Need Some Technique Advice

[supersonic]

Use shortish phrases and gradually build up, in length and speed. Also string skipping arpeggios. Think of your right hand as a motor, keep it running.

 

[Bob Savage]

That's typically the advice of 99.9% of teachers, but then I saw Shawn Lane saying the opposite-advising me to just go for it as fast as I possibly can at all times then work on quality, lol. That's all I needed to hear to support my lack of disciplined approach

I manage to make this upside down approach work, albeit my technique can quickly turn into a slop fest. Just another viewpoint to balance in..probably should try everything in my quest to reign supreme

That may have worked for Shawn because he was the only guy to ever actually go back and work on the quality part.

There's no way to dog Shawn's technique, but the advice of learning something fast and then cleaning up later goes against the methodology of just about every technique ever taught, from walking to talking to learning a musical instrument to martial arts and sports. Form is extremely important and only freaks like Shawn can generally get away with anything different.

 

[Aristocat]

That's typically the advice of 99.9% of teachers, but then I saw Shawn Lane saying the opposite-advising me to just go for it as fast as I possibly can at all times then work on quality, lol. That's all I needed to hear to support my lack of disciplined approach

I manage to make this upside down approach work, albeit my technique can quickly turn into a slop fest. Just another viewpoint to balance in..probably should try everything in my quest to reign supreme

That may have worked for Shawn because he was the only guy to ever actually go back and work on the quality part.

There's no way to dog Shawn's technique, but the advice of learning something fast and then cleaning up later goes against the methodology of just about every technique ever taught, from walking to talking to learning a musical instrument to martial arts and sports. Form is extremely important and only freaks like Shawn can generally get away with anything different.

He was on another planet musically.

 

[bulletproof_funk]

From my own experience with teaching myself to pick faster and more consistent at speed, you need to get a feel for what it's like to play fast, playing things slowly alone hadn't helped me much. When you get past a certain speed it's so much different than playing slow, your muscle memory for slow playing no longer applies, you need to train your fingers to move at the faster speeds in tempo. For example, I saw a Jeff Loomis instructional video clip where he played perfectly at speed, but it was actually hard for him to play the same lick slowly because his muscle memory hadn't been trained to play sweeps slow, but he was perfect at speed. I also don't believe there's any one way to learn something, everyone thinks differently and learns differently, so there's nothing wrong with trying new approaches, break out of your box so to speak.

It helped me to try making up a fixed pattern you can practice over a metronome, like 3 notes per string over 3 strings (9 notes in a major or minor scale), so that you start on the quarter note and end the 9-note ascending run also on a quarter note, using them as "guides." I actually found it more helpful to play a real drum beat through a PA speaker or spare amp (who cares if it sounds like ass for the purposes of practicing). Start on the down stroke, your 3rd note will end on a down stroke, meaning the first note of the next string will start and end on the up stroke: repeat for the 3rd string. Try at around 110 - 120 bpm to start. I personally found it more difficult going slower than 100 bpm for this.

Some people could see this as an opportunity to economy pick or mini-sweep from the 1st string 3rd note to 2nd string 1st note, all on the down stroke across 2 strings. This pattern is more irregular and will take more practice if you're not used to it, but it may work better for you, won't know till you try it.

Also, there's your guitar setup and choice of picks. I found it easier to pick faster with a floating trem, there's more give when picking fast and the guitar doesn't feel like it's fighting back so much. On my Ibanez Edge Zero trem, I found it easier to play without the stop bar that prevents the trem from fully floating (it's a set of counter-springs pulling the trem fixed to the body). And if you're not using a Jazz III style pick, I highly recommend giving it a fair chance. My personal favorite variant is the Dava Jazz Grips. I've played both Dunlop Sharps and the smaller Jazzs and there's a big difference in how more nimble the Jazz style picks feel.

My humble 2 cents... from a basement player.

 

[Aristocat]

From my own experience with teaching myself to pick faster and more consistent at speed, you need to get a feel for what it's like to play fast, playing things slowly alone hadn't helped me much. When you get past a certain speed it's so much different than playing slow, your muscle memory for slow playing no longer applies, you need to train your fingers to move at the faster speeds in tempo. For example, I saw a Jeff Loomis instructional video clip where he played perfectly at speed, but it was actually hard for him to play the same lick slowly because his muscle memory hadn't been trained to play sweeps slow, but he was perfect at speed. I also don't believe there's any one way to learn something, everyone thinks differently and learns differently, so there's nothing wrong with trying new approaches, break out of your box so to speak.

It helped me to try making up a fixed pattern you can practice over a metronome, like 3 notes per string over 3 strings (9 notes in a major or minor scale), so that you start on the quarter note and end the 9-note ascending run also on a quarter note, using them as "guides." I actually found it more helpful to play a real drum beat through a PA speaker or spare amp (who cares if it sounds like ass for the purposes of practicing). Start on the down stroke, your 3rd note will end on a down stroke, meaning the first note of the next string will start and end on the up stroke: repeat for the 3rd string. Try at around 110 - 120 bpm to start. I personally found it more difficult going slower than 100 bpm for this.

Some people could see this as an opportunity to economy pick or mini-sweep from the 1st string 3rd note to 2nd string 1st note, all on the down stroke across 2 strings. This pattern is more irregular and will take more practice if you're not used to it, but it may work better for you, won't know till you try it.

Also, there's your guitar setup and choice of picks. I found it easier to pick faster with a floating trem, there's more give when picking fast and the guitar doesn't feel like it's fighting back so much. On my Ibanez Edge Zero trem, I found it easier to play without the stop bar that prevents the trem from fully floating (it's a set of counter-springs pulling the trem fixed to the body). And if you're not using a Jazz III style pick, I highly recommend giving it a fair chance. My personal favorite variant is the Dava Jazz Grips. I've played both Dunlop Sharps and the smaller Jazzs and there's a big difference in how more nimble the Jazz style picks feel.

My humble 2 cents... from a basement player.

I appreciate the insight.

I switch between Jazz III's and a Redbear Lil Jazzer that I've had forever. Consistency is the issue for me as I never developed a proper right hand technique. I can switch between two strings at a time but it's really all about a metronome and precision at this point.

 

[nevusofota]

Learn a few of Nuno's songs. My favorite right hand in rock guitar.

 

[bulletproof_funk]

I appreciate the insight.

I switch between Jazz III's and a Redbear Lil Jazzer that I've had forever. Consistency is the issue for me as I never developed a proper right hand technique. I can switch between two strings at a time but it's really all about a metronome and precision at this point.

Another thing I found helped was shortening my guitar strap as to bring the guitar higher up so your right arm is bent slightly over 90 degrees at the elbow and feels relaxed where you can pick from your elbow and flow down to your wrist and fingers, the key is for your arm to feel relaxed. I rest the middle of my forearm on the guitar body as leverage when picking, almost like a pivot or fulcrum (it's not fixed though to allow my arm to move up and down slightly to center my pick across the string I'm playing). Check out John Petrucci and how he keeps his guitar fairly high up. Again, something else to try.

 

[Mudder]

Two things to buy and use.

Metronome
Troy Stetina's "speed mechanics for lead guitar"

done.

 

[Shawn Lutz]

what I did when I was woodshedding was just play scales and arpeggios with a metronome and pick every note. Come up with as many variations or sequences as you can (3, 4, 6, 8, 16 note). Concentrate on alternate picking ans economy picking. Start slow and stay relaxed. Gradually up the beats per minute. Before long you be playing DiMeola stuff .

When I first started on guitar I was blessed with decent speed in my left hand so I cheated a lot playing Rhoads and Van Halen solos. When Yngwie came out my weak ass pick hand was exposed big time so I just made an effort to work on it as I described and it worked for me YMMV.

 

[mdc1mdc11]

that VAI workout book is really good as is that Gamble book. However, it will only get you so far as you need to play real things.

 

[mdc1mdc11]

I switch between Jazz III's and a Redbear Lil Jazzer that I've had forever. Consistency is the issue for me as I never developed a proper right hand technique. I can switch between two strings at a time but it's really all about a metronome and precision at this point.

I used to use the jazz IIIs then moved to the max grip ones, and now I am use the Petrucci jazz picks. Really like those, just enough grip not to slip and it grabs the string without slowing you down.

 

[Ventura]

FWIW, I still can't play arps to save my life - least not with regularity and consistency. I'm pissed. 30 years of playing guitar is to me, 27 years noodling, 3 years learning. But whenever I've been jammin' or the like, even a couple gigs, cats always say I'm very smooth and fluid. I sound like "me", I like to hang onto notes, I love legato style licks, and I've got a strong left hand. Everyone's got their own way, you know? Maybe mine's not uber-shred-death-tastic speed, but I've got my own thing going on that people seemingly approve of.

Still, I wanna get the arps down... I have arpeggio envy

 

[Vrad]

There's no miracle to this. No tricks. Find Paul Gilbert's first video and pull out the first couple exercises. Take those ascending and descending patterns and play them at a comfortable speed WITH A METRONOME. It should sound all clicky in the pick-attack. Pay close attention to crossing the strings, I had issues with that in the beginning.

Be patient, it takes a while.

 

[Aristocat]

Thanks for all of the advice guys. Once finals are over, I'll have a little more time to really dive in.

 

[Ventura]

Thanks for all of the advice guys. Once finals are over, I'll have a little more time to really dive in.

Reward yourself with post-exam fretboard frustrations

 

[garey77]

For me, I really found that working on my inside string/outside string picking, and cross picking helped my non-legato game. To work on that, I find that odd number of notes per string exercises really work. It makes you switch from up strokes to down strokes every other string, instead of playing an even number of notes per string, which always start and end the same way. And like Guthrie says (and I'm paraphrasing), you have to feed your left hand good information from your right.

 

[supersonic]

For me, I really found that working on my inside string/outside string picking, and cross picking helped my non-legato game. To work on that, I find that odd number of notes per string exercises really work. It makes you switch from up strokes to down strokes every other string, instead of playing an even number of notes per string, which always start and end the same way. And like Guthrie says (and I'm paraphrasing), you have to feed your left hand good information from your right.

Great advice. Strict alternate picking is a good discipline.

 

[mdc1mdc11]

one other point about alternate picking, depending on what you are playing it generally won't work well with some passages, as it is more efficient to plan the picking strategy. multiple downstrokes or upstrokes. Whatever it takes to make it work. Al Dimeola, Shawn Lane, etc all do this. As an example try to play some of those Eric Johnson runs with alternative picking on adjacent strings, does not sound right as it requires a bunch of downstrokes on adjacent strings.