Check out Zsolt's new lesson: "Insane Neo Sweeping", and then post a reply to today's topic.

Zsolt said: "After hours and hours of practicing some basic sweeping patterns, I finally reached my desired speed of sweep picking." It takes a lot of practice to get to the speed we all desire. How patient are you with your techniques? Do you really give yourself hours upon hours?

Man its weird that you just posted this. I just sent Fran a message about starting a new GMC project thats related to this, let me send you a copy.

There's no way to do it but with hours upon hours... I remember practising alternate picking for 4 hours straight! Just boring exercises, nothing fun, just... pick pick pick pick pick pick pick pick pick. Everyday.

Man, that was horrible. Maybe I should do the same with sweeping and legato too...

What an incredible lesson from Zsolt. Not only has he reached more speed but I personally hear an even cleaner technique there too.. his arpeggios have even more of a nice, muted qulity to them !

It's been a long time since I really spent hours on a technique.. but the one that's always dragged me into obsession is alternate picking. Surely the No1 nemesis of most guitarists ??

Indeed, you just read Mudbone's mind Kris

My reply to Mudbone would be to long to quote here, short answer would be no, since I spend most my time playing the songs I've learnt so I don't forget them, and learning new ones!

I used to give myself hours and hours of practice, but not that often practicing speed, I'm practicing to become a good improviser.

It's hard. I don't give my techniques a whole lot of time. I usually do small spurts of practice time. Which I guess is better than none.

I have to admit that I probably "over practiced" as a young player and gave myself carpal tunnel syndrome in both arms. Got a bit carried away with it and felt just empty without it. Something about the comfort of the modal repetition, the micro gains in speed/precision with each revolution of a scale/pattern, building, buidling, faster, faster, loved it.

Still kinda do actually. I recently taught myself to play (solos/rythm) using the left hand only, then without the left thumb using only the fingertips on the left hand.

This became the "Playing The Impossible" series of lessons we have been doing in video chat. At first, both of these were like learning new scales. After just a couple hundred hours or so, It was second nature.

Doing stretches, and using Ice on my forearms and hands really helped. If it wasn't for a great physical therapist I had, I"m certain I'd have wrecked my hands/arms by now.

it depends on the technique for me, sometimes I can spend hours and hours playing over and over and over the same thing (it drives my wife mad)

if its a particular difficult technique that is just not coming on as I`d like then I usually back off from it and just include it as a 30 min excerise or something during a practice session I find this way I dont get as frustrated with it.

Its testament to most serious guitar players that they can sit there and play the same patterns over and over to a metronome and still stay focused and interested, I have kept a log of my Alt picking to give myself emasurable goals, I'm still not as fast and fluid as I would like to be but I reckon on average I'm 40% faster than I was when I started the log in all areas, my eighth note triplets and sixteenth notes are coming on a treat but my sixteenth note triplets are a right pain to improve on, my nemesis!