Hi Zsolt Galambos I am practicing Neoclassical Apocalypse,Neoclassical Sweeps, Jason Becker Style and Modal Madness as I think they are so god sounding and easy to learn 3 string scales.
I dont have so much time to practice and want to concentrate on a few practices.
I just wonder if it is so benefitting to just practice these 3 lesson,I want to come up to a fast speed and a clear playing.These lessons are very cool sounding and the scales is sounding great,I put down like 30min or maybe 1 hour a day, and I want to get as much as possible out of it.
How long time do you think that it will take to come up to the speed on Modal Madness with that setting,normal progress, I practice with a metronome and doing like 60 now on Modal Madness
I was thinking of concentrate on these 3 lesson to develope my picking and sweep (cool sounding and fun to practice)to start with.
And again excellent teaching and your playing is so god

Thanks my friend, it's nice to hear that!

If you have only 30 minutes, try to concentrate on only one lesson at a time, for exapmple modal madness, and only the first Amin part. Play it as much as possible on a relatively slow tempo, for example 500 times. I do this nowadays and it really helps me a lot. Don't forget to stretch your hands and fingers before you start practicing. When you finish, turn the tempo higher a bit. If you have another 30 minutes, practice only the first part of the sweep, in Amin. It is of the essence to concentrate as much as you can on what you are doing. This is very important, as you will progress much faster this way. Try to be conscious of every movement you do.
Practice this way for a week, and then start practicing the next part, say if you practice modal mandess, B Locrian, and the next part of the sweep. When you finish your practice session, play the previous parts you did previous week at a maximum tempo you've achieved the other week.
If you feel that you are progressing much faster, you can practice 2 or 3 parts later from one lesson, and in time you will practice it all for 30 mins a day.
Honestly I cannot tell you how long will it take to get the tempo to say 120 bmp, for I lack a lots of informations about your practice session. When you start practicing the lessons this way, you will be able to answer this yourself.
Feel free to write your progress here, so I can monitor it and help you as much as I can. You can post a video if you like, so I can examine it in details. It's up to you.

Cheers

ok thanks I will practice and send you a video off my progress just bought a videocamera just so I can send video`s off my progress.

Ok, I'm eagerly awaiting it

Ok been practicing for 2 days, tempo on video 45,need to pratice more with metronome to get more tight and stedy.

Cool!

*The first thing I can suggest you is to keep the body of your guitar between your legs, so your left hand can be in a more confortable position. If you keep your guitar like this, it will be much easyer to reach the fretboard with your pinky.
*If you are planning to build up speed, try to concentrate on your pinky more, and try to move it less away from the fretboard, like an inch and a half or a bit more is ok. The less you move your pinky (and your other fingers) the faster you will be. This is also just a suggestion, because you can clearly see Paul Gilbert for example, sometimes his fingers are moving high, yet he is able to play pretty fast. Nevertheless, I also had the same problem, and I'm consciously trying to move my fingers less and this helps me to play even faster and smoother than I could before.
*Try to maintain alternate - up/down/up/down picking throughout the whole excercize. When you start out on the E string and move to A string, you change your picking down/up/down/down - instead you should continue the pattern like down/up/down - and when you change to the A string - up. When you change from E to A, there's a little break, because of the mentioned. Also when descending, try to maintain the down/up sequence, meaning you play up on B, D, E (when descending).

This is a really nice start, your timing is pretty good, also your notes are pretty even, your picking (attack) is also smooth, and if you keep the things I've suggested, your progress will be very good.

Keep up the good work and feel free to ask anything you feel asking!
Cheers!

This post has been edited by Zsolt Galambos: Apr 22 2009, 10:01 PM

Thanks I will try to concentrate more on my pinky and altarnate picking to get more even.
Send you a new video of my progress in a couple of days.
Oh and by the way nice songs on your bands homepage just love the solos in Wisdom.
Practice practice...

How's your practice my friend? Any improvements?

Hi yes a little doing 60 beats now on Modal Madness,but need more practicing,still lifting my pinky to high,practicing very slow to get a grip on my pinky.Will send up a video soon so you can see.

Ok, just keep practicing as you do now. In the beginning it might be harder for you to get use to keep your fingers closer to the neck, but it's worth the effort, believe me.
Keep it up bro!

Hi Zsolt, I am still practicing but I have a computer crash and have to get a new one, but no up and running, I will send you an update soon.

Ok man!
What caused the crash? You might only need to reinstall the programs, including Windows so you don't have to buy a new machine....

My motherboard went out, so I got me a new motherboard only, I put up a stripe on 2 new disk so I was thinking a new installment was needed.

So the problem was bad...

Hi Zsolt!

I hope you guys don't mind that I throw myself into this thread .)
Well I wanted to ask for an advice on practicing. I also have a limited amount of time and try to focus on really specific parts of my playing.I get up early in the morning and have 1hour for playing every day ,the time in the afternoon is bonus. Sometime I have 1 hour or 3 hours in the afternoon but it depends of the work load this week. In the morning I try to play 30mins tapping then 30min AP(usually a classical piece-Mozart, Bach)...if I have more time i throw in some sweeping (i suck at that ).

But I'm not really sure if my approach is right. I try to push myself with the metronome and often change speeds..I tried many lessons here at GMC but get discouraged after 2-3 weeks (some songs even months) when I see its not comming to the end speed. So can you advice how to approach the metronome practice (how many repetitions , how much to increase the metronome, how many days to play it)...for me the thing 'play it until you play it perfect' doesn't work...somedays I play it good, push the tempo...then the other day it's worse than before...I don't know if these oscilations are normal..sometimes it seems to me that no matter what I do it doesn't get any better ... Perhaps I have to great expectations

Well I would be really greatfull for a pattern that I can follow when practicing....this 500 repetions sound good ...but how long, and how- how big are the chops?

BR,
Denis

Welcome aboard, Denis!

The oscilations are normal. A lot of things can have an impact on your playing, like how much do you stretch your hands before you start, did you do some easier excercizes before the harder ones, etc. But the most significant is your focus on your current excercize. If you are practicing for 1 hour every day, try to focus on just 2 or 3 stuff for a few days( for about a week, or more if you must), and stay on one bpm, for ex. 80. You need to completely master the excercize on that speed to increase it a 5 bmp. You need to repeat it so many times, that it becomes natural to you, you actually train your muscle memory here.
When you master a lick or an excercize, the first thing should be is to try to incorporate it into your own style. Say write a lead to a rhythm and play that lick in it.
You must have your goals and expectations, but you must be really patient with yourself. Anything you see here on GMC can be mastered, but it takes a lot of effort and time.

About the repetitions, 250-500 times is really good, say for 1 scale or 1 excercize at a time if you practice for 1 hour a day. It will take you for about 30 minutes for one pattern.

Please tell me if I was clear and please also feel free to ask me anything you may want to know.

Cheers

Hej Zsolt,

I didn't see your reply The thing I am implementing now is playing really slow (50bpm) and cleaning everithing up. I think I hit a wall because not realizing how to practice and thinking 'I can play this faster, no need for slowing down'. I read an article about practicing everithing at low tempo and playing it perfect for 21 days. It has something to do with human psichology. After 21 days something becomes a habbit. Perhaps it seems as a long time but I'm gonna try this approach.
An other thing I wanted to ask is relaxation. How relaxed do you fingers have to be? I try to have the left hand as relaxed as possible. Im not sure about the right hand. Does the attack have to be hard? When I attack hard with my right hand I get stiff. So any advice on that matter would be nice.

BR,

Denis

Hi Denis!

21 days sounds good for something to become a habit. Actually, 7 or 10 days are enough for something to become a habit, but 21 is just perfect. Remember to be patient with yourself, this is very important. Actually it is you who can decide how many days are enough for you for something to become your habit, because these things differ from man to man.

About relaxing your hands: Stretching and massaging can help you a great deal. Also if you wash your hands with warm water also relaxes your hands. Your hands should be relaxed to an extent where you can easily play anything you've learned so far.

About your picking hand (right in your case): It also should be very relaxed. The attack comes from a qick and hard motion and instantly relaxing your right hand, that's when you play power chords or riffs. This way your hands can't get stiff. You can develope a great attack while playing scales and licks without pluging your guitar into an amp. Every note is natural, you can also hear every single mistake. A lot of great guitarists are still practicing this way, like Paul Gilbert, just to mention one. He really has a strong attack, and you can literarly hear every single nothe he's playing. But first, you have have to develop muting strings while playing scales and licks. You can start practicing this way only if you are familiar wiht muting other strings.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

Cheers

Hi Zsolt!

Tnx for your constructive input man!I really appreciate your effort in giving these advices.

I actually enjoy playing slow now. After a long time the lines sound right(althou they are no where near the original tempos) and I'm more relaxed. What about your MTP's? I see you don't have any. Perhaps you are available in the second circle?

BR,

Denis

Thank you for asking, I will think about it