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Post by painkiller on Sept 7, 2007 0:52:34 GMT -5
I have realized that the way I have increased the speed of my fingers is mostly just by playing. You play stuff over and over and eventually the muscles begin to develop, strengthen, and work with greater coordination. I later thought that by doing trills for as long as I could stand it as an exercise was helping my finger speed but then I wondered if I was actually faster or just imagining that I was. I do chromatics everyday primarily because I suck at them but also because I think they help with coordination, but not speed. Increasing speed by purely by playing alone is just not cutting it anymore though because I am not making any more progress. What are some good drills that you master shreders do to increase your finger speed? I'd also do drills that don't require a guitar, you know like stuff you could do while driving or sitting in class. But I don't know any good ones.
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Post by pcsmall on Sept 7, 2007 9:16:54 GMT -5
actually a lot of my increase in speed has been by using chromatics. there's this excercise that i copped out of Rock Disipline that goes as such... and then you just keep working that up the neck unitl you're starting the pattern on the 12th fret, then do it back down in reverse. just start out at a comfortable pace on the metronome (whatever that may be for you) and gradually increase the speed. it seems to have helped me.
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Post by logansc on Sept 7, 2007 21:09:51 GMT -5
just go like 3 notes say 12, 14, 15 on the 1st string and play them faster and faster every day. Then practice moving around different spots. Thats how I got faster. Working with a metronome is definitely good.
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Post by Torkin on Sept 11, 2007 11:25:21 GMT -5
Well your overall speed won't increase that much if you just focus on 1 ex. You could try doing chromatic exercises, but it won't help your runs too much, cause the picking and feel is different Try doing this: 1) choose a scale run that you would like to blast fast, and then sequence it in 3 note bits and play it down. 2) take an A minor scale and try moving up and down high e string in 4 note sequences - Malmsteen style
Hope that this makes sense, if not, I can post some ideas.
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Post by pcsmall on Sept 11, 2007 16:35:18 GMT -5
Well your overall speed won't increase that much if you just focus on 1 ex. You could try doing chromatic exercises, but it won't help your runs too much, cause the picking and feel is different Try doing this: 1) choose a scale run that you would like to blast fast, and then sequence it in 3 note bits and play it down. 2) take an A minor scale and try moving up and down high e string in 4 note sequences - Malmsteen style Hope that this makes sense, if not, I can post some ideas. what he said i will admit that part of the reason i threw my hat in with the chromatic exercise thingy was so i could play around with guitarpro
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Post by Torkin on Sept 13, 2007 9:57:10 GMT -5
Totally nothing wrong with that. If used properly, chromatics sound great and form DOS licks. It's just a big pain in the ass (or fingers to be more precise) to develop good speed with all 4 fingers. Here is where metronome comes in
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Post by Stefvorcide on Sept 13, 2007 10:08:45 GMT -5
chromatics are great... joel,s alternate pick 101 is good too.
pratice every scales/modes w/ metronome. (ascending, descendin', sequenced, string skiipin) both alt picked and legato. KILLER exercice. (which i got to admit, i never do... blame lazyness.)
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Post by jazziiiguy on Sept 21, 2007 16:48:00 GMT -5
Trills are the simplest. pick a fret and do a trill between every finger grouping, as fast as you can, for as long as you can. Chromatics are good, but I've gotten more benefit from altering the patterns instead of the usual 1-2-3-4 and 4-3-2-1. Try 1-3-2-4 ; 1-4-3-2 ; 1-4-2-3 and be sure to do their reverse patterns, too. Want a KILLER chromatic workout? Take those same finger patterns and play 'em on two strings. What I mean is like this: -------------------------------------- -------------------------------------- -------------------------------------- -----------------2---4-------2----4- etc. ---2---4-----1----3-----1-----3---- 1----3-------------------------------- That's also good to do if you have trouble alternate picking, because every time you ascend you're playing outside picking, and ever time you descend you're playing inside picking. (Watch your pick hand closely to see what I mean.) Sequences are the bomb for getting your speed up to par, or patterns that cycle around the scale so you can repeat them. Three note per string -- I'm not a fan, but they're good exercises. I like to look through tab books until I find something that looks like it'd be a good exercise. The best thing I've found for improving my chops (any technique) is to just find the most difficult part (the part that's most difficult for me, at least) and repeat it over and over and over, all over the fretboard, all string groups, with a metronome set at different speeds and accents. Then make up some new exercises with the same difficulty. I can usually make up new exercises for one specific problem for about three hours before my hands get tired from repeating the same difficulty. Then I just find something else to woodshed. Also, exercises are great, but I've found some of the best improvements I've made have come from real music. You can't learn something like Paganini's 5th, or Friedman's solo in Tornado Of Souls without developing some seriously badass chops in the process, and licks and phrases are often great exercises in and of themselves. (This thread really makes me wish the computers at the library had Guitar Pro. )
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Post by Johnny on Mar 30, 2008 20:01:18 GMT -5
Lately I've been doing a lot of pentatonics; when you only use a couple fingers for a lick, each finger has to do more work than three or four note per string patterns. It's amazing how hard some of those licks are to get really fast.
Take a lick like this:
[-5-8-5---------------------] [-------8--5-8-5------------] [----------------8--5-7-5---] [-------------------------7-] [---------------------------] [---------------------------]
Play in sixteenths with as much legato as possible. When your pinky gets tired of hammering and pulling, play it with alternate picking. Play it in triplets or sestuplets, too. After practicing that for a while, switch to something like this:
[-8-5------------------------] [-----8-5--8-5---------------] [--------------7-5--7-5------] [-----------------------7-5--] [----------------------------] [----------------------------]
Then combine the two:
[-5-8-5----8-5-----------------------] [-------8------8-5--5-8-5----8-5-----] [-------------------------7------7-5-] [------------------------------------] [------------------------------------] [------------------------------------]
Or maybe some straight hammers:
[----------------------------------------------5-7-5-7--] [-------------------------------------5-7-5-7-----------] [----------------------------5-7-5-7--------------------] [-------------------5-7-5-7-----------------------------] [----------5-7-5-7--------------------------------------] [-5-8-5-8-----------------------------------------------]
When combined with the first pattern:
[-5-8-5-------5-8------------------------------------] [-------8-5-8------5-8-5-------5-8-------------------] [------------------------7-5-7------5-7-5-------5-7--] [-----------------------------------------7-5-7------] [----------------------------------------------------] [----------------------------------------------------]
Patterns two and three combined make a kind of pivot pitch lick moving around the middle string. Mind the finger rolls.
[-8-5-------------------------------] [-----8-5-----5-8--8-5--------------] [---------5-7----------7-5-----5-7--] [--------------------------5-7------] [-----------------------------------] [-----------------------------------]
Here's a nifty Michael Angelo Batio warmup guaranteed to improve your chops:
[---------------------5-6-5---------------------] [-----------------5-6-------6-5-----------------] [-------------5-6---------------6-5-------------] [---------5-6-----------------------6-5---------] [-----5-6-------------------------------6-5-----] [-5-6---------------------------------------6-5-]
Use EVERY finger set, take each one across the fretboard, and pay strict attention to the picking. Ascending, alternate down and upstrokes for each string. So string six = downstroke, string five = upstroke, etc. Descending, play as a sweep, one upstroke. Move to diffeent areas of the neck.
Frethand warmups a la Dimebag:
[-----------------------------------------1-2-1-2--] [---------------------------------1-2-1-2----------] [-------------------------1-2-1-2------------------] [-----------------1-2-1-2--------------------------] [---------1-2-1-2----------------------------------] [-1-2-1-2------------------------------------------]
Play all legato, shift up a fret, repeat on strings 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6. Use finger combos 1-2, 1-3, 1-4. Take it up the board until your fingers frizzle.
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schweinhund
IG Old Sk00l Badass
She's a maniac on the floor
Posts: 677
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Post by schweinhund on Apr 5, 2008 17:08:03 GMT -5
Trills are really good. Troy Stetina has one killer in Speed Mechanix for lead guitar.
One really good way is to tap with your fingers in different patterns when your not playing guitar.
Like in class you can tap your fingers whilst the teacher is babbling but I strongly reccomend you concentrate on the driving when you are driving.
Pattern exampless: 1-2-3-4 3-4-2-1
(My favourites:) 1-3-2-4-3-2 1-3-4-2-4-3
Just try to contantly think up new patterns and try them out. First of course it's hard to get a new pattern flowing but it helps alot with finger independence once you've got a few down good.
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Post by Torkin on Apr 15, 2008 9:15:04 GMT -5
What I used to develop speed was to learn a fast alt pick part of some song, then try to play along with the track. It kinda forces you to play faster, but you will fuck up a lot in the beginning. But the point of this was to develop speed the hard way. Once you can move your hands fast enough, you can take a metronome, sit down, and clean it up. When I do this kind of thing, it is much more effective in increasing sped than just , say, practice it with metronome from the beginning
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Post by Painkiller1 on Jun 11, 2008 22:53:51 GMT -5
Hey What the hell, I can't log in because I'm told my user name and password are invalid but I never changed them? Anyway, I'd just like to add to my own thread that I recently got Rusty Cooley's Shred Guitar Manifesto, and his finger workout is KILLER! It's really long though and I can only get through about half of it before me-hand's-a-burnin. He does an abbreviated version in the video and it still takes like 20 min. Just thought I'd throw that in there. I wonder if there is anything as intense as this for the picking hand?
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Post by Torkin on Jun 16, 2008 13:37:30 GMT -5
I found that doing a combination of 5 string arpeggios (pull offs on both lowest and highest strings) and the same 3 string arpeggio (1 pull off) at sixplets, and around 60 bpms, for 30 mins with no pause is a real workout. After that I can alt pick faster, maybe 210 bpms for sixteenths
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