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Posted by: velci Aug 26 2011, 11:03 PM

Hey everyone
I wanted to ask you a question?
One of my practice routine is 3 note per string patterns on whole fretboard.
When I practice them about 2 hours I can easily play at 90 bpm (6 notes for 1 beat)
But when I start to practice I can't play them even 80 bpm. Problem isn't on my left hand. My picking hand is slower when I just start play.
Is there something wrong with me or Is it normal?
What can I do to pass that?

Posted by: Todd Simpson Aug 26 2011, 11:46 PM

I often have the same experience It takes the hand a bit to "Warm Up" sometimes. When you play cold, you may not be able to play at your finest/fastest/best straight away. Usually I'll run some scales, patterns, etc. And usually within 10 or so minutes my hands are nice and warmed up and ready to rip. As I've played, the warm up time has gotten much shorter. It used to take an entire practice session to reach my peak playing speed and by then my hands were getting tired.

In short, sounds pretty normal As you go, the time from dead to shred will continue to shrink. One thing that will help is working your hands to shreds in our Saturday Shred Fest! Hope you can make it.

Posted by: jstcrsn Aug 26 2011, 11:49 PM

This is and will probably be your your starting speed ,as this is mine as well.it takes me a good 30 - 45 minutes to warm up before I start to increase,so i would not worry about it and definitely don't rush things , as this is where you could start to develope bafd habits

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Aug 27 2011, 01:04 PM

Yeah, it takes about half an hour to warm up and achieve full speed, it's nothing unusual. Don't forget to insert something else to practice, 3nps for two hours can be a bit mentally exhausting

Posted by: Ben Higgins Aug 27 2011, 06:56 PM

Yeah the guys are right here. You can never go into something straight away and do it at your maximum potential. Not only do the hands have to physically warm up (literally, with increased blood flow etc) but you mentally have to get into gear. This can take time because of external influences.. it takes a while to get into 'the zone'

Also, don't forget that you can apply the principles that I use in my Stamina School lesson to any type of lick that you want to practice. You don't have to sit there and slave away non stop for a long time before moving up and up etc. If you combine short high speed reps with longer low speed reps, sooner or later it all begins to connect in the middle.

Not only do your hands have to get faster but your brain has to get faster as well and the only way to do it is by actually... well, doing it !

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Aug 27 2011, 08:02 PM

Some great tips by Ben about increasing stamina. Definitely worth checking out that lesson!

Posted by: Daniel Realpe Aug 30 2011, 12:15 PM

Every pro-guitarist I think goes through the same procedure of warm-up. As with any sport you need to let your body get adjusted to the new activity.

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Aug 31 2011, 03:41 PM

yes, this is normal when you are in the learning process. When your fingers get very used to the higher tempo you won't have to wait 2 hours to reach it. It's just a matter of time.