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Posted by: Nether Aug 1 2013, 05:12 PM

Hi, i'm looking for tips and workouts to improve my right hand speed while playing chords.
I've been working on some songs lately and i've seen that i'm very far from the speed that i need to play them (I can play comfortably 16th notes at 80bpm, at 90bpm during 30 seconds and a couple of measures faster).

I'm left handed but I play a right handed guitar, so i've been always worried that I made a big mistake because i can't seem to improve my speed.

Right now what i'm doing is playing dead notes with a metronome and increasing the speed from time to time, but this is boring me to death.

How did you guys improved your right hand speed?

Posted by: sammetal92 Aug 1 2013, 05:34 PM

Do you want to play chords faster or do you want to play melody lines/solo faster?

As I've told some people here, Metronome is like the teacher you never ever liked but that teacher made you a really good student nevertheless. You'll want to kill your metronome but if you stick to it, you will come back at it with a vengeance!

As suggested by many instructors and students here, and also by John Petrucci in his DVD Rock Discipline (definitely get your hands on that if you don't have it), you need to keep it slow to play clean and accurate but keep on pushing yourself.

For example, say I wanted to play a melody line that is written to be played at 160BPM triplets. I start out REALLY slow at 60 - 70 BPM and practice around 2 minutes on that. Then I increase the speed by 5-8 BPM and do the same thing again.

Now, if I see that my max speed is 120 BPM (the point where my hand starts to get tired really quickly), I rest for about 4-5 minutes, then start at 90BPM, increase it to 100, increase it to 110, then to 120, then I increase it to 140BPM suddenly.

Then I try to play it but I won't be able to. I try 5 times to play it but I fail. Then I go to 130BPM and its easier. Then I go to 120BPM and its MUCH easier and less tiring for my hand than before.

Of course, having a backing track helps if you have software like Transcribe!, it slows the music down to a tempo you want. That way you don't get as much bored.

I used the above mentioned technique to improve my left and right hand coordination. You can apply it to any hand

This is the exercise I play every day to get my hands warmed up. Its based on the A Major scale:

e|---------------------------------------------------------------4-4-5-5-7-7--------|
B|---------------------------------------------------3-3-5-5-7-7--------------------|
G|---------------------------------------4-4-6-6-7-7--------------------------------|
D|---------------------------4-4-6-6-7-7--------------------------------------------|
A|---------------4-4-5-5-7-7--------------------------------------------------------|
E|--4-4-5-5-7-7---------------------------------------------------------------------|

e|10-10-9-9-7-7---------------------------------------------------------------------|
B|--------------10-10-9-9-7-7-------------------------------------------------------|
G|----------------------------9-9-7-7-6-6-------------------------------------------|
D|----------------------------------------9-9-7-7-6-6-------------------------------|
A|----------------------------------------------------9-9-7-7-5-5-------------------|
E|----------------------------------------------------------------10-10-7-7-9-9-5-5-|

Posted by: Darius Wave Aug 1 2013, 05:59 PM

If You need some help for picking hand improvement try out some of my tips and lessons:


Picking hand mechanism:





There is also my lesson dedicated for constant speed improvement by smoothly increasing the speed:

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Alternate-Picking-Workout-1/

Both are focused on this precise thing

Posted by: Nether Aug 1 2013, 07:40 PM

Hey, thank you both for your advices.
Darius your workout lesson is awesome, i've to work on them.
Do you have any advice into how to move the hand (the wrist and the elbow) and hold the pick while playing chords?

Posted by: Darius Wave Aug 1 2013, 08:01 PM

With chords I usually use straight pick position - no agle . Also more wrist than the elbow. Wrist should be angled so You will have natural movement just like while drying the hands

Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Aug 2 2013, 10:28 AM

Great advice from Darius and I am sure that if you follow his suggestions you will progress for certain! Working slow and developing muscle memory, evenness in picking and dynamics are crucial. Can you post a video or audio example of your current level?

Posted by: Ben Higgins Aug 2 2013, 04:13 PM

OMG Darius that was YOU ?

I chanced upon that video a long time ago and thought 'Man this guy's picking is INSANE !'

It actually encouraged me to try picking using just my thumb / finger/ wrist area but I just can't do that !

Haha, what a cool surprise

To add to the original thread topic, I would encourage you to spend a bit more time actually jamming riffs. I always make better progress when I play music, instead of concentrate on exercises.

You might find my approach to working on right hand stamina useful as well..

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Stamina-School-2-Downpicking/

Posted by: Nether Aug 2 2013, 04:21 PM

Yeah, i'm trying to exercise my hand playing songs better than doings scratches. I'll look your lessons too, let's see if with some work i can improve my right hand stamina

Thank you all for your tips, i've a lot to work on now

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Aug 2 2013, 04:45 PM

Hi mate, thanks for the video. Everybody gave you here very good tips for improving your alternate picking for playing solos and riffs. In your video you are playing strumming... do you mean that you want to get better playing it? what songs for example are giving you problems?

Posted by: Nether Aug 2 2013, 04:48 PM

The song that i'm playing on the video, Serenade from the stars (you may know it as Llamando a la tierra of M-Clan) and Get Lucky from Daft Punk are both played at 120bpm, while at 90bpm I begin to have problems

Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Aug 3 2013, 10:08 AM

Hey man - I assume you would like to develop your strumming capabilities and if you mentioned the Daft Punk tune, I assume it should get funky - why not try these ones for size?

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/Old_School_Funk_Rhythm_Guitar/
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/rhythm-guitar/i-got-rhythm-guitar6-funk-basics1/
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/rhythm-guitar/I-got-rhythm-guitar7-funk-basics-II/
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/rhythm-guitar/I-got-rhythm-guitar8-funk-basics-III/
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/rhythm-guitar/I-got-rhythm-guitar9-funk-basics-IV/

Posted by: Slavenko Erazer Aug 3 2013, 12:24 PM

This is one cool Black Metal type of picking

Posted by: Mertay Aug 3 2013, 12:43 PM

Really cool video Darius

I was very unfortunate about fast picking, for a long while I used my arm and though there were no problems on exercises I noticed it started to hurt if I play more than 2-3 fast tempo songs. The muscle on my arm simply needed a rest and this was terrible as I noticed this too late (probably already been playing for 3-4 years at the time).

I had to give a break to playing the guitar for maybe more than a year (for piano). It was sad but later turned out to be the best thing

I re-started on picking after watching many Paul Gilbert video's that are from his later era (interesting to know he too had to change his technique), giving the power and control to my wrist. Still practicing but seems to work

Posted by: Darius Wave Aug 3 2013, 01:22 PM

Ben...
It wasn't me...it was a Devil himself Nice to know You finally find out who is that guy ha ha ha ha!




The method I'm showing is good itself but still need some good practice and warm up. I found I also have problems with precission and speed before the warm up. It about having the problem to keep constant balance between the tension and relax moments. Fingers movement is too soft to work as a standalone so the Wrist is needed too. The only problem is that even if You know the trick it's still good old "to much tension" when You try to play fast without a god warm up. It's probably the same problem since years and since the beginning perdio but later You just know what exactly is a problem and You're not searching for doing something bad anymore

Posted by: Nether Aug 3 2013, 01:56 PM

Hi Cosmin, thanks for your suggestions. Actually i'm using the book Funk Guitar by Ross Bolton, which is basically the same, except that here i have videos and slowed down backing tracks

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Aug 3 2013, 05:26 PM

Go for those lessons that Cosmin suggested! These ones added to the exercises from the book will really help you. It's very important to practice using a backing track, a drum loop or metronome. That's why GMC lessons offer backings and metronome in the lessons. If that book doesn't include backings, create a drum loop or use your metronome.

Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Aug 4 2013, 08:42 AM

I've learned that book almost by heart - it is very, very good and I am happy to know that you are using it to learn. Frankly speaking, if you learn that one really well, alongside GMC funk oriented lessons, you will become very proficient in this style. Which is your favorite example out of Ross' book - can you record it and post it here?

Posted by: Nether Aug 4 2013, 01:30 PM

Hi Cosmin, this is Exercise 16 from the book



The tied note between beats was hard at first, i was forced to blend my mind, at first i loose the tempo when I had to do that.
Now i have to start with chapter 5 (if i have time, cause now i have a lot to do here in GMC )

Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Aug 4 2013, 04:14 PM

Hey mate - I know these - they are the tied note examples Great drills! It doesn't sound bad at all - you just have some slight timing issues at some points - just a matter of practicing I guess. I have a challenge for you Would you accept it and record yourself after being able to perform over the backing tracks found in this thread? Read about them and tell me what you think: http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?s=&showtopic=41914&view=findpost&p=557207

Posted by: Nether Aug 4 2013, 04:33 PM

Haha, this is a great exercise! I love it, and feels great when you manage to stay in tempo
I'll use this backing tracks to practice the exercises in the book, this way it will be much funnier than using just the metronome.

Thank you Cosmin!!!

Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Aug 4 2013, 04:37 PM

Nice take mate. As Cosmin said, it's not bad at all. There are some sections where you lose a bit the timing but the overall is ok. Keep on practicing it trying to go tight with the backing.

Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Aug 5 2013, 11:17 AM

Glad to know you like them and find them useful, man!

Try each and every exercise in that book against those tracks and if you make them sound perfect, you have my word that you will become a hell of a rhythm player! Record more and post more of them I was always curious to hear how they sound played by someone else!

Posted by: Nether Aug 5 2013, 06:06 PM

Now i have a mission

Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Aug 6 2013, 08:20 AM

Indeed you do Let's push things in that direction and try to finish that book alongside the suggestions I made with the GMC funk oriented lessons, deal? How much time do you think you will need for this whole thing?

Posted by: Nether Aug 6 2013, 05:20 PM

I don't know. I think one month per chapter of the book might be a reasonable guess. I'm starting with chapter 6, there are 14, so I'm 8 months away from rhythmic mastery . A year at most

Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Aug 7 2013, 07:56 AM

Ok mate - let's make a deal then. Chapter 6 will be the first then - when would you have a video with the whole chapter 6 in it? Each part