series of DVDs on learning Iron Maiden.  I really like Lick Library stuff.  It's a great way to learn stuff. Here is a sample of second DVD on Iron Maiden:

 

First DVD is here:

http://www.licklibrary.com/store/danny-gill/15562/learn-to-play-iron-maiden-dvd

 

 

 

 

[drewhark]

Nice videos. Ive been playing for a year and a couple months and i feel like im just turning the corner on this. Key is picking up and down (alternate picking) with a metronome at a slow pace at first. try using a pattern that involves 2 strings. it doesnt have to sound good. 

 

you can even practice alternate picking on rocksmith. take a song like metallicas jump in the fire and slow it down on riff repeater. make sure your picking up and down. it might feel weird at first but you have to get used to it to gain speed so start at a very slow speed.

 

You can pick up on this pretty quick you just have to practice it a lot and get used to that down, up, down, up.. formula

[Xacuit]

Thanks for the links to the tutorial dvd's at lick library they look really good .

Thanks Xacuit