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Posted by: Niko Fran Sep 21 2008, 03:16 PM

Hello!

I've been playing guitar for around 1,5 year now, and is doing just great, got a good hang on the theory and even play lead in a band, but one thing is nagging me, I cant seem to really speed things up, and just simply cant move my fingers fast enough to sweep. Not that I need sweeping in the band at the moment, but sweeping is so cool (And can really spice things up at the peak of a solo!)

So I thought that some of the exercises could help me, but there are so many of em, and I dont know where to start! Can anyone post a few exercices that could help me develop some speed, and just get more comfortable around the guitar?

Thank you

Posted by: besip Sep 21 2008, 04:41 PM

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/solo-guitar/sweeping-basics/

Posted by: superize Sep 21 2008, 04:50 PM

I would have to say tat the best way to learn technuiqes are to practise pracise practise.......

Posted by: Jakub Luptovec Sep 21 2008, 04:51 PM

I can also REALLY recommend you Muris's lesson on sweeping.. it will show you the basic minor and major shapes - you wont need much more for months to come:D

Btw. Your sweeps will speed up pretty quickly until some point like 100 BMP and then got stuck but one day, you will just break off that speed block:) Yet.. I am still waiting for that day:D

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Sep 21 2008, 08:08 PM

As Jakub nicely stated, you can push the tempo up to a certain speed, and then the hard work starts. Practicing over and over again and pushing the tempo in much much slower increments. Also during that time, it is very important to stay clean. The more clean and precise you stay, the faster you will go, you can't go fast and sloppy, it just doesn't work, just practice sweeping patterns as much as you can and speed will come naturally in time. I also recommend Muris sweeping lessons, they are nice and heavy.

Posted by: Niko Fran Sep 23 2008, 05:56 PM

Thanks for all the posts, but is there any exercises that will just make my fingers be more comfortable around the fretboard, or anything you reccomend trying?

Posted by: Pedja Simovic Sep 23 2008, 08:11 PM

If your goal is to sweep I recommend sweeping arpeggios on 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 and 6 strings. Try both Major and Minor, when you finish that go for Diminished (those are the most common ones).
If you feel you mastered that move on to 4 part chords (Major7 , Dom7, Min7. Min/Maj7, Dim7, Min7b5 etc).

I hope this helped you out !

Posted by: Jakub Luptovec Sep 23 2008, 10:05 PM

you want exercise to feel more comfortable? PLAY...

No, now seriously, just play around, take/make some chord progression (my favourite G, D, E7,C9), learn some scale and improvise around/practice all day long.. and eventualy "You'll be flailing like a madman" .

The important thing is not to just drill, but to also just.. needle around, 'cos I believe, this is when you actually get comfortable on fretboard.. just by playing.. and enjoying yourself..

I am playing for a year and I can say, I feel very comfortable on fretboard. I dont know all the notes.. but when I take guitar to my hands.. I can feel the music flow through my fingers.. I dont think in notes that much yet.. I just enjoy spending time with guitar.. And thats as good as it can get:)

Posted by: Bogdan Radovic Sep 23 2008, 11:52 PM

Jakob is right.Playing round and improvising is great way to get your fingers moving.Also I would recommend doing some finger dexterity and independence exercises to get your fingers individually moving..I think instructor Danilo made many lessons on that subject.Regarding sweeping there are lots of lessons here at GMC , I remember David made some too (just use search box and type sweeping)..And than don't think about the speed, take it slowly and work with a metronome...You will get up the speed eventually with hard work..And yeah , sweeping is so cool and worth the effort!

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Sep 24 2008, 02:20 PM

I think any exercise will make your fingers comfortable on the fretboard, it really gets down on what you really wanna learn. There real question is what you wanna learn exactly: sweeping, alternate, economy, chromatic exercises, arpeggios, scales?

Posted by: Niko Fran Sep 24 2008, 08:00 PM

Yeah many, to many! Of course it's great that we have many lessons, but I dont know which one to start with... I do feel pretty comfortable, having played for 1,5 year, I do know scales and so on, but I think there is allways room for improvement, and I remember when I joined, Kris would talk about "having a few exercises to play regulary" So what I need, is a exercise that will help synchronise my fingers and being able to generate more speed, so what should i practice, spider fingers or something else? Any links to a lesson?