I'm working on Todd's shred lessons. Currently on Lesson 3.

July 1, 120 bpm was very messy for me, 110 was ok, and 130 was a garbled mess. 140 seemed unattainable. I practiced at around 100bpm while away on vacation, maybe about 20 minutes per day (not every day, but most) for about 2 weeks.

Yesterday, 120 bpm was easy. 130bpm sounded fine. I settled in at practicing at 130 for about 15 minutes.

Today... 130 seems easy and I can cleanly play at 140bpm.

When I get to 150, I'll be posting my video for my week 3 badge on Todd's forum.

I'm fully bought-in to the methodology of playing slow and clean and letting speed come.

Couldn't agree more with that ! The other thing I find that helps is consistent practice. When I am practicing something I try to Practice it everyday and I was blown away by my own results after practicing legato every day for 10 days for at least 20 min It just takes small consistent steps ! Before you know it you will be playing at 200+ bpm .

Yes, yes and yes!

These are the most frequent words that I have to talk to my local students!

Glad to hear it's working for you, keep it up !

I struggle with the consistent practice everyday thing, and I know that is why my progress is slow.

I do try to be more disciplined but things just get in the way.

I tried to work like that many times, but it never worked for me..

I'll give it a shot, I need to find a new to work with tho

Well, I'm no GMC instructor....but I believe that, with consistent practice, anyone will see progress. But, to attain the "quick results" that ringmar described in the initial topic post, you would have to be an intermediate player I would imagine. I have been playing for years, but I saw very quick results similar to what was described, as well. It's that quick jump as you discover something vital and new, to the way you have been playing....like for me, who played as well as I could ever teach myself, so other great GMC instructors were able to give slight pointers that lead to HUGE results!!


I would suggest that, if you are not getting the results you want, you should post a video (private if you prefer) to an instructor of your practice routine. If they can SEE what you're practicing, they can certainly help give tips so you will see the results you want.

I'm a firm believer that we are all capable of being great, but it depends on the time and effort we are able and willing to put in.

This is true. I'm at the "intermediate" stage I guess... and have played some lead guitar over the years, so my progress is a bit quicker. I am working with a true beginner here at the office (I run some informal get togethers for guitar players at work, and we work on exercises from todd's thing) and he definitely doesn't progress as quick.. BUT the key is also he doesn't practice consistently. He'd be lucky if he averages 15 minutes per day... and you're not going to get much out of that.

This post has been edited by ringmar: Jul 23 2012, 09:33 PM

Absolutely agree! I know some very fast players an actually cently had a conversation about developing speed! The trick is to do everything very slow it will take forever but results you will get will be totally worth it!