Trick your mind to be able to play guitar faster.I have thought of this idea before then I came across a video of it on YouTube.You basically play at a speed on the metronome thats slightly too fast for you then you up the speed and so that its even harder and try and play it even though you are not going to be able to play it on time. After doing this turn the metronome back down to the first tempo that was slightly to fast for you and it should seem a lot slower than the first time round.I believe that this works.

Has anyone heard or tried this idea before and what do you think of it

yes I do this as well, The trick being if you are above your speed to much , you will teach yourself to be sloppy.
So , once you push your speed , always back down to perfection

I have heard of this approach and I think it works. We do need to push ourselves in order to make progress. If we try to play a tempo that is too fast for us, practicing some time on it and then going back should almost always have a positive effect and make the previous tempo feel "slower". Downside with this (and with almost any metronome practice) that we sometimes tend not to be self objective. Meaning that we shouldn't skip tempos and try to achieve speed while playing sloppy/not in time etc. Sometimes its easy to fool yourself into thinking that you "mastered" the certain tempo and going forward as that only develops "sloppy" playing further.

That being said, I think we should always challenge ourselves with this "slightly faster" tempo method in order to be able to comprehend the previous "slow" one There is nothing wrong in trying to play something out of your reach. Hell - I think there should be no limits in any kind of practice. If you just picked up guitar but you would like to play sweeping - go for it, there is really no reason why you shouldn't do it! Good thing is that everyone can learn any technique at ANY stage (skill) of playing guitar. Just slow down the tempo to something reachable and push forward.

Well said Bogdan



I really like this idea.Its great to know other people use it. Do you think it is quite popular for guitarists because I have never really heard people talking about it

Hey mates, I am using it and sometimes it works It all depends on how focused you are, but indeed, when the brain feels a difficult piece is happening it will automatically trigger some sort of 'I can't play this' feeling. When you give it the same piece, at a slower tempo, bam! It will think, ah, much easier, I think I can do it

I am currently working on this lesson - I can play it clean at 95% speed and I was using this exact same trick to make it work at 100 %

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/solo-guit...ernate-workout/

You guys should definitely try it for some great AP exercise!

I use this technique for everything I practice and it always Works for me.. Really a good idea.

I've tried this method out before too and it has helped! But I think it is important to fully memorize the patterns first before diving into a very fast tempo. This way you can just concentrate on the technique rather then where the fingers should be going. I have to remind muself of this sometimes.



Great one! This one helps my AP a lot and the backing is great to practice with. Your Vivaldi lesson is also excellent for a AP excersise and warm up... it is a part of my practice routine. Even on the slower tempos it is challenging cause of all the position shifts.

Thank you DG You are right about memorizing the patterns I always catch myself forgetting some part, after not practicing a certain piece for a longer period of time.. needless to say, the first reaction is to pick it up at a higher speed and then I find myself laughing silly because I can't remember what was next

Sure It's like a Pro Baseball player warming up by swinging 3 bats. When he gets to the plate, one bat seems light.

Same idea. So yeah! Anything thats helping. Just don't play to the point of pain and also do the metronome work the other way as well, bumping up by very small steps and keeping your precision in tact.

Todd