Right Hand Speed, Need Help Options

[Matt23]

Some of you may remember a while ago i was asking for help how to get my left hand faster cos it was holding my right hand back. Well i took peoples advice and spent more time with my metronome trilling and playing left hand exercises, and my left hand speed has improved. Now im trying to play the fast section of Muris' "Lydian Phrasing - Intermediate", and i can play it legato but my picking is far to slow to do it properly. I have now also realised this with other fast phrases i try. The fastest i can go is 16th triplets at about 90bpm. I have no idea what to do to solve this as i assume most picking exercises are to improve your hand synchronization. I thought about just picking single strings as fast as i could until i speeded up but i dont think i could keep that up for long without getting distracted as its such a simple thing to play. For now im playing tunes but tremolo picking all the notes (not very fast though). Any help with how to get my picking faster, and what to practice would be very useful.

Cheers

Matt

[Smikey2006]

pavels speed picking exersizes should do the trick

[Matt23]

I was doing pavels alternate picking 4 but i got to 80-90 bpm and just didnt get better. Maybe i just need to practice it a lot though. I'll try doing practicing it now and seeing if i improve more now my left hand isn't the problem my right is. I've uploaded a video of me just tremolo picking some notes in case that might help.

This post has been edited by Matt23: Jul 25 2008, 01:25 AM

Attached File(s)

 picking.wmv ( 1.74MB ) Number of downloads: 72

 

[skennington]

What kind of picks do you use Matt? Maybe try a different style and at different angles to see what suites you the best. My speedpicking (although not the best ) increased dramaticaly when I started using Jazz III's

[RIP Dime]

All I can really say is practice slow, make sure you're accurate, and the tone is there. I personally find that when I'm speedpicking my right hand isn't going that fast, I just decrease the size of the strokes to increase the speed. I often find that when I'm having trouble with speed, it's not because my hand is going too slow, it's because I'm using pickstrokes that are too wide. So check up on your picking motion, when you really get your picking going it should look like your picking hand is barely moving.

[Ivan Milenkovic]

I was doing pavels alternate picking 4 but i got to 80-90 bpm and just didnt get better. Maybe i just need to practice it a lot though. I'll try doing practicing it now and seeing if i improve more now my left hand isn't the problem my right is. I've uploaded a video of me just tremolo picking some notes in case that might help.

You practice steadily up to the point where the notes start to feel shaky, and you can't play with click anymore. Also bare in mind that a finger fatigue can make you sloppy too, be sure not to push it and do some mini breaks with chordal playing to get away from constant repeating which can quickly lead to sloppy playing if pushed hard.

So when you get to that point where you begin to play sloppy, just stop and continue hte next day or 2 days after. In this time you will actually advance quicker than to push it, because brain will settle with new movements that you practiced and now you can begin to go even faster.

[Marcus Siepen]

I am with Ivan. Working on your speed takes time, but if you really work on this and use a metronome you will see a result soon.

[Matt23]

Ok thanks guys, ill try using a jazz III, get my technique right, and practice a lot. And ivan are you saying that if my fingers get tired i should let them get their strength back instead of tiring them out more?

[Bogdan Radovic]

Metronome use (and writing down speeds) is very efficient if you want to see progress.Remember that is takes time , and not always you improve..It may be just one day you hit the next level unexpectedly(while practicing)...

[Xicoria]

Here is the experience of a begginer:

Although my metronome did not arrived, I am doing exercises slowly and everyday.
I can do now things that was almost impossible for me a quite few time ago, like picking fast doing chromatic scales.
I am practicing slowly and increase the tempo till a moment wheere I feel that I am not confortable, than, slow it a bit, so I practice in the tempo where I can do the exercise and is the most fast/accurate. And keep practicing and practicing.

I can say that I improve my picking speed 30-40% since I started to do this steadily (I was very slow, and now I am starting to play pick faster in a controlled way).
My hands sync are quite good too.

So thats what I think that might help. Play steadly in a speed that everything works fine. In no time you will notice that you can do it faster.