Re: Beginning to Shred


<guitar.is.good@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1139541082.950247.195430@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Been playing 9ish years, leaning to play fast for 4 yearsish, definitly
not there yet, but I do have some advice.

Dont just listen to metallica, maiden / heavy metal solo's. All of
those guitarists would have / have developed playing a wide variety of
sources to which they have applied to metal, just listening to metal
will automatically stump you /make it harder / more boring.

Some good all round players to have a look at would be Steve vai, joe
satriani, paul gilbert, yngwie malmsteen to name some biggies. Try and
get a video of each, look at their techniques and try to learn from
that. Obviously alternate picking (rigid up down is a must, except
when you tackle sweep picking)

Thanks for the advice, fella. I'm always keen to listen to *any* guitarist
and when I can see one playing in front of me (either on screen or at a gig)
I often go into a trance as I try and make out what he's playing. Of the
names you mentioned, I'd be a fan of Satch and rate Gilbert highly, but
always found Vai and Malmsteen a bit too excessive for my ear despite their
obvious talent. I've recently heard a lot of Jeff Loomis from Nevermore.
Excellent guitar work, although I was disappointed to discover that he plays
a 7 string which I feel is something I'll never get around to buying let
alone learning.


Something I realised in the last year, there is no point playing
blazingly fast (which is actually quite easy to do) but not be able to
play that fast intime with a beat (much harder to do)

Good to hear that speed is easy to do! I assumed it would take a couple of
years at least! :)


-> metronome is your friend, helps you build a 'usable' speed. I
picked this up from a magazine, try it doing: not nesecarily all the
time, i find it fun sometims just to play around as fast as i can
somethime just to help me build some srtenght/stamina

Set a metronome to say 100bmp.

Play a note no every beat / click (1 2 3 4) - 4th notes.

Play 2 notes per beat (1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and), twice as quick - 8th
notes

Play 4 notes per beat (1 er and a 2 er and a 3 er and a 4 er and a)
twice as quick again -16th notes.

(not really necesary but you can then do 32th notes, probably not worth
bothering withf for now)

Play 3 notes per beat (1 e a 2 e a 3 e a 4 e a) and thati'll sound a
little funky but is nice triplets.

when its easy, up the speed. Alwasys start at lower speeds and
increase. Stop increasing when you cant play in time (no point going
out of time, wont help anyone)

Thanks for the advice. I was beginning to practice this way, but seeing it
outlined in such a defined manner is very helpful for me. Cheers.


As a must, learn some scales and look up exercises in them, helps to
learn them and build your fingers / technique. Apply with metronome to
get a solid foundation of playing in time. In addition to that, learn
some arpeggios etc to aid mixing it all up. I reccomend the 3 note per
string scales, a good place to start.

I've done some of this, and will try and add the rest to my practice.
Cheers.


Paul gilbert really offeres good adice here by always saying to mix it
up. That is string skip in scales / arpeggios, try developinng runs
scales that involve both legato hammer on / pull off with picking.
Also, dont just always play 16th nothes, get a rhythm in you head and
try an mix it up as well.

Some good advice there. Thanks.


Finally, dont just play fast, pick / bend with monotomy. Really try
and add a gritty hard touch or a gently touch, aids in truely getting
you guitar to make proper sounds. Constant light fingering etc =
monotmous.

Can't say I'd be 100% sure I understand your suggestion here. I think it
will probably make more sense when I get home and think about this while I
practice.


An exercise paul gilbert mentioned was to play a little repeatative
triplet sequence, say 4 notes. say:

g:-----7--9--10--9---7--
d:-----------------------------10

but he says to vary your playing, dig in with your fingers an pluck
hard, keep on going but blend it into say soft light picking with maybe
palm muting. All in 1 go, whilst keeping to a metronome.

Hmmm .... this sounds tricky, but I'll give it a go.


Try learning some faster songs as well, say the intro run to yngwies
far beyond the sun.

Bar diatonic exercises try some of these:

start on low e string work way up to high e the back down again. Play
this on each string, 1 finger per fret.

-1-2-3-4

Mix it up, play

1-3-2-4 etc (loads of variations string back to back)

Start in frets 1-4 and when you go up and down, shift to frests 2-5 etc
work you way up.

Do this sort of thing to a metronome in say 8th / 16th notes and see if
you can make it all the way up the neck

Thanks for this. I used to know and play these exercises back when I was
learning in my teens. They did help but I lost my discipline for scale work
before long back then. I appreciate you reminding me of these. Nice one!


Do a gilbert and mix it up some more, say

--etc
--etc
----------------------------------------------1-2-3-4-----
----------------1-2-3-4---------------------------------
------------------------------1-2-3-4--------------------
--1-2-3-4----------------------------------------------


Seems very cool. Cheers.

or say




--etc
--etc
-------------------------2------4------
-----2-----4---------------------------
---------------------1-----3-----------
--1-----3------------------------------

etc

Must try this.


steve vai reccomends angular / weird ones


Say repeate variations of these type patterns up the neck:

-1------------------------7--7----------------
----2-----------------6---------8-------------
-------3----------5------------------etc
----------4---4--------------------------etc
--
--

Weird ... never would think of that as an exercise.


try varittions down the strings as well

-1---------------------
----2----------1----------
-------3-----------2---------
----------4-----------3--------
--------------------------4----
---


Same with this.

try messing around with hese sortof patterns in diminished chords.
Joe satriani + vai like to say this aims to develop 'clever' fingers,
these exercises are not so easy at first

Other fun one I like is to trebly a pick a string as fast as I can and
dab in notes with my left hand, obviously getting them in equally space
time

Yeah! I've done that too just for fun. It sounds really cool. It's kinda
like Metallica's 'Fight for with Fire' riff.



erm thats all I can think of, pls dont take this advice as 'gold',
becuase I myself am still learning and I wrote it quickly cos I need
sleep.

It may not be gold, fella, but trust me it's been very very helpful to me
all the same. I honestly didn't expect the level of response I have gotten
on here. It's very much appreciated.


On thing, dont ever over exert your self, if you feel pain it is NOT
GOOD!, sometimes when puching it you fingers get tired, fair enough,
shake them out and continue, but dont over do it.

Heh heh ... I doubt I'd ever be that stupid, but it's good to know anyway.
Cheers.


Dont leep into playing fast straight or bending manincaly away, pls
warm up a little to save you fingers, doodle around in scales, warm em
up quickly, then try some genter exercises at slower paces. And its
best to warm down as well after a heavy session, not too long, but just
spend a couple minutes running over some simple exercises slowly. That
way you should be able to practice better for longer and not suffer say
a tight forearm afterwards.

I've been meaning to figure out a few decent warm up exercises alright, but
I don't think I can play anything too quickly anyway for now.


Also have fun, forcing yoursel to play = unproductive, make some time
just to have fun. I find this in the form or improvising with some
scales to music.

I read a quote from Les Paul once (he may have nicked it from someone else)
where he said "You 'play' the guitar, you don't 'work' the guitar" meaning
that it should be enjoyable and if it's not you're doing it wrong :)


Try and record yourself as well it forces you to play in time, embodies
improvisation and you can hear / address all of your problems and hear
your self improve, always encoraging.

A final bit of advice, be vary of other people, scales, attempting to
play fast, + screwing up = very annoying to non-guitarists in the house
/ neighbours.

LOL ... I currently live alone so I just need to worry about the next door
neighbours, who have already been knocking on the walls the night I tried
out my new amp ;)



ah, on more thing. real important to becomming a good musician.
Develop you ear! try and transcribe solos etc, use slow down software
to help. helps playing loads.

I found the best music for this, (and learning to play fast) is
actually classical music. They often nice little twiddely fingering
fun which is often very melodic + often involves fun semi-legato
phases. I like mozart the best, Eine kleine Nachtmusik or the Turkish
march, but there are some typical Niccolo Paganini, try transcribing
the beginning section to his 24th caprice, some really fun fingerings
(that vanessa mae song on the electric guitar,

e string:-------------------------------------------12---
b string:-----10---10-10-h-13-p-12-p-10-------
-
-
-
-
etc, good stuff :)

disclaimer: take this advice at your own risk!!! :)


Once again, thank you so much for the time and effort you put into replying.
It was a really helpful reply. Thanks a million, bud.

Phil


.

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