https://youtu.be/RPVpw2seK9E
I set a timer and tried this for 30 minutes tonight 140s okayish but 150 a mess , I had to use the metronome to give me an idea of how fast. Was able to do 4’s over a caged major scale last night at 96 to 97bpm sixteenth notes and after this tonight had trouble at 90bpm. I dont Know what to think about this , wether to keep normally practicing string crossing stuff until I can get that up to 110 or higher or to devote more time to this. Common sense says to practise around the edge of your previous ability and push to gain an extra bpm or two over time . Perhaps I did wrong trying to practice with the metronome like he said, but at those speeds it would be easy to mistake 144 for 154 etc.
So is this bogus advice? I know the old saying that you can’t learn to run by walking fast which makes sense , but then there is the saying practice makes permanent so if you practice fast and sloppy you may end up playing sloppy .
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If it ends up sounding sloppy then it's necessary to work at making it less sloppy with the technique you use to play fast. This applies to what I'd call motor skills.
But I also think that there are some things (complex intricate lines) that you need to get into your brain (i.e. not motor skills) that are best worked at by building up slowly. I think that Troy Grady covers this in his videos, so I'm not saying anything new.
As a disclaimer I'd say that I'm not a super fast player, nor am I interested it playing at super fast tempos, but I've certainly improved by following the Troy Grady videos.
Having watched a few video submissions on there lately, I will say this: make sure you really know the notes and can play them before you start cranking tempi.
I notice the same thing with the riff in Zep's Immigrant Song.
Seriously though, I do use this technique to learn stuff. By getting used to playing it fast even if badly, when you slow it down to clean it up or feels really easy to play st that slower speed. Bit like trying to play discord on a bad guitar for a bit and then picking up a 6 string guitar everything suddenly feels tiny and easy to reach.
There's a fast run EVH does in Spanish Fly I've been trying to get right for a long time. I knew the notes, my fretting hand was getting the speed, but I just could *not* develop the picking pattern. Months of this, banging my head against a plateau.
Tried the "too fast" thing and in 20 minutes I'd nailed it First it was a mess, I kept going and suddenly it began to sound right. My hands just adjusted or something, just like the "riding a bike" analogy in the Grady video where your body suddenly just gets it and adjusts all by itself. I noticed my picking hand started to edge the plectrum forward and adjust its angle all by itself.
I do the run now and even watching I can't see what my picking hand is doing. I mean, I *know* what it's doing, I just can't *see* it happening, my hand is doing it all by itself I had exactly the same experience with Immigrant Song years ago as I mentioned before.
So going forward I'm going to combine both methods, first get the piece under my fingers, then go "too fast".
Thanks OP for posting, I'm grateful
https://www.facebook.com/benswanwickguitar
That was a real breakthrough for me, and allowed me to actually play something fast and fluid.
This new video (thanks to OP), has really helped re-enforce that, and point out a bunch of more subtle elements I need a bunch of time to think about.
I'm currently working on a dream theater song, so this is quite timely!
(I expect the solo to take me several months if I'm honest )
I should stress though that I had the thing under my fingers. My fretting hand could do it legato at the fast speed. And I could pick the correct pattern, just not at speed and not in sync.
I noticed afterwards watching my picking hand that as I sped up my hand changed its position and the position of the pick, the finger and thumb holding it moved it forward and also really reduced the amount of the point of the pick exposed if that makes sense.
And that's what I meant earlier, *I* didn't think to make those changes, my hand made them by itself.
Like @jonnyscaramanga says in the superspeed thread, you don't run the way you walk.
Teemu Mantysaari talks about something similar in the video below: