Flipping Speed
Yes there are two fast ascending runs in the darn Song , the first one which is “THE” run which is usually talked about , then just before it finishes and goes to the outro there is another little bugger .
Its literally piss easy compared to some of the stuff most play on here , I did get it up to speed a few years ago playing to a backing track but it was probably a bit sloppy . It seems easier to play to a backing track than to play to the actual track (Which is what I practice to )
I use the amazing slow downer software to learn most solos . I’m currently stuck on about 80%
at the moment . Last few days I have been trying the old , try it as fast as you can at about 80% or 90 % and back it down managed a few runs at 85% then it fell apart and practicing after just made it deteriorate further .
I have arrived then at the following plan . I am going to start at 79% on Monday Officially (will still practice it over weekend ) then each week I will raise the Speed 1% focusing on these two runs as these are my sticking points . I usually practice things for 20 minutes which seems an optimum time before the brain gets fed up according to books on learning I read. I usually arrange them run 1 - 10 minutes run 2 - 10 minutes then repeat . I focus intently on this task for the allotted time using the timer on the iPad . This makes certain that the time is spent doing the task as I find that 40 minutes pure practice can take up an hour or more once you account for cueing up the song , having a drink of water, going for a wee etc .
anyway hopefully this will yield results . It’s very annoying when you can play the so,o slow but not fast.
The popular saying is that if you can play it slow you can play it fast . Perhaps in the past I have been to quick to try to push the speed .
although I am thinking 3 or 4 reps a day at a few percent faster Will give a feeling for the speed , but I find longer periods result in the run falling apart as mentioned before .
This also allows time to learn new songs etc too etc
So that is my plan , I am now committed to follow it .
thank you anybody who has read this far please feel free to mention some of your Nemesis songs
and if you are currently or planning to do something similar .
Comments
Good luck!
I always take the view, as a lead player, that as long as the key phrases people would recognise are there (and you could argue the ascending runs in SCOM meet that definition), then you can play the solo in 'your' way (as long as it's in key and retains a similar feel!).
I don't play the ascending runs in this note for note, and nobody has ever picked me up on it - in fact, I get the opposite!
@newi123 - maybe suggest to your singer you'll learn it note for note if he sings it exactly like Axl Rose?
If you are having problems ascending up the fretboard on the first lick, rearrange the notes so you're staying in one position.
It's really common with the "start slow, get faster" approach to get stuck at around 80%. I don't know why that number, but it seems to be a frequent problem. I read this article near the start of lockdown, and it's really changed things for me. Here are the most important bits:
Noa then shared this video which I found pretty helpful:
Using that technique I managed to conquer the breakdown from Warheads by Extreme, which I'd been stuck on for months or possibly years. Since then I've used the technique in that video a bit less. Now I'm tending to do this:
Play the first beat of the lick (and probably the first note from the next beat, so I start and finish on a click) at full speed, or possibly even faster (I want full speed to feel easy). Repeat until that's flowing.
Repeat with the next beat, and so on.
Then try it in two beat pairings: beats 1&2, 2&3, 3&4 etc
By this point I've got a decent idea of where the problems are and can focus in on those. But yeah, I'm finding this much more effective than starting slow. It's definitely necessary to learn things slowly, so they're accurate, but building speed gradually doesn't seem to work a lot of the time, especially where picking is involved.
Of course I don't know if this is 100% correct I welcome any corrections or better ideas.
(If you don't want to watch it all, I play the lick in question full speed at 0:32 and at half speed with tab at 2:20.)
I think this is also how John Wheatcroft transcribed it for Guitar Techniques a few years back, and he's pretty reliable for this stuff.
EDIT: posting that brought up this guy in my recommended videos, who has reached pretty much the same conclusion as Ben Eller.
I think that's very close to what I transcribed, except you do a bend from the first F# to the G instead a hammer on and pull off. I'm pleased that I'm reasonably close to something a player of your calibre (way better than me) would play. You also solve what I hear as a slide from the A to B by doing a bend.
Ah, thanks. I'll fix that.
I’m on his mailing list too ,thanks for sharing . jonnyscaramanga said: Awesome as usual Johnny , nice one that LP too , wow
I have found a point where I slip up on the second run that as ends fast. When my little finger is required to be on the 15th fret during the run , it is resting slightly curled a bit too far away causing a delay or a lack of coordination .
I have tried 3 things tonight focusing on it being in the right place at the right time.
trying to keep it next to the third finger while as ending
and using the third finger instead of the little finger (slash is known to do this a lot)
i have see. Some improvement anyway.
also have been using a metronome to play small chunks like 5 notes in various parts of the run.
noticing the little finger seems to have been the main thing, that is where the bottleneck is .
it does tend to curl up out the way . This run takes part in part of the fingerboard covering frets 12 to 15 which is quite narrow so wether the finger independence exercises will be of benefit, where you try to keep it just above the fretboard will be of help I am not sure . I suppose 5 minutes a day will not hurt ,plus I can continue to focus on the little finger when playing the run and also try using the 3rd finger too.
got some nice runs in at 85 /86%
put my new black petrucci pick down somewhere and cant find it , so back to my Kirk Hammett green jazz iii
I’m alternate picking where the fastest bit starts . This is a good start for Monday my official start date.
The 2nd fast run I alternate pick , the first one I play similar to Ben eller , and a latin guy on YouTube who does a scrolling tab . I got them both up to 87 % solid today for a few reps , by just bumping up the speed in the last 2 minutes of my session (I went over a bit after the timer rang as I got carried away lol)
was using a tortes jazzIII 1.14 I like jazz III picks, been using the Kirk Hammett for about 4 or 5 years , got a Petrucci one the other day to try, very nice, seems a touch bigger but glides over strings nice , god knows where it is though it disappeared yesterday when I put it down .
£1.69 gone in the wink of an eye. The stubbier are nice for tremolo picking but I find for string crossing and skipping you can get hung up .