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Posted by: leedbreak Oct 2 2007, 01:03 AM

I posted this for 3 reasons.

1. This is a tribute to Pavel, and to everyone that encouraged more “students playing a GMC lesson” videos.

2. To talk about how important I think it is to challenge your max bpm. Never stop using your metronome, just speed that sucker up. Do this a couple times a week but then go straight back to the speeds where you can hit it perfect. Once you see the high speeds getting cleaner, motivation will max as well. Is for me anyway. This is teaching me that slow picking is just fast picking slowed down. NOT the other way. Makes the hours of slow picking prove it self. Pushing myself. this way has bumped my best clean up 10 in two weeks.

3. Cause this is my first self video. It is a web cam and it does great job. It would have been a better resolution but I was at my laptop at the time and not enough ram to record any higher. So not so great this time. Bit jerky too.

I am pushing over my max in this one but 2 weeks ago I was stuck at a much slower bpm and 2 from now this will be clean I feel it coming. Wheww, what a ride this site is for me. I ready.

And yes, I know these are not 6ths

Posted by: DeepRoots Oct 2 2007, 01:11 AM

wow you're going waay faster than i would dare to play! i'll have to start going over my max bpm also- must be worth a try if you condone it. could you also post your comfort speed also? or when you've got this speed down repost? you're advancing so much quicker than me..... <grabs guitar and cable...>

Posted by: jeff Oct 2 2007, 01:37 AM

Leedbreak, this is really good. How long did it take you to get to that level and how often did you practice this? That's fast.

I was thinking of making a video someday too, but now that you have put your age on it and since I'm an old man here maybe I'll leave that part off! .

Posted by: leedbreak Oct 2 2007, 01:55 AM

Thanks a lot.

I have played for half my life, but not correctly. I never did it right till February 07 and for sure never used a metronome as a speed building tool.

I work on this lesson about 20 minute a day for about a month now. I get in about 10-15 hours a week here and there. An hour or so each time, with usually one or two hardcore session each weekend of about 5 hours. I have spent about 20 percent of my practice time on this lesson in the past month.

Posted by: Pavel Oct 2 2007, 02:08 AM

Hey Leedbreak! Thanks for shooting this one!

BUT You still have to slow down man. Pushing over the limits doesn't come with actual "pushing" but with slow practice. I know you worked hard on it and i don't want to spoil the moment for you but you have to practice this one slower to get each note sounding clean!

I can't wait for your next video man! Keep the awesome job and rock on!

Posted by: leedbreak Oct 2 2007, 02:16 AM

Well you already told everyone you are older than me so go ahead and now they may wonder how much older?







Yes Sir,

You do speak of the truth. I rarely attempt to go over my max like I did here. I do have to pat myself on the back. Not because of the video but because of the hours of slow play I do every week before even attempting to play faster. Thanks for your lessons and comments, this is all very helpful.

Posted by: leedbreak Oct 2 2007, 02:37 AM

As far as me personally, I would never get over certain speed barriers if I do not make attempts to get over them.

I may try another video at a more comfort speed tonight.

Posted by: muris Oct 2 2007, 02:48 AM

Good shot!!

Also try it with backing track,to be more sure into timing etc.

Posted by: Iluha Oct 2 2007, 03:01 AM

Good job.. and let me say I'm really inspired by how you described you'r practicing, I still can't sit myself down for prefixed periods of time to practice, I just do it when I feel like it, a bad habit I'm trying to forget.

Posted by: leedbreak Oct 4 2007, 12:23 AM

After Pavel slapped my hand I figured I better post a slow attempt as well. I do hope you all read my complete post before.

I spend most of my time at these slow tempos. It is very rare for me to make attempts at faster speeds. I just did it in the first video for the fun of it. I am getting most of my motivation from hitting notes clean no matter what speed.

After all I have had this same response from Pavel several times and I do listen and have learned a lot from him. But again I do claim that if I am stuck on a pattern at say 75 for hours or even days and just can’t seem to go faster. I will make several attempts at say 100 really concentrating on playing as correctly as I can.


I can usually get the 75 up to an 80. Then I can go back with the metronome at 80.


Sorry the sound and video is still low quality.


[attachment=1971:attachment]

Posted by: Pavel Oct 4 2007, 12:59 AM

The video quality is more than enough to check your work man!


This is much better, and now you can exactly see where you make mistakes: wrong notes in a couple of places, the single string 6-tuplets are pretty much a mess - a lot of noise there. Also, some places fly out of the rhythm.

If you keep working on it at this speed you'll improve a lot. Don't push it. Thanks for posting this. Keep working on it and record another one in a week - what do you say? It would be great to keep track of your progress, as you are the bravest poster of your work here!

Man, i'm proud of you! I mean, struggling with stuff like that at your age - it deserves big respect! Keep shredding man! I'll help with all i can!

Posted by: leedbreak Oct 4 2007, 01:21 AM

Ok, this just may be the challenge I was looking for. Having to answer to someone can be the key to Success in most every part of life




I agree, I should get if for free at this age. But at least my teeth did not fall out and my walker is out of view of the camera.

Posted by: Pavel Oct 4 2007, 01:43 AM

Yeah man, i am awaiting your record in a week!

Posted by: shredmandan Oct 12 2007, 03:57 PM

Not bad Leadbreak
Ofcourse you already know its not down 100%,but you did a pretty good job on a tuff lesson.Keep up the work and keep it in time and you will get it down

Posted by: jammer91 Oct 12 2007, 05:02 PM

Leedbreak, youve really improved (i remember you once made a vid on muris' alt picking lesson).

Wish i could play that fast... Better start practicing

Posted by: leedbreak Oct 13 2007, 12:51 PM

Well, I must admit that I surly wish I had not posted the first videos in this thread. And to make it worse, I just knew the second one was much better but again it was not good enough to post. I made a mistake.

I did not really even realize just how unclean they really were. Since I had never seen myself play the lesson, I just thought I was hitting it better. I started to just delete them, hide and pretend it did not happen, but that’s not me.

I have practiced this lesson all week and have about 10-15 hours of hard practice on it, all very slow and trying to pay close attention to see if I was hitting or missing the notes. Pavel jumped on my case like a pit bull on a cat, but It did motivate me and that is what counts. I do thank him for that.

These two are much slower and still not perfect. However, I do know they are now helping me not hurting me. Trying to play fast too soon makes you lose ground and all your slow practice can actually be wasted. I defended myself head over heels that I was practicing enough slowly, but I see now I was not. I do see that if you can not hit it all clean slowly then you do not have it yet. Nothing matters till you can do that.

YES, I am eating my words

Oh, and I did work on getting the video quality up a tad.

[attachment=2086:attachment]

[attachment=2087:attachment]

Posted by: Pavel Oct 14 2007, 04:51 PM

Hey Leedbreak, that's much better! You hit it all right, so now it's just a matter of time when you'll be able to shred it.

The video quality is just fine, you don't need anything better to post it at forum

Posted by: Tank Oct 14 2007, 04:59 PM

Heya Leedbreak,

That's really ace, considering about 4 weeks ago, you had been hitting the glass ceiling, and felt you had no gains in using a metronome! Good job!