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[Nimrandir]

Argh, I give up! My hands are just not made for playing guitar it seems. I probably can play this at about 130, but even then my right hand is cramped by the end. It just tenses up somewhere in the middle and I can't do anything about it. I've always had this kind of problem - both hands tensing up when playing something repetitive for (relatively) extended periods of time, but I thought that some kind of relaxation will come with practice - but I don't feel it...

Thanks for the vid Chandra! I think my RH position and technique are pretty similar (except I slide my hand up and down parallel to the bridge), but I still can't get the same positioning on the lowest strings as on highest. It's basically because part of the palm on which I'm anchoring falls down from the bridge to the guitar body when playing low E/A and the whole wrist angle changes.. It's hard to explain without photos .

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to break my hand to save Ben some time (going for the right hand, it being useless anyway)

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[maharzan]

Nimrandir,

I know exactly what you mean. I have been there and I was there with this lesson too though I could get rid of it within the week (sort of). It comes with practice really long and tiring practice. I have up 16/17 years ago when I was in 2nd/3rd year of self learning. I tried a lot, watched every video I could grab of (Petrruccis being one which helped a lot in AP). When I joined GMC 3 years ago, I was pretty much in bad shape. I could hardly do 16notes at 120bpm. Like you said, I too suffered from "no stamina", both arms hurting pretty badly. Things have changed a little now. I can do some speedy stuff and my arms know quite a bit of stamina. When it hurts, I like it coz everytime it hurts, I know in next 2 days, I can do it.

Back 2.5 years ago, I was in MTP (very similar to this program) and I practiced few speedy licks given by the instructor. Add to that, regular REC stuff, challenging myself harder lessons every time, I was able to overcome the pain problem and it just got easier than before.

Few things I have learnt -

Practice (I practiced even if it pained a little, I didn't over do it so I was injured),

hard work ( I practiced the same lesson like 3 months before posting a REC which wasn't perfect still, I felt bored but I had no choice. If I have to overcome this speed thing, I have to do it),

Patience (3 months or even 6 months on the same lesson can lost your patience, I took a month break and tried other lessons in between but then coming back to same one),

realise, I realized what mistakes I am making, such as picking pattern. If I am concentrating on one lick, I start with down stroke but somehow when I played the whole thing, I was using upstroke hence the whole lick got screwed, left hand fingering, hand sync (I still notice my mind is slow with the left hand so I have to start few millisecond ahead of my right hand.

research, I do a lot of looking around in YouTube just to get some inspiration or if anyone had similar problem like mine. Most of the time I land on Guthrie's videos and man they are just amazing.

Anyway, I am sure you know a lot, I am just sharing my experience. I gave up on this lesson too but after a day break I started again and there I was doing 150 next day. A week is too short for new things. I have practiced 2nps before so this one came out easy.

Keep practicing!

Chandra

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[Ben Higgins]

Thanks for the vid Chandra! I think my RH position and technique are pretty similar (except I slide my hand up and down parallel to the bridge), but I still can't get the same positioning on the lowest strings as on highest. It's basically because part of the palm on which I'm anchoring falls down from the bridge to the guitar body when playing low E/A and the whole wrist angle changes.. It's hard to explain without photos .

I also know exactly what you mean. I try to ensure that my picking angle is the same as when I'm chugging away at a chord. That's what I developed my Stamina School lesson for, so people could dip between playing chords and 16th notes without changing hand position. One thing that's helped me with my picking is concentrating on developing more speed and stamina with just picking on one string. When you pick on one string (one note as well, no shapes) there's no hiding away from how much stamina your picking hand has. I realised that mine was pretty crap but I also noticed that if I made a conscious effort to watch the pick itself and ensure that it stayed as close as possible to the strings and not veer away with excessive movement, that I was able to increase my speed.

So I worked to concentrate all my energy and focus on keeping the tip of the pick (or at least the bottom 3rd of it) in line with the string. Imagine that the pick itself is trying to move away from the string in ever increasing movements and your job is to stop it from doing that and to reign it back in and keep the movements as small as possible. You'll find that you'll get little moments where you can go a lot faster. After a while, these moments become more frequent. In a few days I'd increased my picking speed by about 15bpm.

All picking starts with just being able to alternate up/down on one string. Everything is built from there. You'll find that if you can improve your basic speed, then anything you do that crosses strings will be helped by it.

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[Dinaga]

Argh, I give up! My hands are just not made for playing guitar it seems. I probably can play this at about 130, but even then my right hand is cramped by the end. It just tenses up somewhere in the middle and I can't do anything about it. I've always had this kind of problem - both hands tensing up when playing something repetitive for (relatively) extended periods of time, but I thought that some kind of relaxation will come with practice - but I don't feel it...

Thanks for the vid Chandra! I think my RH position and technique are pretty similar (except I slide my hand up and down parallel to the bridge), but I still can't get the same positioning on the lowest strings as on highest. It's basically because part of the palm on which I'm anchoring falls down from the bridge to the guitar body when playing low E/A and the whole wrist angle changes.. It's hard to explain without photos .

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to break my hand to save Ben some time (going for the right hand, it being useless anyway)

Don't give up man, and never call yourself useless! It's not true. All of us are learning here and we're getting better each day. This lesson was a lot frustrating for me too and I know I could do it a lot better only if I tried more, but the key is - never give up! Take a rest if you need, but don't think you can't do it because you can, it's only a matter of time. Chandra and Ben gave some really good advice in their lasts posts here, and I don't have much else to add technique-wise.

You can do it!

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This post has been edited by Dinaga: Feb 10 2012, 02:04 PM