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Posted by: rahimiiii Sep 12 2007, 04:50 PM

I have a problem with speed... it seems as though there is a problem with my picking/fretting hand coordination and it severely limits my speed to about 128bpm at 8th notes (about the speed of the intro to "Sweet Child o Mine" by guns n roses) and it seems as though no amount of practice will improve that... I was trying to play a song called "Future World" by Helloween and the speed limit made it impossible for me to play that song, at least the intro riff.

I just started this site I decided that I am starting from the beginner lesson, now just getting the major scale down... I play bass now but its no reason to stop playing the guitar... im sure most great guitarist are good at both...

Posted by: JOhn Sep 12 2007, 06:09 PM

Just keep practicing how do you think we got fast? again just keep practicing and you'll get better eventually. And i can't play bass

Posted by: Andrew Cockburn Sep 12 2007, 08:58 PM

Yes, practice is the answer - dedicated practice to the metronome, at a speed you are comfortable with and can play cleanly, then improve it slowly. You may find you progress in spurts then stop for a while before progressing again.

Posted by: Pavel Sep 12 2007, 09:55 PM

Reading your post i remembered a couple of years ago when i was starting - it was nightmare! Just keep working and don't loose your motivation!

Posted by: Ayen Sep 13 2007, 03:19 AM

My speed was stuck at one point as well. What did it for me though was Pavel's Ionian Speedpicking lesson, and a bit of metronome as Andrew said. Maybe it'll work for you too.

Posted by: shredmandan Sep 13 2007, 03:23 AM

My advice
Find something thats faster than you can play right now,and just keep playing it over and over again until you get it.There's no way you can fail unless you give up .Keep that attitude and there's nothing on guitar you cant do , just stuff you havent learned yet

Posted by: Resurrection Sep 13 2007, 03:54 AM

Other people have already mentioned the need for practicing with a metronome, so I won't talk too much more about that. You should also check that your left hand positioning is good, especially your thumb placement, so that you fret the notes cleanly at higher tempos. I find it more difficult to play quickly if I let my left thumb creep too far towards the top of the neck. Also look at how you're holding the pick and check that your pick movements are small and economical. The various alternate picking lessons at GMC will help a lot with this. If your left and right hand positioning is set up properly for high-speed playing and your speed is still stuck then the problem is likely to be a lack of coordination between the left and right hands. Lots of practice with the metronome should remove this problem. Don't try to increase the metronome speed too quickly, although it's hard to resist! A few bpm at a time seems to be a good approach.

Good luck. Let us know how you are progressing!